Pussy Riot: Anti-Putin Punk Band Go On Trial

Three Russian feminist rockers have rejected charges of hooliganism after they performed a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral against Vladimir Putin's return as president.

A Moscow court has started prosecuting the three rockers, who face a possible seven-year jail term.

The band, called Pussy Riot, carried out the performance from the pulpit of Russia's largest cathedral in February.

The trio - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 - has already spent over five months in jail awaiting trial.

The case has divided Russia, pitting advocates of openness against the forces of order and the powerful Russian Orthodox Church.

The trial began July 20 but the first sessions were devoted to procedural issues.

On Monday, with the court turning to the substance of the case, the trio said in statements read by their lawyer that their goal was to express resentment over Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill's support for Putin's rule.

The women pleaded not guilty to the official charges of hooliganism driven by "religious hatred".

Tolokonnikova said she felt sorry if some of the believers felt insulted by their act, but that they did not mean to offend anyone.

The February stunt took place two weeks before the election that returned Mr Putin to the presidency.

Five members of Pussy Riot - wearing brightly coloured balaclavas and mini-skirts - briefly took over the pulpit at Christ The Saviour Cathedral, chanting: "Mother Mary, drive Putin away."

What happened after security guards seized the five was extraordinary - even for a country whose leaders have shown little patience for protest.

Three of the band members, two of whom have young children, were thrown into jail and face charges of hooliganism that could lead to seven years in jail if convicted.

Russian Orthodox Christian believers tend to agree they were offended by the performance, although there are vocal voices among the Orthodox community saying that seven years would be an excessive sentence.

Earlier, Amnesty International said that it considers the three women to be prisoners of conscience "detained solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs".

The case has particularly rattled the Russian intelligentsia. In late June, more than 100 artists and intellectuals - both pro and anti-Putin - sent an open letter to the state, calling for the women's release.

Petr Verzilov, the husband of the arrested Nadezhda Tolokonnikov, said the couple's five-year-old daughter is desperate to have her mother back home.

"She is constantly asking what is happening, she draws the plans for releasing her from the jail. She is imagining how to use trolleys and tractors to destroy the walls of prison to achieve Nadia's (Nadezhda) release," he said.

Pussy Riot gained notoriety about a month before the arrest by performing a song titled Putin Chickens Out from a spot on Red Square used in Tsarist Russia for announcing government decrees.

Videos of their performances became instant internet hits.