So now August 17, 2012, will be recorded in the history books as the day that a Russian court sentenced three Russian women to prison for singing a punk prayer in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. Coincidentally, fifty years ago on this same day, 18-year-old East German citizen Peter Fechter was shot by border guards while trying to flee across the Wall. He was one of the first to die trying to cross that one-year-old wall.

I don’t mention that tragic moment from history to say they’re equivalent. But they are each shameful and telling examples of how each authoritarian regime defines itself—in the eyes of its own people and the eyes of the world.

Fred Weir from The Christian Science Monitor offers a good recap of what’s behind the Pussy Riot trial here.