corporations are ruled today. a vertical reaction greets news members of a controversial punk band pussy riot those spend the next two years in jail of following their political protest done in russia's main cathedral. and the verdict sparked any media age stormy international reaction with protests held across the globe and the u.s. even calling a review of the case. given asylum but still trapped a bridge in the unmoved by at the doors acceptance of julian assange and of the political refugee saying the whistleblower is still subject to arrest and won't be allowed to leave the country. and a row the u.s. hacker group claims is behind an attack on the power of your website and of attempts to silence coverage of julian assange.

there watching r.t. live from moscow with me to bomb would say our top story today a russian court has sentenced members of the controversial punk band pussy riot to two years in jail for their protest on to russia's main cathedral the three women were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred meanwhile police have detained sixty people outside the court who'd been writing both in support and against the group archies jacob grieve joins us live now from the scene now jacob i've been reading some of your tweets you said that people like this all day blasting away music of course you why have you given mention that there's been some more plus arrests what's going on what are you hearing outside the courtroom at the moment. we're showing our transpired about half an hour ago we saw one car pull out

outside the courtroom blair a pretty raw truck you gathered a bit of a crowd resources charles. for the freedom of pussy riot members the three defendants who have been charge of who use them and said was two years in prison then the police moved in we saw at least one arrest be buried and since then the police of really pushed back some of those who remained outside the courthouse long after the official verdict was given out this being the emotionally charged hearing really from the very start and as a piece of my today we saw those in support of pussy riot calling for the freedom of the three defenders and we also saw those who have been against pussy riot who want them to be sent to prison for what they did back in favorite across a because these are the so-called punk prayer that was allegedly politically motivated but many of the faithful the russian orthodox church took great offense and we heard from them today as well now in total we saw over sixty arrest

transpiring throughout the course of today we've also seen some of the opposition movement those against the government those against himself they've been here in attendance one of their members being detained as well this is an issue that's really attracted international coverage and it comes to politicians when it comes to here royce organization and indeed musicians as well just to see if it has been handed out we've heard from the russian orthodox church they stood by their initial claim this is blasphemy they have also urged for a degree of leniency when it comes to dealing that of these three defendants who also heard from the defense the legal team who would be dealing with three defendants right the course of this trial they say they're going to appeal to her to appeal the sentence and if they have to take this the european court of human rights. right thank you so much for that update and that is that jacob reeves who's out there you can also follow some of his twitter updates he's out there right now outside the courtroom where the two year verdict was given to the pussy riot. right

for more on the pows you ride case that's now talked to martin mccauley a russian specialist at the university of london who's joining us live now well mr mccauley how do you assess the sentence for the three pussy riot members. no i think the judge was a very difficult position because the prosecution wanted three years which appeared very severe. and the defense and others wanted freedom or to be acquitted one year perhaps what in fact the judge has done is to go for the golden mean two years now supporters of the band have said the trial takes russia back to mediæval times what's your opinion on that. whether they are in fact not really a band they're a performing arts group more are more actresses than. pop stars

and saying it's going back to the to the medieval times rather extreme in fact they did something very very daring it's all but produced the they wanted to make themselves famous if you like. well i guess they're saying that they're more well known band and therefore therefore decided to go into the main cathedral. and they achieved their goal of being becoming really world famous by doing what they did they've almost become pop icons. well they're not really pop icons because they're performing arts people of the day they are theatre group and so on but in many ways they've now become one fearless when president putin or prime minister big wages goes abroad the first question will be when are the pushy three going to be released you know why it why you put them in prison. and

when they are released. they will in fact travel the world to become famous they have achieved their goal. they're really world famous world famous some experts now say opposition leaders in russia are going to be using the pussy riot trial to push forward their anti government agenda what do you say to that. i think there is going to really extreme because there are a theatre group the theatre in russian culture is very important to the theater in russia has always been political. therefore the audience is always listening trying to find the subtext and so on. these people are performing arts people. and they have a message and they perform the message got through and he was directed against. the present moment and because they reacted in the way they did it became

a world famous case they became the tourist they became famous by let's just look back in times of south africa during the apartheid era a lot of artists came out did songs performed as you said at the pussy right out now not really a band but they were kind of performers and they took history and they said politics we are going to say what we want to say through our art form do you think that that this verdict that they probably misunderstood by both the church and the government right now. you know the the government got itself into a very difficult position by deciding to prosecute them and saying that they were going to really be punished for what they did. because of that the opposition then seized on that because of the demonstrations against president putin from december on words. the two were linked and the international press then got involved. because they were performing artists the whole scene paul mccartney but. you name

