Strong Emotions, Weak Subjects. On the Role of Hurt Feelings in the Trial against Pussy Riot

On 17 August 2012, three members of the female activist collective ‘Pussy Riot’, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were found guilty of “hooliganism on the basis of religious hatred” under paragraph 213, part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code. They were each sentenced for two years in prison camps; Samutsevich was later released on probation. The defendants were judged for a performance they staged at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on 21 February 2012.