Putin commends Pussy Riot jailing

8 Oct 2012, 11:37 am   -   Source: AAP
Russia's President has commended the two-year jail sentence handed to feminist punk band Pussy Riot. (AAP)

Russia's President has commended the two-year jail sentence handed to feminist punk band Pussy Riot. (AAP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has commended the two-year sentence handed to three members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has commended the two-year sentence handed to three members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot for staging a performance protesting his rule, according to a report on Sunday.

"It was right to arrest them, and it was right that the court took the decision that it did," Putin said in a television program aired on NTV channel, Interfax news agency said.

The program was to air in Moscow on Sunday but was shown to audiences in the Russian Far East in the morning.

"One cannot undermine the moral foundations, break-up the country. What would we be left with?" Putin reportedly said of the Pussy Riot performance.

He also claimed he had not exerted any pressure in the women's sentencing. "I had nothing to do with it. They wanted it, and they got it," Putin was quoted as saying.

Donning brightly coloured balaclavas, the group of women on February 21 belted out a "prayer" in the country's main cathedral,rist the Saviour, calling on the Virgin Mary to remove Putin.

Three Pussy Riot members, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred in August, and were sentenced to two years. They are currently waiting for a Moscow court to hear their appeal.

Putin celebrated his 60th birthday on Sunday, receiving warm wishes from supporters and numerous mentions on state TV, but derision from critics who since late last year have held regular mass protests against his rule.

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