Activists Maria “Masha” Alyokhina, Diana Burkot, Olga Borisova, Alina Petrova, and Taso Pletner have been accused of disseminating “false information” concerning the Russian army within the collective’s 2022 anti-war music video “Mama, Don’t Watch TV,” and in a 2024 efficiency on the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich throughout which a member urinated on a portrait of Putin.
Founding Pussy Riot member Alyokhina acquired the harshest jail sentence of 13 years and 15 days. Pletner was sentenced to 11 years, and the opposite three members have been every given eight-year phrases. Mediazona reported that the prosecutor initially requested longer sentences for the activists.
“I stand by every single word and my anti-war stance is clear,” Burkot mentioned in an announcement posted on X, calling the decision a “joke.”
“The paradox is that rapists and murderers in Russia get 3–4 years, sometimes spending less than a year in prison before signing a military contract, killing Ukrainians and then they return freely into society, with PTSD, and may end up back in prison for yet another killing … Meanwhile, activists receive monstrous sentences for their opinions,” Burkot mentioned.
Nonetheless from Pussy Riot’s 2013 music video, “Like a Red Prison” (picture courtesy Pussy Riot)
Because the group fashioned in 2011, Pussy Riot’s membership has fluctuated between 10 and 20 members. They’re identified for his or her balaclava-wearing performances protesting Putin’s regime and Russia’s ongoing bombardment of Ukraine, which has killed at the very least 13,883 civilians since its invasion in 2022, in accordance with a United Nations report launched in August.
In 2023, Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova was positioned on Russia’s Needed Record and later arrested in absentia on costs associated to anti-Putin protests.
In her assertion, Burkot continued to rail towards Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine and referred to as for Putin to “face trial in The Hague.”
“Activism now is needed like daily practice, because only together can we resist and overcome the crisis of democracy,” Burkot mentioned.
“Fortunately, they have no access to my physical body,” Burkot continued. “And even when I have been in Russia, I might say the identical factor: Go f**ok your self.
