Member of the Pussy Riot punk band Yekaterina Samutsevich waits before entering a court room, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Samutsevich's efforts to repeal a decision banning the group's videos in Russia was rejected by the court. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
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Member of the Pussy Riot punk band Yekaterina Samutsevich waits before entering a court room, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Samutsevich's efforts to repeal a decision banning the group's videos in Russia was rejected by the court. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
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Member of the Pussy Riot punk band Yekaterina Samutsevich speaks to press after a court hearing, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Samutsevich's efforts to repeal a decision banning the group's videos in Russia was rejected by the court. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 file photo Russian gay right campaigner Pavel Samburov (center left) and five other gay rights activists kiss during a protest near the State Duma, Russia's lower parliament chamber, in Moscow, Russia. A controversial bill banning "homosexual propaganda" has been submitted to Russia's lower house of parliament for the first of three hearings Tuesday, Jan. 22. 2013. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, file)
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012 file photo police officers detain gay right activists during a protest near the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, in Moscow, Russia. A controversial bill banning "homosexual propaganda" has been submitted to Russia's lower house of parliament for the first of three hearings Tuesday, Jan. 22. 2013. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, file)
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FILE - In this Saturday, May 16, 2009 file photo a gay rights activist is detained by a police officer in Moscow, Russia. A controversial bill banning "homosexual propaganda" will be submitted to Russia's lower house of parliament for the first of three hearings Tuesday, Jan. 22. 2013.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, file)
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ADDS IDENTITY OF WOMAN - FILE - In this Saturday, May 28, 2011 file photo Russian police officers detain Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, thena member of art-group Voina ( War) during an attempt to hold a gay pride parade in Moscow, Russia. A controversial bill banning "homosexual propaganda" has been submitted to Russia's lower house of parliament for the first of three hearings Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, file)
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FILE- In this Saturday, June 25, 2011 file photo, a boat carrying a rainbow flag sails on the Neva River during a gay rights rally in St. Petersburg, Russia. A controversial bill banning "homosexual propaganda" has been submitted to Russia's lower house of parliament for the first of three hearings Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, file)
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FILE-In this Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009 file photo Irina Fedotova-Fet, right, and Irina Shipitko are trying to register their marriage at a court in Moscow, Russia. The Tverskoi District Court upheld a decision by the city's civil registry that said Russian law defines marriage as a union of a woman and a man. A controversial bill banning "homosexual propaganda" has been submitted to Russia's lower house of parliament for the first of three hearings Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, file)
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Feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia on Friday, Aug. 17, 2012. A judge found three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot guilty of hooliganism on Friday, in a case that has drawn widespread international condemnation as an emblem of Russia's intolerance of dissent. T-shirt on right worn by Tolokonnikova is Spanish and translates to "They shall not pass", a slogan often used to express determination to defend a position against an enemy. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
Pussy Riot cathedral video banned for 'extremism'
MOSCOW (AP) — Footage of feminist rockers Pussy Riot's irreverent protest against President
Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral last year has been banned in Russia and must be removed from the country's Internet.
Moscow City Court on Wednesday rejected band member Yekaterina Samutsevich's appeal of a lower court's ruling in November, meaning that its ban of the video now takes effect.
Samutsevich said the decision amounted to censorship and vowed to fight on.
Pussy Riot shot to global fame last year after three band members, including Samutsevich, were convicted in August on charges of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" for their "punk prayer" against Putin's return to the presidency in March's election and the outspoken support for his bid by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. They were sentenced to two years in prison, but Samutsevich was later released on appeal.
The trial was widely seen as a political vendetta and attracted international attention to Russia's intolerance of dissent.
Internet providers face fines up to $3,000 if they fail to block the footage. The decision, taken on the request of a conservative lawmaker who said the videos offended religious believers, is largely symbolic, since Russians will be able to access the video on foreign servers not subject to the law.
Pussy Riot's videos were banned under Russia's vaguely defined "extremism" law, which is supposed to restrict neo-Nazi and terrorist groups but has been used to restrict Scientologists and the TV cartoon South Park. Critics accuse the Kremlin of exploiting the law to stifle opposition and free speech.
In September, Russian courts banned "The Innocence of Muslims," a low-budget film produced in the U.S. that mocks Muslims and the prophet Muhammad.
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