Check out this op/ed piece by Maria Alyokhina in the New York Times:

SOCHI, Russia — ON Feb. 7, the opening day of the Olympics, several people walked out onto Red Square in Moscow. When they attempted to sing the Russian national anthem, all were arrested and taken to the nearest police station. “We were holding small rainbow flags to show support for the L.G.B.T. community,” wrote my protester friend, who found herself taken into custody for the first time in her life.

The following day, the police arrested a group that had gathered in Manezhnaya Square, in Moscow. The arrests came immediately after about 60 people unfurled umbrellas in support of Russia’s only independent television channel, Dozhd. The channel was recently dropped by all major cable operators under pressure from the government, which appeared to have been exacting revenge for a viewer poll question it didn’t like.

The question was: “Would it have been better to surrender Leningrad to the Nazis during World War II in order to save hundreds of thousands of lives?” One question — deemed “unpatriotic” — and the channel is on the verge of closing. Simply because President Vladimir V. Putin knows best how one should love one’s country.

Read the whole piece here.

New Pussy Riot video:

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