"Many churches were destroyed and all our traditional faiths suffered huge damage."Moscow (ANTARA News/AFP) - President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Russia was obliged to protect feelings of religious believers in the case of opposition punk rockers Pussy Riot who were jailed for performing in a Moscow church.
"The state is obliged to protect the feelings of the faithful," Putin said in an interview with the state-controlled Russia Today channel, accusing the women of staging an "orgy" in churches.
Putin said protecting religious believers was especially important given the repression of the Russian Orthodox Church under Soviet rule. "The country has very grave memories of the initial period of Soviet rule when a huge number of priests suffered," he said.
"Many churches were destroyed and all our traditional faiths suffered huge damage."
He lashed out at the morality of the three girls whose two year jail terms on hooliganism charges has sparked global concern.
"First they went to the Yelokhovo Cathedral and conducted an orgy there and then they went to the other cathedral and had another orgy," he said, referring to Pussy Riot`s most controversial performance in Moscow`s Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
Five women in all pulled on brightly coloured balaclavas on February 21 and belted out a "prayer" at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral calling on the Virgin Mary to remove Putin.
A Moscow court last month found Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and handed them two-year prison terms in a court.
Two other women involved with the band -- whose names have not been made public -- have fled Russia to evade capture, the group has said.
But Putin insisted in the interview he would not interfere in the case. "I am trying not to have anything to do with this case at all. I know what is going on but I am not getting into it at all."
(U.G003/B002)
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