Paranoid Putin should go, say defiant Pussy Riot protesters

Moscow: Russia’s defiant Pussy Riot protesters on Friday painted a picture of an ideal future in which Mikhail Khodorkovsky would replace a “paranoid” Vladimir Putin as their country’s president.

In their first press conference since being freed on Monday, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina said they would dedicate themselves to fighting for prison reform in Russia rather than continue the provocative campaign of anti-government modern art performances for which they were jailed last year.

But they said that the new direction did not represent a softening of their views on Vladimir Putin’s regime, insisting that “in Russia, human rights activity is political activity”.

Tolokonnikova, 24, said their attitude towards Putin had not changed.

“We’d like to do what we said in our last action — we’d like him to go away,” she said, referring to the “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, in which they called on the Virgin Mary to evict Putin from office.

It was this performance that led to them being prosecuted for hooliganism aggravated by religious hatred, in a decision that many believed was supported by the hierarchy of Russia’s Orthodox Church.

“Vladimir Putin is a very closed, opaque chekist,” said Tolokonnikova, using the Russian slang for a secret policeman. “He is very much afraid. He builds walls around him that block out reality.

“Many of the things he said about Pussy Riot were so far from the truth, but it was clear he really believed them.

“I think he believes that Western countries are a threat, that it’s a big bad world out there where houses walk on chicken legs and there is a global masonic conspiracy. I don’t want to live in this terrifying fairytale.”

Asked who she would rather replace the president, Tolokonnikova said: “I’d like to offer Mikhail Borisovich [Khodorkovsky] the job.”

Alyokhina, 25, added: “Me too.”

Khodorkovsky, the former oil tycoon long considered Russia’s most famous prisoner and an enemy of Putin, was unexpectedly pardoned by the president a week ago.

He is currently in Berlin, where he has ruled out a career in politics or challenging Putin directly. However, he has expressed determination to work to help other political prisoners, and he and Pussy Riot have exchanged open letters of support following their release.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova denied that Khodorkovsky, who is rumoured to have money squirrelled away in foreign bank accounts, would be funding their campaign for prison reform.

“When we suggested working together it was not about financing,” said Tolokonnikova. “Khodorkovsky is important for us as a very strong, a very resistant person. He is an incredible person who endured a much longer prison term than we did. We think that would be very important for advocacy work. If he deems it possible to work with us it would be a great honour for us.”

While they maintained their staunch opposition to Putin, they extended an olive branch to the Orthodox Church, saying that they believed its charitable work had an important role to play in their campaign to change Russia’s prison culture from one of violence and punishment to one of rehabilitation.