Pussy Riot: No one can steal inner freedom

Members of the Pussy Riot girl band yesterday likened themselves to dissidents from the Soviet era yesterdat, saying their trial for performing an anti-Kremlin stunt in a church was unjust, but that nobody could take away their inner freedom.

To bursts of applause, the three women were making their last pleas before a court rules whether they are guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for storming the altar of Moscow’s biggest cathedral and beseeching the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of President Vladimir Putin.

The state prosecutor has asked the court to sentence them to three years in jail in a case that is being seen as an early test of how much dissent Putin — who returned to the presidency in May for a third time — is willing to tolerate.