you name the performer they got involved because they wanted to be high profile they wanted to protest and saw and everyone. wants to be seen to be supporting them and they say supporting free speech but of course they were guilty of blasphemy what they did was blasphemous. was completely out of really bad taste and it should have been done in a church perhaps afterwards they realized that what they'd done but the church could have dealt with this differently they could have sent a priest around and said. in fact perform the bust of this act and you should repent. say sorry and so on and perhaps we'll leave it at that but because he made it a high profile case. remember that western europe is non-religious. and therefore from the average west european point of view performing in a cathedral is like a theater. and why shouldn't the criticize the church and why shouldn't they

criticize the president so therefore the russian state. going for a high profile case. to serve in situations where they couldn't back down. they have to be because of the verdict was decided before they really knew they were going to be found guilty so they had to decide how many years to be sent to prison penal colony right now they've got to decide how long the stay there. the been in prison what six months they've been in prison trying to smile and then the two years at absolutely mr mccauley it's going to be another two years for them but i'm pretty sure that they'll be more talk of this their verdict in the next couple of days than as you said that the whole world has been watching there's been reaction from both iconic stars from madonna to paul mccartney and so forth as well as those who are against them so it's definitely going to be an ongoing debate thank you so much for joining us here on r.c. to share some of your thoughts on this there was mr paul martin mccartney russian

specialist thank you lee university of london joining us here on our team right there reaction to the verdict has also been flocking in from around the world there's been a wave of protests across the globe in support of the punk band the official reaction is also coming with the u.s. state department calling on russia's authorities to review the case artie's marina portnoy has more from new york. there's been both political and public reaction over the pussy riot verdict now around the globe there has been several protests on friday in support of the three russian band members that were convicted of hooliganism paris brussels london and tell of evil are among the cities where demonstrators gathered to denounce the trial and the two year sentencing those that are in support of these three women and members of the pussy riot say that the

decision that was made by moscow's court was emblematic of russia's intolerance of dissent on a more political front the u.s. embassy in russia has called the verdict on fair play this or shouldn't there was also reaction coming from amnesty international which said that the decision was a bitter blow to freedom of expression in russia also political figures in europe have begun to weigh in on this developing story we heard from the high representative of the european union catherine ashton who has said she's deeply disappointed by this verdict calling it disproportionate a similar sentiment has also been echoed by germany's foreign minister so clearly this story taking place in russia has ignited a wave of reaction around the globe. right let's not talk to media analyst. who's now joining us live here and you know this is. a foreign policy have strongly

reacted to the pussy riot case in fact some politicians outside of russia condemned the trial before the verdict was delivered how noble is it to see such a widespread and swift reaction to this kind of a trial. well i think if i would see riot it's in my i would be down on my knees thanking mr putin playing right into my hand to bring the shoes that the band is raising to global prominence the repression of the cult act and culturally people ball is something which is unusual usually there are ignored and marginalized but by prosecuting a pussy riot by making them the center of a confrontation between the russian state and in a sense the cultural industry of the world the russian state will not win this one

they cannot win this one they've created maters you know in a sense in the same way i'm here in south africa where years ago the partied government prosecuted anti-apartheid activists and all that did was make those activists more prominent and more visible this is a big mistake with russia to convict these people in this way and i think that you will see a tremendous amount of protests and response to the world over i know that in new york tonight there is a protest meeting taking place. right but let's do the same let's just say i mean you've mentioned south africa the russians not really interfering in other people's sort of. you know culturally gave me the politics of a kind of state to themselves and do it it's almost kind of sometimes i feel like they've been polled to do certain things in order for the world to say well did you see what russia did so today's verdict everybody's been waiting for it you know this is an act of blasphemy according to the church the biggest church in russia if

this had happened in say you know the. in the roman catholic church in the in the vatican what and they've given this verdict with the world being still reacting this way would they be say old look at they tell us what's going on there i mean it's kind of like they're poking a little bit at russia. i think that i think you're looking at this too narrowly you're looking at this purely through a russian a when when in fact the big church in the world today is television that's the church that everybody worships in and you know we saw in the olympics the lead song in the olympics was london calling which was a punk song by the clash years ago when it came out the clash were denounced by many people in the establishment now their song became an anthem of the olympics pussy riot will now get prominence worldwide because young people are very

