20 Feb 2019

Pussy Riot: Putin, prison and protest

From Nine To Noon, 10:07 am on 20 February 2019

A founding member of Russian activist punk group Pussy Riot, who's been imprisoned for her protests, says freedoms only exist if you fight for them, and she hopes everyone will “take a riot” from their upcoming show.

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Photo: Pussy Riot

Pussy Riot have long been outspoken against Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian elites.

They’ve been called the epitome of protest music and are responsible for provocative songs such as ‘Straight Outta Vagina’ which was written in reaction to President Donald Trump’s lewd comments about grabbing women “by the pussy”.

Pussy Riot are performing in Auckland on 22nd February and in Wellington on 12th March as part of the NZ Fringe Festival.

Kathryn Ryan talked to founding member Maria "Masha" Alyokhina, the author of the Riot Days memoir, and Sacha Cheparukhin who is the producer of the Pussy Riot: Riot Days show.

Alyokhina and another member served a 21-month jail term after an anti-Putin performance in 2012. Five years later she was detained in Siberia following a protest she made with another Riot member against the imprisonment of a Ukrainian filmmaker.

She says the prison in Russia is a copy of the Soviet gulag system, with better conditions. All prisoners work six days a week for 14-hour days doing things like sewing uniforms for the police and military and earn $2-$3 per month.

“There is no medicine, no normal food, no human rights conditions. When I saw that for the first time I was quite surprised, but I thought I could do something even there. That’s how my human rights activity started."

After she was released, her protests and awareness raising of the prison system transformed into the MediaZona project which is Russia’s only independent media outlet covering police violence, prison violence and political trials in the country.

“At first it was quite a small media, but in three years it became one of the most popular internet resources in Russia.”

The Russian government has tried several times to revoke MediaZona’s licence and they’ve been victim to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, but they’ve managed to stay online and operating thus far.

Alyokhina describes Pussy Riot as a “political art punk collective” which is open to everyone.

“What we’re doing is political protest in different forms. It’s not a political party - anyone can be Pussy Riot. It’s very simple, you just have to make balaclava and you also can do a riot. This is one of the goals of why we are doing Riot Days on stage in Auckland, to inspire people to do their own protest.”

“We’re telling our story, which is happening in Russia, but actually I believe that this story can happen anywhere and we’re sharing it to remind people how important to fight for the freedom.”

She says repression in Russia has become worse since her arrest in 2012, with political murders taking place recently and one of the Pussy Riot members almost dying after being poisoned last year. These forms of clamping down on activism are not unique to Russia and people around the world must be aware of how quickly it can happen, she says.

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Photo: Pussy Riot

Pussy Riot had its roots in large protests which took place in 2011 when Putin declared he would be leader for the third time. Alyokhina says that since that election, Putin’s actions in Crimea and Ukraine have bought sanctions on Russia which have made life materially harder for ordinary people.

“I believe in solidarity and I believe communities are stronger than governments, and that’s how Pussy Riot exists.”

Alyokhina rejects the idea of so-called ‘strong man’ leadership taking shape in many parts of the world and emblematic of leaders such as Putin, Trump, Bolsonaro, and Duterte.

“Strong people are not afraid of satire, and what we’re doing is satire. If you got two years of prison because of political performance, which is quite fun, it means one thing – these people are afraid of fun, afraid of love. It’s not ‘strong people’ it’s people who are full of fear.”

She says one of the aims of Riot Days is to raise awareness of political prisoners in Russia. The group will be selling t-shirts made by the relatives of the imprisoned to raise funds for their legal defence and their families.

“A lot of people helped us when we’ve been in prison so we believe that we should give this help forward. We have this microphone now, we should speak about those people who doesn’t have voice and who are behind bars.”

The groups’ activity outside Russia includes their first song in English ‘I Can’t Breathe’ which was based on the last words of Eric Garner, a New Yorker who died in a police chokehold. Pussy Riot were in the city at the time and Alyokhina says they were inspired after seeing the Black Lives Matter protest for the first time.

Producer Cheparukhin says one of the aims of the show is to demonstrate how repression can happen anywhere.

“We think it has universal meaning. It’s not only about Russia, it’s about freedom which exists only if you fight for it every day.”

Alyokhina says she wants people to “take a riot” from the performance.

“It’s quite simple, but this is a step for your understanding that you need to do something.”