The Reuters website reports that three women -- who protested against Vladimir Putin in a "punk prayer" on the altar of Russia's main cathedral -- went on trial today (July 30, 2012) in a case seen as a test of the longtime Russian leader's treatment of dissent during a new presidential term.
The women from the band "Pussy Riot" face up to seven years in prison for an unsanctioned performance in February in which they entered Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, ascended to the altar, and called on the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out."
Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, were brought by a police van to Moscow's Khamovniki court -- each handcuffed by the wrist to a female officer -- for Russia's highest-profile trial in years.
The band's stunt was designed to highlight the close relationship between the dominant Russian Orthodox Church and former KGB officer Putin, then prime minister, whose campaign to return to the presidency in a March election was backed clearly by the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
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