Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in 1997. In his 2002 interview with "Izvestia", Metropolitan Kirill called the allegations about his profiteering a political campaign against him. Alexander Pochinok who was the minister of taxes and levies (1999-2000), said in 2009 that Kirill had no involvement in the violations. Three female members of the feminist group Pussy Riot were arrested in March 2012 for performing a song in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow during which they called on the Virgin Mary to "chase Putin out". The women were arrested for hooliganism and were later sentenced to two years' imprisonment. The song contained swear words
2000 Vladimir Putin presidential campaign of law. During his speech, he said that the day before"learned about the creation in Moscow initiative group." According to Putin, he has not yet planned to announce his readiness to run for President but "in this solemn atmosphere I would like to say that I am pleased to accept the proposal". On 7 February, representatives of the initiative group to nominate Vladimir Putin submitted 574,128 signatures to the Central Election Commission. After a random inspection, 1.48% of them were found to be unreliable (with a maximum of 15% established by law). On 15 February, Vladimir Putin was registered as