Trial of three band members over protest song highlighting church ties to Kremlin is politically motivated, say supporters Three members of the band Pussy Riot , who staged a punk-rock protest against Vladimir Putin on the altar of Russia’s main cathedral, go on trial on Monday in a case seen as a test of the president’s tolerance of dissent. The trial, say observers, will reveal how much power the resurgent Russian Orthodox church and its head, Patriarch Kirill, wields. He has called the “punk prayer” blasphemy, casting it as part of a sinister anti-clerical campaign

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