huffingtonpost.com
Dominique Mosbergen

A topless activist was captured on camera on Friday while chainsawing a crucifix in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Inna Shevchenko, 22, told RBK News she tore down the symbol in support of the members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot.

Shevchenko, of the activist group FEMEN, destroyed the four-meter high wooden crucifix, just as a Moscow court was due to deliver its verdict in the Pussy Riot case, Reuters details.

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Photo credit: YouTube/rtrussia

“We want to show the authorities that no imbecile has the right to trample on freedom of speech and the rights of women and shut [Pussy Riot] away in jail,” a FEMEN spokesperson told Russian news agency RT.

“No business, not even one as successful as the church, has the right to attack women’s rights,” 22-year-old Shevchenko said, according to Reuters.

Photo credit: YouTube/rtrussia

Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich had been arrested in March after performing a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s main cathedral, high-kicking and dancing while singing “Virgin Mary, drive Putin away!” The incident occurred just two weeks before Vladimir Putin won Russia’s presidency for the third time at the end of 2011.

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