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21 August 2012, 11:41Woman who wants compensation from Pussy Riot artists says they do not deserve jailing
Moscow, August 20, Interfax - A woman who is seeking a large sum of money in an "emotional suffering" suit against three members of the Pussy Riot punk band who have been sentenced to two years in jail on "hooliganism" charges argued that the convicts did not deserve imprisonment.
Irina Ruzankina of Novosibirsk, Siberia, told reporters in Moscow that the source of her "heartache" was television footage about the Pussy Riot artists' scandalous performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February - a song in which they asked the Virgin Mary to "drive out" Vladimir Putin, at that time prime minister and a candidate for president.
However, "I am against their being imprisoned," Ruzankina said.
"Corrective work" would be a more appropriate penalty than the jail sentence passed by the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow, she said in response to a question from Interfax. "I don't believe that the punishment must be harsher. I believe it must be more just."
"I saw the footage on television, and I even didn't watch it to the end. I felt heartache because people had dug into my soul," Ruzankina said.
She said her lawsuit, through which she is reportedly claiming 30,000 rubles (some $1,000), was the only way for her to state her position.
Ruzankina said she had not supplies any medical certificate of her supposed distress because, she said, ailments of this kind are impossible to diagnose. "You know, I may just be sitting around and I can feel some pain, but this kind of heartache is something not a single doctor would be able to detect," she said.
Ruzankina said she is deputy director of a commercial organization.
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