Pussy Riot member decries the repression of artists in Russia and beyond after Ukraine invasion

Pussy Riot Maria Alyokhina has urged artists to unite against cultural repression in Russia and the invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian reports. The activist expressed solidarity with the people of Ukraine, noting that much of the actions taken by the West against Putin is PR and hurts ordinary Russian citizens.

Several activists affiliated with Pussy Riot have left Russia since the start of the war, including Maria Alyokhina, Olga Borisova and Lucy Shtein, who fled house arrest and are currently on the Russian wanted list. Many members of the group are currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Speaking about the Ukraine crisis, "Masha" Alyokhina has decried decisions by cultural institutions to axe works by Russian artists and writers in protest to the war as "stupid".

Alyokhina also called on the artistic community to unite against the invasion of Ukraine amid repression of activists in Russia “now at a level none of us have seen before”.

The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra recently removed pieces by the composer Tchaikovsky from its programme, while the Royal Opera House eliminating the Bolshoi ballet from its summer season. Not alone that, an Italian university cancelled lectures on Dostoevsky, and Netflix paused an adaptation of Anna Karenina.

“I think it’s just stupid,” Alyokhina told The Guardian. “It’s not Tchaikovsky who invaded Ukraine. There’s no sense banning Tchaikovsky, but there will be sense in banning all Russian oil and gas.”

As a Russian artist performing in Europe, she has yet to experience any Russophobia since the start of the war in February. Joining forces as Russians and artists from other nations would give the pushback against Putin's war machine more sway.

“It’s just irrelevant – we should be united as an artistic community to build the anti-war movement,” Alyokhina said.

Alyokhina was speaking to coincide with the inclusion of her group’s Riot Days show in the Gulbenkian Arts Centre at the University of Kent later this year. The show will see her perform with fellow members Olga Borisova and Diana Burkot, expressing a “statement of solidarity with Ukraine” that shows “Putin’s regime from the inside”.

“For 10 years we told the west how dangerous it is to have a dictatorship in the biggest country, which has nuclear weapons and an army and empire ambitions, but business interests were more important,” she said, adding that she thought if sanctions had been imposed after the invasion of the Crimea in 2014, “there would be no war”.

It's a “dark time” for artists and activists in Russia, with repression “now at a level none of us have seen before” and prosecutions happening daily. Putin's idea of crimes are labelling the invasion of Ukraine a war rather than a “special military operation”, protesting against the war itself or sharing reports from western media.

A huge amount of artists, intellectuals and journalists have fled the country to continue their work abroad as well as other Russians living in fear of Putin’s regime.

Olga Borisova was stopped in Tbilisi airport yesterday afternoon after returning from Pussy Riot's tour of western Europe to raise money for Ukrainian refugees. The denial of entry has sparked concerns among the large community of anti-war activists and journalists who fled to the South Caucasus since the invasion of Ukraine.

“They just said no and didn’t even ask me any questions,” Borisova told The Moscow Times, adding that she believes she was denounced by a person who sent messages to the Georgian authorities claiming she was planning terrorist attacks.

“As far as I know, it happened because of the denunciation,” said Borisova, who was deported back to Turkey and then to the Netherlands.

Pussy Riot's Olga Borisova denied entry to Georgia - where she lived since March 2022.
Border Police refused to provide reasons. https://t.co/kuQZgqrlpV

— Max Fras (@maxfras) June 20, 2022

Pussy Riot are currently campaigning to see Putin tried for war crimes in a tribunal in The Hague. Borisova said the move would “set a perfect example for the future that all dictators will see there is responsibility for their actions”.

Borisova added that western countries can still do more to supply Ukraine with weapons, humanitarian aid and support for refugees, rather than just “pictures of Boris Johnson hugging Zelenskiy” - “What are you doing except PR?” she wonders.

EU membership would be “the least the European Union can do” for Ukraine, the activist added. “Ukraine is Europe, it’s a European society, they’re really fighting to become a part of it, and they deserve it, they’ve fought for it for 10 years already."

Revisit Hot Press' 2017 pre-Repeal interview with Pussy Riot here.