Russia Punk Band Pussy Riot sent to Siberia gulag in dictatorship move against growing opposition

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Putin defends court decision as two Pussy Riot members are sent to prison camp (+video)

One member of the controversial performance art collective Pussy Riot will be freed on parole but the other two are Siberia-bound, after a Moscow appeals court upheld their sentence of two years in a penal colony Wednesday. Supporters and opponents of the group demonstrated outside the courthouse

Pussy Riot Appeals, One Member Freed

Three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot are appealing the verdict that sentenced them to two years in prison for mocking Russia’s president. Russia’s angry anti-Kremlin street opposition, which erupted onto the scene following allegedly fraud-tainted Duma elections last December, is facing a deep identity crisis as it approaches its first anniversary and is racked with internal debate over the way forward. It’s been just over a year since Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev took the stage at a conference of the ruling United Russia party and announced that they had decided “years ago” to trade places after Mr. Medvedev’s first presidential term and send Mr. Putin back to the Kremlin