‘It Sounds Like A Joke’: Pussy Riot Members Sentenced To Prison In Absentia

A Moscow court has sentenced five members of the exiled feminist protest art movement Pussy Riot to lengthy prison terms in absentia, the independent, and Pussy Riot-founded media outlet Mediazona reports.

The verdict, delivered by Moscow’s Basmanny District Court, found the activists guilty on charges related to anti-war performances criticizing Russia’s military actions.

Those sentenced include Maria Alyokhina, Diana Burkot, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, and Alina Petrova. The sentences range from the harshest sentence of 13 years to eight-year terms.

The charges stem from two high-profile performances: a December 2022 music video titled “Mama, Don’t Watch TV,” which authorities claimed spread “false information” about the Russian military; and an April 2024 performance in Munich, Germany, where members staged a protest involving the portrait of President Vladimir Putin.

Sentences issued in absentia would take effect if the defendants are extradited to Russia. Through legal representatives, the five Pussy Riot members have rejected the charges, declaring the trial and sentences politically motivated.

Earlier, at the end of 2023, Nadya Tolokonnikova was arrested in absentia and later added to Russia’s international wanted list, while Petya Verzilov, another co-founder and member of Pussy Riot, was sentenced in absentia to 8 years and 4 months in April 2024, and added to the list of terrorists in December 2024.

Diana Burkot, the writer of “Mama, Don’t Watch TV,” released the following statement:

“Today, a Russian court sentenced me to 8 years in a penal colony under the so-called ‘law on fakes about the army,’ for the music video ‘Mama, Don’t Watch TV.’

“It sounds like joke.

“This video is our anti-war statement.

“I am the author of the music, I perform the ‘slogans-chants,’ I am acting in the video, and I also directed the editing.

“So, I stand by every single word, and my anti-war stance is clear.

“The paradox is that rapists and murderers in Russia get 3–4 years, sometimes spending less than a year in prison before signing a military contract, killing Ukrainians and then they return freely into society, with PTSD, and may end up back in prison for yet another killing. Is this cycle of violence the new norm in Russia?

“Meanwhile, activists receive monstrous sentences for their opinions.

“8 years for freedom of speech.

“Freedom of speech or freedom of religion — as if such concepts don’t exist in Russia any more.

“Maybe I am an atheist. in my view that’s better than believing Patriarch Kirill — yet another tyrant at the top of the Russian Orthodox Church, who now blesses weapons and soldiers for the war in Ukraine.

“The full-scale war against Ukraine has been going on for more than three years. And I continue to believe: Ukraine must win, and Putin must face trial in The Hague.

“The Russian government is a textbook example of patriarchy — the worst kind of abuser: a tyrant, a narcissist, a gaslighter, a toxic manipulator who lives off the destruction of others’ will.

“I sincerely and passionately wish every person in this world to use their voice. Activists are not some kind of “heroes” with criminal cases.

“Every single person matters. The collective matters.

“Activism now is needed like daily practice, because only together can we resist and overcome the crisis of democracy.

“Fortunately, they have no access to my physical body.

“And even if I were in Russia, I would say the same thing: go fuck yourself.”

The last North American performances by Pussy Riot took place in May this year, when the collective’s “Riot Days” show toured the country – a mixture of concert, rally, theatre and political happening, telling a story of resistance, repression and revolution based on the memoir of Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina.

The group has no fixed lineup, having developed into a decentralized, larger-than-life protest movement since its foundation by Nadya Tolokonnikova in 2011. Several members and ex-members of the group have served sentences in Russian prison and labour camps over the years, but the current sentences are by far the longest thus far.

Pussy Riot is currently repped by United Talent Agency’s Christina Austin.

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