"According to Tass, Alekhina and Pletner were sentenced to 13 and 11 years, respectively, in a penal colony, while the three other defendants to eight years each. Alekhina, Borisova, Burkot and Pletner were found guilty of "spreading knowingly false information containing data about the deployment of the Russian Armed Forces", according to an article of Russia's criminal code that has been used to quash protest against the war, especially on social media."
"The charges against the four were based on a video posted on YouTube in December 2022 called "", which opens with the words "the howls of Mariupol", referring to the city in the Donetsk region that Russia destroyed and then illegally annexed following the launch of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The song also refers to Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv that was the site of an early massacre during the invasion and calls out the West for its complicity."
"Alekhina was also charged, along with Pletner and Petrova, for an April 2024 performance in Munich, Germany, that addressed the destruction of Mariupol. The performance included one of them urinating on a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pussy Riot members have fled Russia by various means- Alekhina escaped in 2022 with the help of Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson."
Moscow courts handed five members of Pussy Riot prison sentences ranging from eight to 13 years on charges of spreading "fakes" about the Russian military through videos and performances. Four of the defendants were tried in absentia and prosecutors had requested longer penalties. Convictions referenced a December 2022 YouTube video invoking Mariupol and Bucha and an April 2024 Munich performance that desecrated a portrait of President Putin. Two members received the longest sentences, others received eight years, and at least one member escaped Russia in 2022 with outside assistance.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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