Pussy Riot has been designated as an “extremist organisation”

The Tverskoy District Court in Moscow has upheld the claim brought by the Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia to recognise the art group Pussy Riot as an “extremist organisation,” reports SOTAvision.

The hearing was held behind closed doors. In the court record on the court’s website, both the claimant and respondent are listed as “citizens of the Russian Federation,” and the Prosecutor General’s Office’s claim was not mentioned.

“The aim of declaring us an extremist organisation is to erase the very existence of Pussy Riot from the consciousness of Russians. A balaclava under your pillow, our song on your computer, or a like on our post—any of that could now mean prison. Pussy Riot have become those-who-shall-not-be-named in Russia.
When we were tried for our punk prayer, we told the judge and prosecutors: ‘We might be in the cage, but we are still freer than you.’ A decade and a half later, that’s still true. I can say what I think about Putin—that he is an ageing sociopath spreading his rot not only inside the country but across the world. If refusing to shut up is extremism, then so be it, we’ll be extremists,” commented Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to The Insider regarding the court’s decision.

At the end of February 2012, five members of Pussy Riot staged a punk prayer in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, then posted the video online. Police arrested three group members—Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich. On 17 August 2012, the group were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in a general regime penal colony. On 23 December 2013, two months before their term was due to end, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released under amnesty. The European Court of Human Rights found several violations in the case and awarded the activists compensation.

In September 2025, five members of Pussy Riot were sentenced in absentia to between 8 and 13 years in prison on charges of spreading military “fakes.” Maria Alyokhina received a sentence of 13 years, Taso Pletner 11 years, and Diana Burkot, Alina Petrova and Olga Borisova were sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment. The criminal case was triggered by the anti-war music video “Mama, Don’t Watch TV” and a performance at the Pinakothek der Moderne museum in Munich.