Putin almost got away
with hosting the World Cup without any
four members of Pussy Riot
took the field during the final
game, between France
and Croatia,
interrupting game play
and high fiving the French superstar,
Mbappé, before getting tackled by police.
Those watching the game live couldn't
tell exactly what was going on.
The cameras panned away quickly
but later that day the famous protest
group known as 'Pussy Riot' took
responsibility for the interruption,
calling it a performance titled
The group of four were making a statement
about the police state in Russia
and the treatment of political prisoners,
wearing police uniforms as part of the
performance.
They ran onto the field under the
eyes of President Putin himself
who attended the final.
As writer Masha Gessen said:
"Pussy Riot became the only people to make
The protest came on the eve of the Trump/Putin summit
and was quickly overshadowed by the
mind boggling news of that press
conference.
But while this was all happening,
the four protesters were sentenced to 15 days in jail each.
And some got a three year ban from attending
sporting events.
They released a video emphasizing
their point.
"The World Cup has shown very well
how well Russian policemen can behave,"
they said, referring to how for the most part,
Russian police didn't do their
usual cracking down of protesters.
But then they continued.
"What will happen when [the World Cup] ends?"
Pussy Riot first rose to prominence
with their infamous cathedral performance
back in 2012, for
which their members were sentenced to two
years in prison.
Fifteen days in jail may seem like a short
sentence compared to that,
but the Russian policemen hardly behaved
well when they detained the World Cup protesters.
According to videos published on social media,
and a translation by the independent Russian
news outlet, Meduza,
a policeman accused the protesters
of "taking a shit on Russia."
Pussy Riot's response? "No.
We are for Russia."
Their point,
often heard among protesters here in the US,
is that dissent is patriotic.
The policemen went on to say that he
sometimes regrets we're not still in 1937,
a year when Stalinist purges
and arrests and executions of political
dissidents were common.
That makes Pussy Riot's list of demands
all the more relevant.
They released one explaining the protest
that included bullet points like
"Let all political prisoners free,"
"stop illegal arrests at rallies,"
and "allow political competition in
the country." To hear more about
what Pussy Riot is all about, we
spoke to one of the founding members [in May 2017],
Masha Alyokhina.
Over the course of a car ride, she
told us about the philosophy behind their
protest, how the group is
pretty open to anyone who wants
to speak up,
and what she really thinks of Trump
and Putin.
Donald Trump made his first
visit to Washington.
I think the United States has, politically,
a time very similar to what we had in 2012 [in Russia with Putin],
because a lot of people didn't expect that he really will be president of the United States.
VERSHA: Did you expect it?
MASHA: Yes.
NADYA: No more Muslims.
TRUMP: These are people that nobody knows who they are.
We better be careful.
MASHA: The reality is that if you are not fighting for something,
your enemies will take the power real fast.
And Trump can be a good lesson for the United States,
just to remind to ourselves what we are fighting for,
what they believe, and to unite.
TRUMP: We got to take our country back, folks.
MASHA: In the circus —
There are like archetypes of two clowns,
like a funny one with red hair and red nose,
I think Trump is kind of that,
and the other clown [has] white hair, and he's always sad,
like this,
And I think there is a lot of similarities with Putin.
VERSHA: That's good. Two clowns in a circus.
No more fat pigs.
VERSHA: So what is your advice to Americans?
What should they be prepared for?
MASHA: For my opinion, one of the main,
kind of basic problems,
is indifference of people.
When they decide
that somebody else will
come and save everybody from evil.
It's not working like that.
You should do what you can every day
if you want changes.
And do not censor yourself,
because I think self-censorship
is really what they want.
And all of that starts
with like classic censorship
in media,
in, I don't know,
public space,
in our sphere as well.
[Pussy Riot music]
MASHA: Everybody can be Pussy Riot.
Anyone can do an action.
"Trump will make America great again."
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