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Abstract
The arrest of the protest punk band Pussy Riot (PR) in March 2012 and the subsequent prosecution of three band members pose a significant puzzle for political science. Although PR's performances presented a coherent alternative to the Putin regime's image of Russian reality, it was unlikely that the discordant music and crude lyrics of their art protest would inspire Russian society to take to the streets. Yet, the regime mounted a very visible prosecution against the three young women. We argue that the trial marked a shift in the Kremlin's strategy to shape state–society relations. In the face of declining economic conditions and social unrest, the PR trial encapsulated the Kremlin's renewed focus on three related mechanisms to insure social support: coercion, alliance building, and symbolic politics. The PR trial afforded the Kremlin an important opportunity to simultaneously redefine its loyal constituency, secure the Church–state relationship, and stigmatize the opposition.
Notes
1. Much of the analysis of the PR case begins from the analysis of gender (Suchland Citation2012; Svoboda Citation2012; Zobnina Citation2012; Akulova Citation2013). By focusing on broader regime strategies to insure regime support, our goal is to show another facet of the import of the case and its meaning for Russian society.
2. A number of the videos have been uploaded more than once, and viewership statistics for many Russian-titled PR videos are disabled; however, some statistics remain. We report information for the available videos.
3. We quote translated lyrics published in Pussy Riot! (Citation2012). There are also a number of translations of the closing statements of the three PR defendants. We rely on the text published at the n+1 web magazine available at http://www.nplusonemag.com/pussy-riot-closing-statements (n + 1 Citation2012).
4. The women were charged under article 213 of the criminal code. For a discussion of the charges and the concept of “hooliganism,” see Johnson (Citation2012), North (Citation2012), and O'Brien (Citation2012).
5. In our discussion, we draw on a summary of trial proceedings for each day which is available at the RASPI website (RAPSI Citation2012). Trial testimony is also translated in Pussy Riot! (Citation2012).