Moscow - President Vladimir Putin said that a singer of the Pussy Riot punk group had staged an anti-Semitic provocation before the punk group's scandalous performance at the Christ the Savior Cathedral.
“We do hear what our partners say. But do they hear what is going on being so far away? Mrs. Merkel spoke about the women jailed for their performance at a church. Does Mrs. Merkel know that one of them had hanged a dummy of a Jew and said that Moscow should be rid of such people?” Putin said at the Petersburg Dialogue forum.
“Neither we, nor you can support people who assume anti-Semitic positions,” he said.
Putin also said that it was a public action at a major Moscow shopping center. “Problems should be viewed from all angles. Discussions are organized for this purpose,” he said.
The German chancellor had said that she doubted the punk singers would have been given the same punishment in Germany.
“I don’t know whether the two women should have been sent to a prison. I don’t know whether the same would have happened to them in Germany,” she said.
