Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court has designated the “punk group Pussy Riot” an “extremist” organization, according to a report by the state-controlled news outlet TASS. The ruling was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by Russia’s prosecutor general, Aleksandr Gutsan.
One of Pussy Riot’s founders, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, commented to The Insider regarding the court’s decision:
“The purpose of labeling us an extremist organization is to erase Pussy Riot’s very existence from the Russian consciousness. A balaclava under a pillow, our song on a computer, or a like on our post — all of this could lead to a prison sentence. Pussy Riot have effectively become those-who-must-not-be-named in Russia.
When we were tried over the punk prayer, we told the judge and the prosecutors that even if we were behind bars, we were still freer than they were. Fifteen years later, this remains true. I can say what I think about Putin — that he is an aging sociopath who is spreading his rot not only inside the country but throughout the world. If refusing to keep silent is considered extremism, then so be it, we will be extremists.”
Pussy Riot is a feminist punk-rock group and art collective founded in Moscow in 2011. Its members are known for public actions against the Russian authorities, censorship, and violence, as well as for advocating women’s rights.
In February 2012, Pussy Riot staged a “punk prayer” at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Two participants in the performance, Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were subsequently sentenced to two years in a penal colony on charges of hooliganism. They were released under an amnesty in December 2013. The European Court of Human Rights later ruled that the prosecution of Pussy Riot’s members was unlawful. In 2013, Russia’s Criminal Code was amended to include the offense of “Violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion” (Article 148), commonly referred to as the law on “insulting the feelings of believers.”
Among Pussy Riot’s best-known acts of protest are:
• “Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland” (2014), a performance opposing the staging of the Olympic Games in Russia that saw the performers attacked by Cossacks;
• “A Policeman Enters the Game” (2018), in which four people dressed in police uniforms ran onto the pitch during the final match of the FIFA World Cup, which was hosted at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.