Russia: dissident punk group Pussy Riot designated “extremist organization” and banned

Long-time opponents of the Kremlin. Russian justice on Monday designated the protest punk group Pussy Riot as an “extremist organization” and banned “its activities in the Russian Federation,” a Moscow court said on Telegram.

The feminist collective has opposed Vladimir Putin for years through impactful artistic works. He notably became known in 2012 with a “punk prayer” asking the Virgin Mary to “drive out” the Russian president, sung in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The court’s decision was awaited by the members of the group.

“Erase Pussy Riot from the minds of Russian citizens”

“These idiots have been working on this for years, at least since 2012,” wrote Nadya Tolokonnikova in a message published this Sunday on the group’s X account, accompanied by an excerpt from an interview given in 2012 from a penal colony where she had been sent after participating in the “punk prayer”. “The law is made to erase Pussy Riot from the minds of Russian citizens,” the group declared on its Facebook account in early December, ahead of this legal decision.

“We have been radioactive for years, but being designated as an extremist organization gives the state more legal leverage to punish people for any connection with us,” the group said, expressing concern for “the safety of Pussy Riot supporters who cannot leave Russia or who choose to stay there.”

Its members, many of whom were sentenced to prison for their activism and now live in exile, also oppose the Russian offensive against Ukraine. In 2021, Maria Alyokhina, threatened with a prison sentence, managed to clandestinely leave Russia disguised as a meal delivery woman.

The group now joins the Russian list of “terrorists and extremists”. It includes the Anti-Corruption Foundation of the late opponent Alexeï Navalny, the Meta company, and the “international LGBT movement”. This qualification makes it possible to mobilize a large legal arsenal to muzzle any criticism of power in Russia. In November, a man was found guilty of LGBT+ “extremism” by a court a year after his death.