In more Pussy Riot news, a Moscow court has ruled that websites must remove video clips of the band, including footage of the “punk prayer” they performed in a Moscow cathedral in February, which has been viewed nearly 2.4m times on YouTube (and which landed them in jail).
In its ruling the court said it had based its findings on conclusions by a panel of experts who had watched the footage from the cathedral. Judge Marina Musimovich said the video had “elements of extremism” and “In particular, there are words and actions which humiliate various social groups based on their religion.”
The court listed websites carrying the clips and said they should be blocked.
Materials deemed to be “extremist” are put on a black list kept by the Russian justice ministry. Currently the list contains about 1,500 items, mostly related to banned religious and ultra-nationalist groups or those deemed to have a fascist ideology, AFP news agency reports.
A top official of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, welcomed Thursday’s court verdict. “Many similar texts and video content have already been included on the federal list of extremist materials, and it is quite appropriate that this video clip be included on the list, I think,” he said.
According to Russia’s Interfax news agency, a representative of Google’s Russian office has said YouTube would not take any decision regarding the clips until it had received official documents from the court.
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