Pussy Riot releases provocative anti-war song and video hailing Putin and his supporters as a terrorist regime

Punk-feminist activist group Pussy Riot has released a hard-hitting anti-war song and video attacking Russian President Vladimir Putin and the officials, generals and propagandists who support his invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian text compares the Russian war symbol of Z with the Nazi swastika. The refrain – “Mom, there are no Nazis here, don’t watch TV” – was taken from the words of a captured Russian conscript in a telephone conversation with his mother.

Putin described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “military operation” rather than a war, claiming he was trying to rid the country of Nazis, while other Russian propagandists hinted on live TV that all of Europe was in the grip of Nazism is. . .

The video alternates between images showing the devastating effects of war, with images of a suitcase on a pavement dripping with blood and the band members sitting on a café terrace in Paris; They perform the song live and climb through an underground network in their signature colorful balaclavas.

“This song is our statement against the war that Putin started in Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale military attack against Ukraine. Russian bombs and missiles destroyed Ukrainian homes, schools and hospitals, destroyed cities and destroyed lives,” the group said in a statement in Russian and English.

“We believe that Putin’s regime is a terrorist regime and that Putin himself, his officials, generals and propagandists are war criminals,” it said. “Russian propaganda poisons people’s hearts with hatred every day. Those who oppose Putin will be imprisoned, poisoned with military poisons and killed.”

The statement cites the cases of former intelligence officers Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal, as well as political activists Vladimir Kara-Murza, Pyotr Verzilov and Alexei Navalny, who were either poisoned, imprisoned, or both.

The group called on the West to further limit acquisitions of Russian oil and gas, tighten sanctions against Russian officials linked to Putin, and also set up an international tribunal to try Putin and those to prosecute those connected with him.

In a message to the Russians, the group urged their countrymen not to participate in the war and to ignore mobilization messages and propaganda.

“Every action against this war is important,” they said.

Most of the original members of the anti-Kremlin collective now live in exile outside Russia.

Co-founder Maria Alyokhina (aka Masha Alekhina) fled Russia last April when she escaped house arrest disguised as a delivery boy after being threatened with punishment in a penal colony. Another key member, Nadya Tolokonnikova, also lives in an undisclosed location outside the country.

Since her escape, Alyokhina has been touring Europe with longtime Pussy Riot colleagues Olga Borisova and Diana Burkot, as well as newcomer Taso Pletner, whose proceeds will help Ukraine.