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Singer and leader of Pussy Riot Band, Maria Alyokhina, escaped Moscow despite being under house arrest in a spectacular disguise in Spring 2022. Since then, Pussy Riot have embarked on a tour with gigs mixing punk music and musical oral history. Based on her book with the title Riot Days, Alyokhina tells her own story of protesting against Putin’s Russia and the consequences they were facing. The Russian art and activist collective Pussy Riot, founded by ten women in Moscow in 2011, came to prominence when they staged a provocative guerrilla punk rock performance in Moscow’s cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012. For ten years, they continued to produce and stage a slew of anti-authoritarian protests against the regime of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, the political situation in Russia has become even more restrictive, the sanctions have got tougher, every form of protest is an increasingly dangerous undertaking, so that critical voices either have to flee the country, or face prison. Pussy Riot blew the whistle on totalitarian dictatorial developments in Russia long before these tendencies intensified in the aggressive war waged against Ukraine. What followed for various members of the Pussy Riot group were arrests, convictions and prison, and court cases that attracted international attention and support from human rights organisations. The list of repressions against Pussy Riot members is long, yet they continue their fight for an open Russian society with great commitment.

Pussy Riot want to support Ukraine and in their programme, they call for support for a children’s hospital in Kyiv. The band members themselves donate the majority of their merchandise proceeds to this hospital.