Punk group Pussy Riot ruled ‘extremist’ organisation and banned in Russia

Russian authorities have branded the anti-Kremlin feminist punk band Pussy Riot as an extremist organisation.

The ruling by a court in Moscow on Monday officially bans the group’s activities inside Russia.

The latest move follows a judgment in September in which all five members of Pussy Riot were sentenced in absentia by the Basmanny district court. That saw prison terms handed down ranging from eight to 13 years, after judges found the band guilty of spreading false information about the Russian army.

Pussy Riot rejected those charges, describing them as politically motivated.

In a statement following the conviction earlier this year, group member Diana Burkot told Rolling Stone: “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.”

Burkot added: “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.”

Pussy Riot shot to global fame in 2012 after staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Since then, the group has emerged as a symbol of anti-Kremlin protest and opposes Moscow’s war in Ukraine.