A Moscow district court has designated the exiled punk protest band Pussy Riot as an extremist organisation, the state TASS news agency reported.
The band’s lawyer, Leonid Solovyov, told TASS the ruling on Monday stemmed from claims by the Prosecutor General’s Office and that the group plans to appeal. TASS said the case was heard in a closed session at the office’s request.
AFP reported the court “upheld prosecution submissions to recognise the punk band Pussy Riot as an extremist organisation and ban its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.”
An official Pussy Riot social media account replied defiantly, saying members who live in exile were “freer than those who try to silence us.” The statement included a direct criticism of President Vladimir Putin: “We can say what I think about putin — that he is an aging sociopath spreading his venom around the world like cancer,” it read. “In today’s Russia, telling the truth is extremism. So be it – we’re proud extremists, then.”
The designation will make it easier for authorities to target supporters and associates inside Russia. “This court order is designed to erase the very existence of Pussy Riot from the minds of Russians,” the band said. “Owning a balaclava, having our song on your computer, or liking one of our posts could lead to prison time.”
TASS said the Prosecutor General’s Office brought the case over Pussy Riot’s previous protests, including a February 2012 action at Christ the Saviour Cathedral and a performance at the 2018 World Cup Final in Moscow.
The band’s members have already served sentences over the 2012 cathedral protest, where they performed a “punk prayer” titled “Mother of God, Cast Putin Out!” Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were jailed for two years on hooliganism charges and later freed under a 2013 amnesty affecting about 26,000 people.
In September, a Russian court handed jail terms to five people linked to Pussy Riot — Maria Alyokhina, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot and Alina Petrova — after finding them guilty of spreading “false information” about the Russian military, according to Mediazona. The defendants have said the charges were politically motivated.
Mediazona, a news outlet founded by Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova, said it continues to maintain a verified list of Russian military deaths in Moscow’s war on Ukraine. “We have confirmed 153,000 names, each supported by evidence, context, and documentation,” Mediazona said on Monday.
