More than a half of Russians believe sending three members of the punk group Pussy Riot to prison was a fair punishment, according to a survey by the Kremlin-connected pollster Public Opinion Foundation.
Moscow’s Khamovnichesky Court on August 17 handed down two-year jail terms for Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, who in late February performed a "punk prayer" near the altar of Christ the Savior Cathedral urging the Virgin Mary to "drive out" Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
A total of 53 percent of respondents said the court verdict was fair, while 27 percent said it was unfair.
Most of those who support the sentence are people with low income (61 percent) and aged 46 or older (60 percent).
Those who see the sentence as unfair are mostly people with monthly income higher than $600 (55 percent) and with higher education (34 percent).
Ten percent of respondents said an administrative punishment would be enough for the offense, eight percent were in favor of a stricter sentence and four percent said the sentence should have been milder. One percent of respondents said Pussy Riot members deserved a corporal punishment.
Only seven percent of Russians said they had a positive attitude towards Pussy Riot’s “punk prayer,” while 66 percent said their attitude was negative.
The survey was conducted on August 25-26 among 1,500 respondents in 43 Russian regions.
Results of a similar survey conducted by the state-run VTsIOM pollster conducted during the same period show that 31 percent of Russians see the sentence for Pussy Riot as fair, and 33 percent believe it was too harsh.
