[FREE PUSSY RIOT] ACT IN THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY IN ARGENTINA - JANUARY 16 - 18:00HS

Las Piqueteras y la TPR – Press Release

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

JANUARY 16^TH – INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH MARIA ALYOKHINA

FREE MARIA ALYOKHINA!

FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS IN RUSSIA!

ACT IN BUENOS AIRES – ARGENTINA

RUSSIAN EMBASSY – RODRÍGUEZ PEÑA 1741 – 18:00HS

Today, January 16^th, the court that carries out the case against Pussy Riot will decide whether Maria Alyokhina, a member of the band, will be released because she is a single mother of a small child. The court will take place in the female prison IK-28 in Berezniki (Perm Kray). Her comrade, Nadia Tolokonikova, remains imprisoned in Mordovia. That’s why the Pussy Riot support group declares January 16 the International Day of Solidarity with Maria Alyokhina, which will take place in several cities all around the world (the complete list can be found here: http://freepussyriot.org/). In Buenos Aires, the women organization called “Las Piqueteras” and the left-wing organization called Tendencia Piquetera Revolucionaria (TPR) have organized an acto in front of the Russian Embassy in Argentina with the following slogans: “Free Maria Alyokhina!” and “Free political prisoners in Russia!”.

Daiana Asquini, leader of Las Piqueteras and the TPR, stated that “the Pussy Riot have been imprisoned because of demonstrating publicly in favor of Vladimir Putin’s resignation and in defense of women’s rights. In that same sense, Putin has imprisoned several opposition activists who mobilized against the electoral fraud committed by the Russian government during 2012, among whom are Leonid Razvozzahev, Vladimir Akimenkov y Konstantin Levedev. On January 14^th, a Moscow court decided that Sergei Krivov must remain in prison preventively until March the 6^th, accused of participating in the mobilization of thousands of people that occurred on May the 6^th, 2012, in the Bolotnaya square against the fraud committed by United Russia, the government party. There is also the sentence against Maxim Luzyanin, because of the same cause, of 4 and half years in prison. There are 12 remaining imprisoned from the 400 detained during the mobilization. The detained are in terrible conditions: some don’t receive the medications they need, there are denounces of tortures. Even Akimenkov, a 25 year old young man, is losing his sight because he doesn’t receive the treatment he needs. Putin’s attack must be disowned because it’s a clear attempt to block that popular mobilization against the fraud and, in the case of Pussy Riot, also an example of violence from the state against women who organize themselves for their own claims. However, the attacks against freedom of expression aren’t only Putin’s patrimony: deputies of Just Russia and of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which are the main parties of opposition that placed some of their leaders in the mobilization against electoral fraud, signed with deputies of United Russia an intimation against a journalist that had called the Russian parliament ‘silly’. Because of all these reasons, today in Argentina we join the international day of solidarity with Maria Alyokhina, demanding her freedom and that of all the political prisoners in Russia”.

Contact:

Daiana Asquini – (5411) 154 190 3554

TPR’s Press Secretary

TENDENCIA PIQUETERA REVOLUCIONARIA

tpr.internacional@gmail.com // tpr-internet.blogspot.com