Miss Russia 2013, Elmira Abdrazakova, says the Pussy Riot sentencing ‘too harsh’
The newly crowned Miss Russia 2013 has already come out expressing her thoughts about the two-year prison sentence of punk rockers, Pussy Riot, and she thinks the punishment was to harsh, according to an NBC news report today.
Miss Russia 2013 Elmira Abdrazakova
Image/Video Screen Shot
18-year-old, Elmira Abdrazakova said even though a place of worship is sacred to her, “But still, their punishment is too harsh.”
Abdrazakova is talking about the band that were arrested and sentenced about a year ago for performing an anti-Vladimir Putin song at Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral.
Three of the members, Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were convicted last summer on charges of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in a women’s prison camp.
The Miss Russia 2013 thinks that working with the Pussy Riot women to change their view of the world would perhaps have been a better option than a long prison sentence.
According to the NBC report, Samutsevich has been since released from prison, but Alyokhina’s appeal for a deferment of her sentence until hear child reaches adolescence has been denied. Tolokonnikova submitted a request for early release this week, Russian media reported.
Abdrazakova has had her share of controversy since being crowned Miss Russian last week.
The daughter of a Russian mother and a Tatar father from frigid Kemerovo Oblast being crowned to represent Russia has brought about harsh criticism from nationalists.
One person wrote on a social media site, “a gypsy woman cannot be the face of Russia.”
Elmira will represent Russia at the world’s two most prestigious beauty contest, Miss Universe and Miss World.
