Five members of Pussy Riot have been sentenced in absentia to prison in Russia on charges relating to performances criticising the war in Ukraine.
The jail terms handed down to members of the feminist punk group by Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ranged from eight to 13 years, according to Rolling Stone and independent Russian outlet Mediazona.
Maria Alyokhina, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot and Alina Petrova were accused of spreading “false information” about the Russian army in a music video released in December 2022 entitled “Mama, Don’t Watch TV”. A separate charge relates to an incident in which a member of the group urinated on a portrait of Russian president Vladimir Putin in April 2024.
All five members of the group rejected the charges, saying they were politically motivated.
In a statement given to Rolling Stone, Burkot said: “The full-scale war against Ukraine has been going on for more than three years. And I continue to believe: Ukraine must win, and Putin must face trial in The Hague.
“The Russian government is a textbook example of patriarchy – the worst kind of abuser: a tyrant, a narcissist, a gaslighter, a toxic manipulator who lives off the destruction of others’ will.”
It is not the first time that the group has been pursued by Russian authorities amid a crackdown on anti-war voices in Russia. In 2023, Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova was arrested in absentia and added to Russia’s International Wanted list.
Last year, a court in Moscow sentenced Pyotr Verzilov, the unofficial spokesperson of Pussy Riot, to eight years and four months in absentia in prison for social media posts criticising the war in Ukraine.
Verzilov left Russia in 2020 after authorities searched his home and he was charged with failing to inform the government he is a citizen of Canada, where he spent part of his childhood.
In 2014, he and other Pussy Riot activists co-founded independent news site Mediazona, which reports on Russia's criminal justice system.
Pussy Riot first rose to fame in 2012 when three members of the group were imprisoned for a protest at a cathedral in Moscow, sparking global condemnation. Since then, the group have consistently opposed Putin’s authoritarian regime and its clampdown on freedom of speech and media freedoms.
The group also claimed responsibility for a pitch invasion during the Fifa World Cup final in Moscow in 2018.
