Pussy Riot

It is hard to know what to make of the Pussy Riot case, which has drawn such attention all over the world. Perhaps the only conclusion is that too much is being made of it.

The girls are possessed of a sincere dislike of Vladimir Putin, and formed their punk group when he emerged for a third term as president after an election which had been widely criticised.

In February the group performed a heavy metal 'prayer' to the Virgin to rid Russia of Mr. Putin; the performance took place without permission in Moscow Cathedral. Three of the girls were charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in prison.

What would we have done here? There's no doubt it would be an offence to break into St. Paul's Cathedral and perform a noisy blasphemy (although with the wet, progressive British clergy it is by no means certain any effort would have been made to stop them); the sentence? A little harsh but I should have thought a period in jail would have been appropriate.

As a side-show, in a protest about the protest, the former chess champion Gary Kasparov has been arrested for biting a policeman, also a crime in the entire Western world.

So the girls have achieved their aim of maximum publicity (and then some) and the whole world now believes that Putin is an unpleasant dictator who stifles his political opponents.

Job done. Let's move on.