I think that Medvedev and Putin are in on it together. One is playing the good cop and the other the bad cop.

We triggered a discussion in society about the connection between church and state as well as our justice system. Putin is the leader, the icon and the guarantor of an authoritarian system that crushes Kremlin critics along with the help of the secret police and ever changing methods and laws.

We are a Russian group and we want to change the situation in Russia. We criticize our own government and it would be strange if we did that from abroad. We don’t need performances in the West to put Putin’s regime under pressure. The punishments against us have shown us that we succeeded.

We knowingly chose to protest in the Christ the Savior Cathedral, the most important church in the country, to denounce the connection between the church and Putin.