I refer to the front page headline ("Scots join global protest at Pussy Riot jail terms", The Herald, August 18) and to Ian Bell's perceptive analysis of the same day on the relationship between the Russian government and the country's Orthodox church ("Pussy Riot played into the hands of a ruthless president").
There is no doubt that some, including the Russian president, found the punk prayer performed in the Christ the Saviour cathedral in Moscow politically offensive. It is also the case that many considered it sacrilegious to perform in such a way in what the religious, associated with the Christian faith, revere as a House of God. There are others who looked upon the proceedings inside the church as essentially immature. The performance has certainly had an impact, perhaps away beyond what the perpetrators originally envisaged.
If we started incarcerating all those who offended the UK establishment, all those who committed acts of sacrilege, and all those we regarded as lacking in maturity, then we would probably have to have more places of detention than we have wind turbines.
It is obvious that in Russia they do things differently by sentencing these three young women to two years in a prison colony, two of the three with young children.
Currently, I would think, there are performances at the Fringe in Edinburgh, which, if taking place in Moscow with similar anti-establishment sentiments being expressed, would lead to performers being locked up to reflect upon the errors of their ways. Satire is not a word which appears to exist in Vladimir Putin's vocabulary.
In 1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the US, said: "In the future days we look forward to four essential human freedoms – freedom of speech and expression, everywhere; freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, everywhere; freedom from want; and freedom from fear."
These four freedoms were, of course, subsequently depicted memorably by Norman Rockwell in his paintings.
Since the demise of the Berlin Wall and all that followed on from that event, Russia would appear to have made some progress toward the US President's aspirations in relation to freedom of worship and freedom from want. With regard to freedom from fear, the jury is obviously still out.
With regard to the first freedom expressed above, the Pussy Riot case confirms that freedom of speech and expression in Russia falls a long way short of realisation.
Ian W Thomson,
38 Kirkintilloch Road,
Lenzie.
Mr Putin
Put the boot in
(Jailing three to keep them quiet)
Trained in martial-art
He met his match
In young-punks
Pussy Riot!
David Paton,
335 Dumbarton Road,
Glasgow.
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