dissatisfied with the way things are around the world not just in their own countries and they will support the rights of this band even if they don't know exactly what the band stands for the thing is that the then has been courageous in doing their thing whether it was a cathedral or in the streets it didn't matter they stood up the government attacked them and now the people around the world young people particularly and you going to see this in social media worldwide are going to rally to support pussy riot and putin is going to be the person who's going to be demonized for that even though he said or tried to distance himself from the likely verdict in this case the likely deal to verdict he made a statement suggesting somehow that you know he was an involved but of course people think he is involved and there's going to be of a lot of reaction to this watch watch you'll see that a few months ago with the writer was a relatively unknown. punk band and now they're grabbing headlines around the globe

do you see anything unusual in the spike in their popularity. ok we've just lost a mr danny schechter there who was just sharing as some of the his opinions on how the world is reacting to the verdict of the pussy riot who've just been given to yes in prison might as well as international public reaction on the streets of the pussy riot case has exploded across the internet host of artes website program why you should take a blog a tame kirby told my colleague about the online response. others to flee some negativity you know when you look at the internet like i've been saying it's have been talking you there's. a lot of the more liberal people the supporters of course they're going nuts and they're posting everything that this is awful and on the other side of people who have a more religious take on things i think feel very justified my personal opinion is to be honest usually for the thing they call hooliganism you get fifteen days from

what i've heard so i really wish they would have gotten fifteen days the more standard punishment but the court didn't agree with my position but what about the hype on the on this case how is it reflecting public opinion in russia because a lot of people say that moscow is not a true representation of all of russia trust me as a foreigner i get to hear that every day and it really isn't the sort of moscow super liberal internet click really isn't and the problem is is that people are saying this is dividing russia and it sense it is but it's dividing it between kind of religious people and the tiny tiny minority of ultra liberal extremists who have a bigger voice because of the internet than they would under normal circumstances and so i think it a lot of ways worse it's not really. being depicted i think a lot of the average people in russia this is a really huge thing for them or they're sort of passively against it. right we've been following this story throughout the day all the t.v.

details of the story are vailable for you on our website including a timeline of events in and outside the courtroom and reaction from relatives of the three women logged on to our team dot com. joining us donges now officially a pole little refugee but seems no closer to getting out of the ecuadorian embassy in london than before the asylum announcement was made britain made it clear the deal did not affect its determination to arrest the whistleblower and extradite him to sweden in clear defiance of international law archies laura smith who was at the embassy on the day of drama has the details. it was the day they'd been waiting for julian assaults holed up in london's ecuadorian embassy for two months and his supporters who turned out to cheer for him rain or shine since his legal battle against extradition to sweden first began more than eighteen months ago also there

in large numbers the police who didn't wait long to make their first arrests. when the decision came it was the one they wanted. we decided to grant asylum to julian a song. called it a significant victory and his mother was full. and shining like it will automatically encourage the government. but not everyone was pleased the u.k. foreign and commonwealth office called the decision disappointing and foreign secretary william hague said it changed nothing it does not change the fundamentals of the case we will not allow. safe passage out of the united kingdom nor is there any legal basis for us to do so hague also denied any suggestion that british police would storm the embassy so over and territory under international law to arrest but

that's not what ecuador inferred from a letter it says was delivered through the british embassy in quito in response ecuador played hardball. when it was no national law could be used in this way in any intrusive way in any diplomatic facilities any place in the world it shouldn't be used to threaten or blackmail the sovereignty of any other country and they called a summit to try to deal with this threat so that this fact doesn't go on punished. the scary part the part that i find completely incredible and outrageous is the british threats to actually go in and try and extract your innocent but i must say to see british police surrounding that embassy was it an act of intimidation that should not be allowed and is not allowed under saddam or stuck in the middle julian assange who has a new home but no way of getting there try parsing put him in

a big trunk and label him in his diplomatic bag i'm not quite sure whether that would work but otherwise we might see him holed up there for a mixed couple of years who knows until i reach a solution to this impasse but if he leaves the embassy he's liable to arrest by the u.k. which insists it must still extradite him to sweden a position that went to accept it or respond to the united kingdom it would mean possibly breaking relations on a regional level if it happens the bronzing of asylum by julie enough songs has been spelled the end of this tale already full of twists and turns in fact it appears to be the beginning of something else with neither the u.k. no ecuador apparently willing to back down it's developing into an ugly diplomatic spat which could affect relations for some time laura smith forty outside the ecuadorian embassy and up to the right area we talked to the weekend leaks a spokesperson christine questions then who said if britain continues to ignore

