Mother Of God, Putin's Run

Album: not on an album (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is as near a translation as can probably be managed, although "Hail Mary, Putin Put" also passes muster. It is known colloquially as "Punk-A Prayer" or "A Punk Prayer."

    The all-girl band Pussy Riot is not to be confused with any other band of the same or similar name, Italian or otherwise.
  • In February 2012, three members of the band began performing the song in a Moscow cathedral; security pounced on them and threw them out, but this was not the end of it, and they ended up facing trial - not for crimes against music - but for "premeditated hooliganism performed by organized group of people motivated by religious hatred or hostility."

    Where a fine or even a short prison sentence would have sufficed, the gross over-reaction of the Russian authorities, including an extensive pre-trial remand, led to an otherwise trivial incident becoming a cause célèbre.

    When Madonna gave a concert in Moscow, she donned one of their trademark masks and performed "Like A Virgin" with the band's name scrawled across her back. This led to her being branded a moralizing slut by one senior Russian official. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

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