Here's punk in your eye: Pussy Riot's provocative art manifesto hits Europe
The mission: struggle, protest, resistance. The means: provocation, performance, punk rock. The famous Russian group Pussy Riot is on a European tour with a performance based on Maria Alyokhina's books.
"We don't choose our place of birth or the colour or letters on our passport. But we choose how to live our lives. To fight back or not to fight against the system that makes a human being a cog."
This is the preface to the Pussy Riot performance, which European audiences can see this spring.
The tour kicked off in Paris on 2 April. Then the Russian punk band, famous for the rock prayer in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, for which in 2012 the participants received real prison sentences, performed in the centre of France.
"Riot Days" (source in Russian) is a multi-genre performance, acted recitation to electro, punk rock compositions and multimedia. It is based on books by activist and artist Maria Alyokhina.
She's joined by musician Alina Petrova, actress Taso Pletner and New Age Doom band drummer Eric Breitenbach who all have a point to prove too.
"This show is about what has happened to us and our country in the last ten years. It's the Pussy Riot action, it's the key events in the modern history of our country, such as the annexation of Crimea, the murder of Alexei Navalny, the protest rallies from 2014 to 2022. This is my prison history," says Maria, pointing to the electronic ankle bracelet she wears. Russian authorities require people under investigation to use so them so they can monitor their movements.
The activist left Russia with it immediately after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, escaping arrest in the form of a courier. Now the bracelet, along with a balaclava, is her concert attribute.
Last September, the Pussy Riot members were sentenced in absentia to terms ranging from eight to 13 years in prison for allegedly spreading "fakes" about the Russian army.
"Families held hostage"
Maria Alyokhina was sentenced to 13 years and 15 days in a colony, Taso Pletner received an 11-year term, while Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot and Alina Petrova were each handed an eight year term.
Their 'alleged' crime was the music video "Mum, don't watch TV", released in 2022, and an anti-war action in Munich, held after their departure from the Russian Federation.
"We thought we had left and the investigators no longer cared about us. But it turned out that they do not forget us, [they] love us and are waiting for us at home..." adds Maria Alyokhina.
In December 2025, Pussy Riot was categorised as an "extremist organisation", by Moscow authorities, leading to the ban of all its activities in Russia.
"For distributing extremist materials, i.e. Pussy Riot's likes, reposts and comments, you can get up to five years in prison, as well as for a homemade balaclava," Alyokhina continues.
According to the activists, their loved ones in Russia are essentially being held hostage by the authorities.
"Everyone who left and continues to be active realises that their relatives in Russia are hostages. We are not unique in this respect. Searches, surveillance, wiretaps, threats, summons for interrogation - elements of everyday life," says Alyokhina.
In May 2025, while the investigation was still underway, law enforcers came "to five families in three cities", "broke in and put parents, elderly people face down on the floor."
"Hard searches were made at the relatives of all the team members against whom the criminal case was being conducted. Classic: six in the morning, broken doors, masked men, hours of interrogation, intimidation, threats, with weapons," her colleague Taso Pletner adds.
The members of the collective are on an international wanted list. Speaking of their lack of fear for what they say from the stage, they lament a different kind of hardship - that they face abroad.
"We don't all have a stable situation with our documents. If our passports expire or we lose them, we'll find ourselves in limbo, stuck in the country we are in, without any status," Taso explains, specifying that some of them have "loose residence permits" that they were able to "obtain in the conditions they were in."
"Europe underestimates Putin"
From detentions at anti-war rallies, to police violence, to strikes on apartment blocks in Ukrainian cities, to Alexei Navalny on trial the day before his death, to the self-immolation of journalist Irina Slavina outside the Russian Interior Ministry, the footage immerses those who came to the performance at Bateau ivre in a grim Russian reality.
According to the participants, their performance is an important reminder of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has been pushed aside in the information field by other conflicts - in the Middle East.
"There are so many events going on right now, and people don't have time to keep track of their importance. Some of them are very quickly rubbed out. For example, Russia's conflict with Ukraine is very much overshadowed by conflicts with Palestine, with Iran.... But every day, for the fifth year already, people die. And these are living, real people," says another participant Alina Petrova.
For the first few years since the invasion began, some of the funds from Riot Days, exhibitions and sales went to the Okhmatdet hospital in Kiev. Now the group "collects for a hospital in Dnipro, a fund from Kharkiv and to help Russian political prisoners."
"I think it's important to remind [people] about the war in Ukraine, to show the horrors of the war among other things. And it is important to remember the state Russia is in, what is happening to it. There are still people in Europe who believe that it is possible to somehow negotiate with Russia, to build bridges, that Putin is a person with whom you can do business, have some human conversations," argues Alina Petrova.
In her opinion, this is already why Europeans who "have the opportunity to influence elections" should experience the show: "If they see our story, perhaps it will influence their next step in their election campaigns," she believes.
Maria Alyokhina additionally notes that European countries have increasingly seen the emergence of "pro-Putin politicians who word for word repeat the theses of Russian propagandists." She is convinced that not everyone in Europe realises how dangerous this is.
"A sobering show"
"We are here because of their struggle - for peace - a necessary struggle, a constructive one - which they lead with their music, art. The world, alas, is being radicalised by racism, fascism, destruction. Destruction, dictatorship is not the solution. We seem to have democracy, but it has begun to be overshadowed, along with freedom of speech," Julien remarks from queue of fans waiting for an autograph.
In his hands is a magazine from 2012 with a photo of Pussy Riot in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on the cover.
"It's shocking," "sobering," "amazing," other audience members say as they leave the auditorium.
In addition to France, Pussy Riot will be performing "Riot Days" in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and the UK.
Pussy Riot with a different line-up (with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova) will be at the Venice Biennale in May to protest against Russia's invitation by the art event's organisers.
