Who opened Pandora's box?

Let's separate the wheat from the chaff.

The Pussy Riot action in the CSU is pure politics. Not fooled by Surkov’s propaganda and the aggressive rhetoric of the speakers of the Russian Orthodox Church, the world media unanimously insist that the girls were imprisoned precisely for the anti-Putin song.

And then it went as usual. They ruined his holiday, and he ruined their life. But the Kremlin political strategists did not foresee that the political effect of the wrongful trial of PR would exceed the global resonance caused by the passage of Putin’s lonely motorcade through empty Moscow on inauguration day.

However, by holding an action in the main temple of the country, members of the Pussy Riot group offended the feelings of believers, for which they should have been brought to administrative responsibility. If this had happened, they would have forgotten about what happened in a week.

The president’s inadequate reaction, the April prayer service in defense of the patriarch and the “theology of hatred” of the top of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kafkaesque trial turned the trial of the Pussy Riot members into a global event comparable to the Dreyfus case, which at one time split society.

Crossed - something else. This heinous crime is vandalism. At the same time, criminals do not crave public discussion, committing their atrocities under the cover of darkness.

It cannot be denied that the catalyst for a series of crimes - four crosses were cut down on the night of August 25, one night in the Chelyabinsk and Arkhangelsk regions - was the action of the Ukrainian group Femen, who cut down on August 17, the day of the verdict over PR, a worship cross in the center of Kyiv above the Maidan Nezalezhnosti . The girls also promised to organize a “tour” of the movement in Russia called “Crossed” with the slogan: “Drank crosses - save Russia!”

The question of who finances Femen—the world behind the scenes or the Russian intelligence services—remains open.

However, the fact that four crosses in the Russian outback were cut down almost simultaneously - in one night - suggests that this was a special operation aimed at strengthening the confrontation between Orthodox radicals and the rest of society, including Orthodox believers who did not support the Pussy Riot verdict, as well as in order to discredit the protest movement.

The principle of “Divide and conquer!” no one canceled.

Was it by chance that the discussion about Lenin’s burial and the recognition of his works as extremist was resumed almost simultaneously?

Perhaps those who cut down the crosses will never be found, but the “mad printer” of the State Duma will issue another repressive law.

On Saturday, the Russian blogosphere erupted over the controversial history of bombed houses early in Putin's rule.

“Who will believe in crosses cut down in Arkhangelsk, etc., on the instructions of Femen (who rent out breasts by agreement)? ” writes political strategist Gleb Pavlovsky in his microblog on Facebook. “ The stench comes from Moscow offices with the addition of a couple of Kiev ones. The scheme is old. gbshnaya, General Agayants (swastikas on synagogues in Germany at Christmas 1959 - a successful campaign to depict “German neo-fascism”) There the Germans quarreled with the French, and here now the Russians quarrel with each other.”

“The cutting down of crosses, ” echoes blogger Andrei Malgin, “ is not like Surkov’s Nashi rallies with drums. This is much more terrible. A sign that the KGB is ready to go very far. Until recently, I did not believe that Putin really wants a civil war.”

Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of one of the convicts, an activist of the Voina art group, said on Echo of Moscow that the desecration of worship crosses has nothing to do with actions in defense of Pussy Riot and that the members of the punk group strongly condemn the actions of the vandals. Maria Alekhina reported the same thing.

The consequences of vandalism can be dire.

No matter how you remember, the crucifixion in Crimea almost led to an interfaith conflict. Thus, in October 2000, the installation of one of the worship crosses in the village of Morskoye near Sudak on the site of a Crimean Tatar cemetery, after which the Tatars toppled the cross, led to clashes on religious grounds with the participation of representatives of the local Cossack community. It was possible to stop the mass bloodshed only thanks to the intervention of the autonomy authorities, who pulled large police forces into Morskoye.

Whoever is guilty of cutting down the crosses - “home-grown demons”, Satanists, infidels or special services - you need to be aware that the cross-cutting has nothing to do with Pussy Riot or the opposition movement. The only way out of this situation is not to fall for such provocations and not to look for enemies among friends.

And to the Orthodox I will remind you of the covenant of St. Isaac the Syrian - you need to pray even for demons.