Five members of Pussy Riot may have been sentenced in absentia to between eight and 13 years in prison by a Moscow court, but the Russian activist art collective says the verdict only underscores the regime’s repression—and will not silence the group’s anti-war message.
The sentences target Maria Alyokhina, Diana Burkot, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, and Alina Petrova. Russian authorities linked the charges to a 2022 music video, Mama, Don’t Watch TV, which denounced the war in Ukraine, and to a 2024 performance in Munich where the group condemned President Vladimir Putin and staged a provocative protest. The court ruled the artists guilty of “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” and “spreading false information” about the military.
Burkot, who authored the music for Mama, Don’t Watch TV, responded bluntly in an interview with the German Press Agency cited by to the German arts magazine Monopol: “This video is our statement against the war. Even if I were in Russia, I would say the same thing: fuck you.” She called the punishments “paradoxical,” noting that violent criminals in Russia receive far shorter terms. The rulings, she said, are designed to intimidate and choke off freedom of expression.
Founded in 2011, Pussy Riot gained international fame with a guerrilla “punk prayer” performance in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, which landed three members in prison. Since then, the group has become a global symbol of feminist protest art, staging actions against censorship, human rights abuses, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The latest sentences follow similar prosecutions: cofounder Nadya Tolokonnikova was added to Russia’s international wanted list in 2023, and activist Pyotr Verzilov was sentenced to more than eight years last year, according to Rolling Stone.
Despite the mounting legal pressure, Pussy Riot insists it will continue using performance and music to confront the Kremlin. “Activism now is needed like daily practice,” Burkot told Rolling Stone. “Only together can we resist and overcome the crisis of democracy.”
