When the punk group “pussy riot” (which you can already understand is a girl only group) surprised the audience of Moscow’s central church with a free short concert the leaders of the church (as well as the old-new Russian president Mr. Putin) was not amused, not amused at all.

“The devil work”, yes, you did not mistake the words here, for wherever god is the devil is always around, and that is not a joke at all. As long as you believe that there is a god there are also all those other biblical characters around him/her/it, as it happens the devil is one of the central figures to the story of god, so it makes perfect sense that this soft of spontaneous act was spurred by the devil himself.

Once again we can see how these small little words can lead a traditionalist to think this is just an expression, while a believer takes it literally. However the speaker did not mean it as a way of speaking, to suggest that the ill mannered behavior of these artists, not invited and not welcome in the church was a bad thing (where bad = the devil), he just meant that it was the devil who was trying to derail the usual church ceremony.

This is a small indication of what it is like to live in Russia 2012, where feminist groups sing foul songs of God and Vladimir Putin are placed behind bars and could end up in jail for 7 (seven!) years for singing an uninvited offensive song and where religion had soared to the level of importance that politics have, from being oppressed only a few decades ago. Just to show you that the men of god will take everything you give them – and they will take it fast.