Pussy Riot, a Russian protest art-group, claimed to have disrupted last night’s World Cup finals match between France and Croatia to bring attention to Russia and its political injustices.
Four members dressed in Russian police uniform ran onto the field during last night’s match around the 52-minute mark. Enforcers were quick to remove the members from the field except for one who was able to high-five French player Kylian Mbappe.
Later on, the group posted their statement on Twitter and Facebook. They talked about the 11th year death anniversary of Russian poet Dmitriy Prigov. In one of his poems he created an image of a policeman—a heavenly policeman and an earthly policeman. The statement continued to talk about the difference between these two types of policeman and how it relates to their protest.
At the end, they said that when the earthly policemen enters the game, they demanded a few things like to end the jailing of people based on their social media activities, illegal arrests, and to allow political competition in the countries—this pertains to President Vladimir Putin who has dominated politics for a long time. He is actually on his fourth term as President.
In 2012, three of the founding members of Pussy Riot were jailed for almost two years for singing an anti-Putin song called “Punk Prayer”—“Virgin Mary, please get rid of Putin.” After getting out of jail, they created a media outlet and an organization to help prisoners survive. They still continue to be critical of Putin, they now have a new immersive theater production to inspire others to act and protect their values.
[CNN, The New York Times, and The New Yorker]
Photos courtesy of Reuters and Getty Images
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