Moscow (AsiaNews) - Four wooden crosses were sawn in half and torn down in two different regions of Russia, stoking controversy about the respect for the values ​​and religious symbols, after the scandal caused by the international condemnation of Pussy Riot. The Russian Orthodox Church has demanded justice for the attacks that occurred in the regions of Chelyabinsk and Arkhangelsk in the night between 24 and 25 August last, two weeks after the Ukrainian feminist group Femen used a chain saw on a cross in Kyiv. The action was a protest against the sentence to two years imprisonment for the members >>>

Four wooden crosses were chopped down by unknown vandals in Russia over the weekend, in what the Orthodox Church claimed was a campaign to sow religious hatred. Unknown men were seen chopping down a crucifix in the northern Arkhangelsk region on the night of August 25, while another three crosses were found cut to pieces near Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals. No-one has claimed responsibility for the action, which comes just days after activists from Ukrainian women's rights group Femen cut down a crucifix in the capital Kyiv, in a show of solidarity with three members of the all-female punk group >>>