p**** Riot: Which Side are you On?

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70,000 pray for 'correction' of anti-Putin punks

Church bells rang across Moscow on Sunday as tens of thousands of faithful prayed at the main cathedral for the "correction" of feminist punks who face seven-year jail terms for singing before its altar.

The balaclava and miniskirt-clad members of the protest group p**** Riot burst into the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February and belted out verses of a song denouncing the Church's open support for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ahead of his succesful quest to win a presidential election.

The incident received little attention at first and several members of the group and reporters covering the episode were briefly detained before being freed. Three of the band members were re-arrested the following month and they have since remained in custody ahead of a trial on hooliganism charges.

But the Church soon turned it into a rallying call and other Putin backers joined ranks as they sought to build a movement capable of standing up to the protests that preceded the ex-KGB agent's election to a third term.

Patriarch Kirill held a Sunday morning prayer at the cathedral before leading a precession of crosses and icons "defiled" by the band into a sea of what the city said was 65,000 Orthodox faithful. The patriarch warned that Russia was facing a "fateful moment" in history as women in colourful head scarfs wiped away tears under the blue spring sky. He denounced p**** Riot's actions as "blasphemy" and "a mockery" while voicing frustration that some were treating the incident as the "legal expression of human freedom." "We come here to pray for our Fatherland, for our people and for our youth -- for God to keep it from the Devil's temptations," the patriarch said with emotion in his voice. We are not threatening anyone and we are not demonstrating our force. "But no one can stop us in this fateful moment in history -- and today we are experiencing just such a moment -- from gathering for prayer."

The Church issued a separate statement saying prayers should be read for "the correction of the defilers of holy shrines and the good name of the Church."

Massive screens set up outside the cathedral meanwhile featured various celebrities calling on Russians to unite in Orthodox faith....

The p**** Riot performance began a series of scandals for the Church in recent weeks that included an embarrassing incident in which its press office admitted to doctoring a photo to erase the patriarch's $40,000 watch....

I like Putin that is all I care to post.

So how exactly does attacking the Russian Orthodox Church have anything to do with ousting Putin?

The ROC works for Putin. Putin gives them millions of dollars and ensures their status as State Religion, and in return they act as a propaganda arm for the Putin government.