Terms of eight to 13 years handed down over a music video and a Berlin show, according to reports, as collective rejects charges as politically motivated. What we know on day 1,301
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Five members of the feminist protest collective Pussy Riot have been sentenced in absentia to prison on charges relating to anti-war performances critical of Russia’s military actions, Rolling Stone and the group-linked media outlet Mediazona have reported. The jail terms handed down by the court in Moscow ranged from eight to 13 years, the outlets reported. The charges stemmed from a December 2022 music video titled Mama, Don’t Watch TV, which authorities alleged spread “false information” about the Russian military, and an April 2024 performance in Munich, Germany, in which a Pussy Riot member urinated on a portrait of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the outlets reported, with the story also carried in The Moscow Times. The five Pussy Riot members – Maria Alyokhina, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot and Alina Petrova – rejected the charges, saying the trial and sentences were politically motivated, reported Rolling Stone, citing the band’s legal representatives. Burkot confirmed the sentences in a post on X and said in a statement that as the author of the music in Mama, Don’t Watch TV, she stood “by every single word and my anti-war stance is clear”. She added: “And I continue to believe: Ukraine must win, and Putin must face trial in The Hague.”
