"Prison is like a monastery—it's a place for ascetic practices."

Man, I love the Russians. What a fascinating dramatic, beautiful, wild and screwed up country.
They seem to me like such a young people. Spiritually and intellectually they always read like adolescents, (in the best possible way), hungry, eager and just on the verge of adulthood. Certainly their artists, but hell, even their fascists strike me as so profoundly earnest. Despite a history of perpetually trading one reign of heavy handed authoritarian rule for another they maintain a perpetual youthfulness that will not be broken. This is not the vague superficial spirituality of the modern west that dogmatically proclaims that  "it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere." Even in the throes of tyranny and cynicism the Russians always seems to possess an interior belief in the integrity of Truth that they just can't shake. 

So, I've quibbled a bit with the specifics of "Punk Prayer" on here before but I think there is still something profoundly truthful about Pussy Riot. This is not marketing activism.

"Prison is a good place to learn to really listen to your own mind and your own body. I've learned to read much more deeply, for instance. For four months, I had nothing to read but the Bible, so I read it for all four months—diligently, picking everything apart. Prison is like a monastery—it's a place for ascetic practices. After a month here, I became a vegetarian. Walking in circles for an hour in that tiny dusty yard gets you into a pretty meditative state as well. We don't get much in the way of the news. But enough to get inspired."

Read on http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201211/pussy-riot-prison-interview