ONCE MORE, Russia sunk into its medieval past by sentencing the singing political protesters of the punk rock band Pussy Riot to two years in prison for disrupting a church service (“Putin’s outrageous crackdown,” Editorial, Aug. 19).
Contrary to the US government’s statement, that sentence was not “disproportionate” punishment, but a calculated prosecution of political dissent. Russia’s constitutional separation of church and state does not exist.
In vain Russian intelligentsia begs the church to believe in God instead of Putin, but the church believes only in its own wealth. Once more it has become a painted screen between thieving plutocrats and suffering people.