The U.S has led condemnation of Russia followed by Britain, France and the European Union in saying the two year sentence handed out to Pussy Riot was "disproportionate" for the punky protest against Vladimir Putin.
Three Pussy riot band members were found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in a prison colony as supporters outside the court gathered to chant " Russia without Putin."
Prosecutors had been asking for a sentenceof 3 years and big hearted Putin had apparently said that he hoped the sentencing wasn't "too severe."
Despite the sentence Pussy Riot have released a single "Putin Lights Up the Fires" in a show of strength and defiance. The lyrics go something like this when translated.....
'Putin Lit Fires'
State more time in prison/ The more arrests - more happiness/And every arrest - with a love of sexist/After swinging his cheeks, as the chest and abdomen
But we can not be resealed in the box/Security officers overthrew the better and more
Putin ignites the fires of revolution/ He was bored and frightened people in the silence/ Whatever punishment he had - that rotten ash,/ With no time in many years - the subject for wet dreams.
Chorus.
The country is, the country goes to the streets with audacity /The country is, the country is going to say goodbye to the regime,/The country is, the country is a wedge of feminist/ And Putin is Putin goes, leave cattl
Arrested on May 6 the whole city/ 7 years we have little, give me 18/ The ban yelling, slander, and walk,/ Take his wife's dad Lukashenko
