In the aftermath of Pussy Riot’s imprisonment in Russia over their campaigning for LGBTQ and women’s rights, our US political correspondent Casey McGourty sees them at an event in Boston, MA.
To kick off Boston’s annual Pride Week, Mayor Marty Walsh raised the rainbow flag with two founding members of the Russian activist band Pussy Riot, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina. The band is famous for their anti-Putin protest in a cathedral in Moscow in 2012, which resulted in their arrest. Since then, the band has gained fame from speaking out against Russian president Vladimir Putin.
During their talk later on in the evening, the girls began by stating that in Russia, LGBTQ Pride means arrest and that they were proud to take part in an event celebrating it. They began answering questions from the mediator, many of which were focused on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Statistically, under Putin’s rule, Russia is in its prime. Putin appears to be loved by all – even more than Margaret Thatcher or FDR. However, the girls were quick to tell how false these statistics are. Putin has everybody of significance or power in Russia on his payroll. The Russian media puts out whatever Putin pays them to write. These numbers mean nothing, according to Nadya. She also referred to him as a “mass manipulator”. In February, Putin’s biggest political opponent went missing and has not been seen since. Aside from falsifying records, he is known for being elusive and keeping his private life out of the press. Recently, a Russian magazine posted an article about Putin’s personal life, and the very next day shut its doors due to the magazine being “no longer profitable”. It is widely accepted in Russia that Putin scared the owner into shutting down. To the Western world, many assume that being so private is suspicious. What is he hiding? But, when thinking of him as a dictator like Pussy Riot does, it is easy to assume that he is trying to keep a “god-like” persona. This causes both fear and devotion, making him so much more powerful. While Masha’s kids live in Russia, Putin’s live in Switzerland. When asked if she fears for her children’s safety in Russia, Masha said she does not. Without some good things in Russia, there is no hope, and “my children are good”.
Pussy Riot has had a longstanding relationship with protest. Their band was created on the grounds of political activism. For Nadya, “if you are not activist in Russia, you are dead person”, meaning that without protest in a country like Russia, the citizens have no chance. Their main focus was the importance of an honest media. Nadya said that the single thing that helped them most while they were in prison was the media. People all over the world were outraged and demanding their release. If their story had never gotten out, they might still be in jail today. This protest that landed them in jail the first time was held in a cathedral in Moscow. They were beaten, tried, and detained by the Russian government. During the 2014 Winter Olympics, the girls protested over Putin, Sochi, and the expenses. Sochi was the most expensive event in Russian history, and it came during a recession. The girls stated that they wanted to “spoil Putin’s party”. To all the doubters, they revealed that the Olympic mountain was surveilled, “so we are not crazy”.
Their newest song titled “I Can’t Breathe” was written in spirit of Eric Gardner, the American man that was strangled to death by police while shouting “I can’t breathe” over and over. After listening to an audio clip of the song, the two members of Pussy Riot revealed that in America, Eric Gardner became a reason for protest, while things like that happen in Russia every day and people usually don’t even hear about it. Since the interview in Boston, the girls have gone back to Russia, where Nadya protested over the Russian prison conditions and forced labor, and was arrested. She has since been released.
During their trial, the girls were asked “do you believe in God?” and “can you dance like the devil?” They were eventually convicted of hooliganism, and sentenced to two years in prison where they were beaten and forced to work. Nadya jokes that while it is illegal to have a lesbian experience in prison, “I had it anyway” – while her translator and husband laugh. Halfway through her sentence, Nadya was moved from the first prison to a Siberian jail, without being able to contact any of her loved ones. For months on end, nobody knew where she was or if she was even still alive. An audience member asked what it was like for her family, so she turns the microphone over to her husband who says that while her family was sick with worry, they knew that what she was doing was more important: she opened up the eyes of the world to the injustices going on in Russia. Since freed, both women find prison reform to be one of many causes for protest. They tell of how although Russian prisons have deplorable conditions, the United States doesn’t have great conditions either, and urge their listeners to remember that. The girls were supposed to tour Riker’s Island, one of the largest federal prisons in the United States, located in New York, but once word spread of who they were, Nadya and Masha were kicked out. In their song, “Putin Will Teach You How To Love”, they sing about some of the injustices done to Russians by Putin. When talking about prisons, they sing “in prison camps they’ll teach you how to obey and cry”.
After closing out the show by answering questions from the audience, Masha wished everybody well, and Nadya spoke of how proud she was to be here, and to be a member of the LGBTQ community. Pussy Riot has brought people all over the world insight on the major injustices of the current system in Russia. More information about them can be found in magazines and newspapers, as well as in the HBO documentary, Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, and all over the internet, as well as their music with translations in many different languages.
Words By Casey McGourty