‘Go Fuck Yourself’: Pussy Riot Answer Kremlin Verdict!
Five members of Pussy Riot, the feminist punk collective that has spent more than a decade confronting Vladimir Putin’s regime, have been sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court. The verdict, delivered on 15 September by Judge Yevgenia Nikolaeva at the Basmanny District Court, handed down sentences ranging from eight to thirteen years in a penal colony.
The charges, based on Russia’s draconian laws against so-called “false information” about the armed forces, stem from performances and videos denouncing the war in Ukraine. The longest terms went to Maria (Masha) Alekhina and Taso Pletner—thirteen and eleven years, respectively. Diana Burkot, Olga Borisova, and Alina Petrova each received eight years. A prosecutor had pushed for even harsher penalties.
At the heart of the case lies a video released in December 2022, Mama, Don’t Watch TV (Anti-War Song), which opens with the chilling refrain “the howls of Mariupol.” The work, a raw denunciation of Russia’s destruction of the port city, also names Bucha—site of one of the war’s earliest massacres—and accuses Western governments of complicity. Alekhina, Petrova, and Pletner faced an additional charge for a performance in Munich in April this year that saw a member urinate on a portrait of Putin.
Burkot, who composed and performed much of the music in the contested video, released a defiant statement following the verdict. “I stand by every single word, and my anti-war stance is clear,” she declared. “Rapists and murderers in Russia get three to four years, often serving less than one before being shipped to the front line. They return with blood on their hands and PTSD, yet activists are locked away for their words. Is this cycle of violence the new norm?”
She went further, describing the Russian government as “a textbook example of patriarchy—the worst kind of abuser: tyrant, narcissist, manipulator.” Burkot urged people worldwide to resist apathy, insisting that only collective action can “overcome the crisis of democracy.” On social media, she sharpened the message: “Ukraine must win, and Putin must face trial in The Hague.”
The court’s proceedings also revealed the pressure placed on family members left behind in Russia. According to Tass, Burkot’s father testified against her, saying he opposed her political views. Independent media outlets such as Mediazona have reported repeated searches and intimidation campaigns targeting relatives of Pussy Riot members now in exile.
Pussy Riot are no strangers to state repression. In 2012, Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova were jailed for nearly two years for staging their “punk prayer” at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, an intervention condemning Putin and the Orthodox Church hierarchy. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin has intensified its campaign against the group. Tolokonnikova herself was arrested in absentia last year and placed on Russia’s international wanted list. Pyotr Verzilov, another long-standing member, was sentenced in absentia to more than eight years for anti-war posts online.
Despite exile, the group continues to perform internationally, turning concerts and interventions into platforms for protest. Alekhina famously escaped Russia in 2022 with the assistance of Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, slipping across borders disguised as a food courier.
For Pussy Riot, the latest sentences underline the cost of defiance in Putin’s Russia. Yet if the Kremlin hoped to silence them, the verdict appears only to have amplified their voice. As Burkot concluded: “Even if I were in Russia, I would say the same thing: go fuck yourself.”
Top Photo: Igor Moukhin (1961–) Wiki Media