songes asylum rides his lawyers will take the matter to the international criminal court. let's hope that the the british government will come to its senses. and say yes it's a country it's the only right thing to do but if they're on to is system this hard line position which is absolutely absurd given the circumstances. the head of the legal team or julian that we can use the inspectors just a buzzer goes home and indicated that he will take the matter before the international court of justice. and force the government to give him say as it's clearly to say that this is a threat by the u.k. authorities who take our extraordinary have called for a. strong reaction especially in light of the american countries it is it is beyond my understanding why the stuff of william hague will take such an extreme step especially when the negotiations were ongoing or into that war is in the impulse

period between two countries and this should could offset it with the nations all over the world and i'm pretty sure that the british state must feel. very secure in voluntarily areas given the fact that their own government is ready to violate it to the convention out of the twenty two with this these threats that i just won't believe it will carry. moskos of course also watching closely the developments around the asuncion case and the russian foreign ministry has said it's bewildered by britain's position on the whistleblower's asylum deal the ministry representative said the red to take a stand in the embassy by force contradict the vienna convention he also added that the u.k. itself is harboring dozens of russian suspected of grave crimes but yet to denies a right to asylum to asuncion haven't even been charged among those who found shelter in london are. wanted for charges of terrorism and murder and former tycoon

boris berezovsky accused of fraud and attempted. and it looks like access to a website has been restored earlier today r.t. dot com was jammed by an avalanche of online traffic in what's known as a denial of service attack by a hacker group known as anti leaks tom barton reports. if you try to go to our web site today you may well see this message instead of the actual website that's the result of a d.d. o. s. cyber attack which struck many hours ago and has made r.t. dot com one available around the world on twitter a group calling itself anti leaks is claiming responsibility for the attack they linked in their tweets to the topics june songe and wiki leaks they also made a joke about the show hosted on r.t. saying that they wanted to see him smoking cigars and drinking whiskey but that they weren't able to because of this attack those and other tweets indicate that

they wanted to stop artie's coverage of the granting of diplomatic asylum to the wiki leaks founder by ecuador's embassy in london a d.d. o. s. or distributed denial of service attack is where attackers use remotely controlled computers around the world to flood a website with too much traffic for it to handle until leaks has previously attacked wiki leaks is site itself with d.d. o. s. as well but they say that their primary target is julian assange himself describing him as a new breed of terrorist the group says they're based in the usa as much speculation as to who antiques actually are. right if you've just joined us let's just give you a recap of our top story today the guilty verdict for the members of the controversial punk band pussy riot and the reaction to it. reposed the riot to that's the cry you can hear being chanted outside the courts

after the three women was sentenced she to me is in jail for the approaches stunt in crisis a that cathedral but there was also a gathering of those protesting against the antics of the punk band the ready eels who drew some prominent opposition leaders and veterans of antigovernment protests such as alexina volley more than sixty people have been detained warnings of police against breaking public the case of pussy riot has called the divisions in russian society their supporters say it's politically motivated while the opponents argue they went over the top with this performance ahead of the russian church said the pussy riot stunt amounted to blasphemy. right right now dimitri's next hour with at the business news and say was there a market reaction to the pussy riot verdict well there was one but it was very moderates and in the final forty five minutes of trading but indeed for most of the

session the russian markets were pretty flat and the indices were losing around point one zero point two percent of one point even went into positive territory at the beginning of the session but at six o'clock when the sentence was announced the market started descending and went down to minus one percent as you can see that one percent in the red while other markets were actually doing much better the former finance minister of russia alexei kudrin said that this case has damaged severely russia's investment climate so you can look at what's happening elsewhere and indeed in the u.s. and the nasdaq the dow jones and the nasdaq they're up moderately also up point three percent the nasdaq is being pushed up by apple shares as its investors anticipate new products being launched on the markets within one month. in europe for the markets were also feeling positive sentiment that's still on the back of anger merkel's first days reiteration of a statement that she will support the euro but however when it comes to the european currency. the euro was not feeling now much of

a support from that statement so if we can take a look at the currencies markets indeed it was losing to the dollar as consumer confidence in the u.s. came in with the with an increase and therefore the dollar was much in demand and the ruble lost around a third of a percent to the greenback now on the commodities markets rumor has it that the u.s. might use up to some of its reserve oil to increase supply and reduce prices well it's already succeeding really with that with these rumors around. and that's all we have time for this i'll be back in around fifty five minutes for another update thanks for that update dimitri right i'll be back with the headlines in just a few minutes to stay tuned to the night.

wealthy british style it's sometimes gratifying. in. markets find.