'Ukraine must win': Five members of Pussy Riot sentenced to jail in Russia

Five members of Pussy Riot have been sentenced in absentia to prison in Russia on charges relating to anti-war performances criticising the war in Ukraine.  

Reports from Mediazona – the independent Russian outlet co-founded by band members in the feminist punk collective – reveal the members sentenced included Maria Alyokhina, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, Alina Petrova and Diana Burkot.

The jail terms handed down by Moscow’s Basmanny District Court ranged from eight to 13 years, according to Rolling Stone and Mediazona. 

The members are accused of spreading “false information” about the Russian army in a music video released in December 2022 entitled 'Mama, Don’t Watch TV'. A separate charge relates to an incident in which a member of the group urinated on a portrait of Vladimir Putin in April 2024. 

All five members of Pussy Riot have rejected the charges, saying they were politically motivated.

In a statement given to Rolling Stone, Diana Burkot said: “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.” 

She urged “every person in this world to use their voice,” and went on to say that collective activism was the only way to “resist and overcome the crisis of democracy”. Burkot said that thankfully, the Russian government has “no access to my physical body,” but that “even if I were in Russia, I would say the same thing: go fuck yourself.” 

Pussy Riot rose to fame in 2012 with their protest piece ‘A Punk Prayer’, when three members of the group were imprisoned for a protest at a cathedral in Moscow.  

Since then, the group has consistently opposed Putin’s authoritarian regime and its clampdown on freedom of speech. 

In 2023, member Nadya Tolokonnikova was arrested in absentia and added to Russia’s International Wanted list. Last year, a court in Moscow sentenced Pyotr Verzilov - the unofficial spokesperson of Pussy Riot who left Russia in 2020 after authorities searched his home - to eight years and four months in absentia in prison for social media posts criticising the war in Ukraine.