MOSCOW, September 21 - RAPSI. Pussy Riot's attorneys are holding talks in the United States on creating a "Pussy Riot list," which, similar to the Magnitsky list, will contain the names of Russian officials and journalists who will be barred from entering the United States, Izvestia daily reported.
The Magnitsky list includes 60 Russian officials believed by the United States to be involved in Hermitage Capital counselor Sergei Magnitsky's death in pretrial detention in Moscow in 2009. The Magnitksy list was compiled by the U.S. Congress in 2011 as a draft law was being prepared to impose sanctions against individuals allegedly involved in Magnitsky's death and human rights violations in Russia. The list includes judges, security forces personnel and other officials.
"Our answer will be the Pussy Riot list! Human rights violators in Russia will no longer have their fun in the 'corrupt' West. Visa defamation! We can handle this," Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's lawyer Mark Feygin wrote in his micro-blog.
On February 21, 2012 five girls wearing brightly colored masks stormed the altar of Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral to perform a protest song entitled, "Holy Sh*t." Shortly thereafter, an edited video of the performance was uploaded on to the Internet and incited a major public outcry. In early August, the group's members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were convicted of disorderly conduct and sentenced to two years in prison.
Audiences worldwide have honed in on the group's controversial arrest and detention. The controversy surrounding their trial hinges on the competing interests of free speech and religious sanctity.
Feygin hinted that he also plans to bring about a list of officials who will be prohibited from entering the European countries.
"All those who participated in the trial will have their names on the Pussy Riot list. This includes Judge Marina Syrova and prosecutor Alexander Nikiforov, as well as all the judges who passed the ruling on extending Pussy Riot's detention," Feygin told Izvestia.
The list is also expected to include journalists, who, according to the attorneys of the convicted women and international lawyers, were biased in their coverage of the trial.
During his visit to the United States, the group's attorneys, Mark Feygin, Violetta Volkova, Nikolay Polozov and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's husband, Pyotr Verzilov, held talks with representatives of Amnesty International's U.S. office, which has already declared Pussy Riot prisoners of conscience.
"Law enforcement organizations will put together the proposal to bring in the Pussy Riot's list on an official level. They will try to submit the list to the relevant U.S. ministry to be then passed on to the Senate," Feygin said.
The attorneys have yet to announce the preliminary outcome of the negotiations with the U.S. authorities and law enforcement organizations.