Pussy Riot
Ruth Seavers goes behind the masks and the headlines to chat to Alexander Cheparukhin from Putin’s least favourite band Pussy Riot about revolutions, resolutions and the need for change across Russia.
So who exactly are Pussy Riot? When asked how many members are in Pussy Riot, they say it was never a band. Pussy Riot was always protest art collective: “It’s always changing. Some stop participating, others start, like with the World Cup protest – the women who went on the pitch, never really expressed themselves as Pussy Riot girls. But they did it,” they say. Together with Peter Verzilov husband of Nadia Tolokonnikova].
“[They] wanted to show the hypocrisy of Putin’s regime. The celebration of the World Cup was happening at the same time as tortures in police stations and prisons. For example, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov is approaching his 90th day of hunger strike in a high security prison and a lot of people are still in prison for demonstrations or Facebook posts for example. A lot of people suffer from a brutal and corrupt law enforcement system. We must not forget these things.”
Cheating the security system in a tongue-in-cheek manner, Pussy Riot used the dangerous levels of respect for authority in Russia, which allowed them to gain entry to the stadium in police uniforms: “During the World Cup, police in Russia were extremely helpful and nice and smiling. And probably not because they were instructed to do so, but because they are smart enough to understand that if they started punishing people for minor violations then it would be chaos. It was a really unique moment in Russia. But oppression exists, and we shouldn’t forget about this.”
Looking at America’s political situation under the light of recent Russian history, we begin to discuss democracy in the East versus the West: “The Russian population step by step got brainwashed by propaganda. And now most people think that Putin is good for Russia. There are a lot of good changes for Russia under Putin’s rule but, in terms of developing democracy here, it meant killing [it] in Russia under Putin. Democracy really existed. Freedom of speech really existed. Russia was creatively the freest country in the world for many years. You could do in Russia what you couldn’t do in the rest of the world – including the US and UK.”


They cite the dead end that is isolation in response to what’s going on in Russia: “In Western culture there is a sort of isolation towards Russia. Every year the visa system becomes more and more severe and it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with national security. It’s even more severe than the US.
This didn’t happen during Gorbachev’s time, even during the early Putin era. But ultimately it just works against change and creates Anglophobia in Russia. A lot of Russians were Anglophiles – they loved British rock and British culture. Now a lot of people don’t even want to hear about going to the UK or trying to get a visa. They are refused without explanation or an explanation that is just insulting, like explaining to a young girl that she might be a prostitute. It’s veiled in polite expression, but it is visible.”
How can we help? “Send letters, organise protests. Fight against cases like Sentsov’s. Every case of imprisonment of any opposition should not be tolerated. We need to be a pain in the ass for Putin and the Russian leaders and at the same time to make their cooperation with Russia wider, not to isolate Russia. Because then Russia thinks the West is an enemy. We have a strong propaganda system which becomes more and more anti-Western every month. People start to believe we are surrounded by enemies and it’s a very dangerous thing in cases of isolation. We need to be more open. A prime example is the World Cup; Russia became more open, and look what happened…nothing.”
Their show in the Tramshed this August has been hailed as one of the greatest punk shows ever. It includes strong themes of protest and resistance of the human spirit combined with music, theatrical and video elements by producer Alexander Cheparukhin. “’Everyone can be Pussy Riot,’ Masha [Alyokhina, one of the founders of Pussy Riot] says, ‘and freedom only exists, if you fight for it every day.’”
A harrowing reminder in our current climate.
Pussy Riot: Riot Days, Tramshed, Cardiff, Thurs 23 Aug. Tickets: £18. Info 029 2023 5555 / www.tramshedcardiff.com