Reaction inside Russia and further afield to the imprisonment of 3 members of a punk rock girl band after their performance in one of Moscow’s cathedrals has been by turns outraged and baffled. The girls are still on remand, awaiting trial for hooliganism (maximum sentence 7 years). One can only hope they will triumph in the end, says Yelena Fedotova

Marat Gelman is a well-known Moscow cultural figure. In 2008 he went to curate the Museum of Contemporary Art in provincial Perm, where his ideas for a cultural revolution have encountered considerable local opposition. Arguments about art soon developed into a fully-fledged political battle, recounts Elena Fedotova

From self-styled “great Russian poet” to conceptual performance artist, Dmitri Prigov (1940 – 2007) was a nonconformist Renaissance man who survived institutionalisation in a Soviet asylum and died on the day he was due to collaborate with the Voina collective, enfants terribles of the new generation. As an exhibition in Venice showcases his work this summer, Yelena Fedotova explores why Prigov is a rare Soviet-era artist whose reputation is continuing to grow.