Russia’s campaign against the feminist art collective Pussy Riot reached its apex today as the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow, at the request of the Ministry of Justice, officially classified the group as an “extremist organization” and banned its activities within the country. The ruling effectively criminalizes all association, circulation, and support for Pussy Riot, recasting the protest collective as a threat to national security and making simple actions—such as owning a balaclava, having a song on a computer, or even “liking” a social media post—punishable by prison time.
The ruling was delivered by Judge Maria Moskalenko, who has a history with the collective, having imprisoned Ilya Yashin, Alexei Navalny, and Peter Verzilov in 2011. This group designation follows a string of individual charges against members, including the sentencing of five members in absentia in September 2025 and the earlier arrests in absentia of founders Nadya Tolokonnikova and Peter Verzilov. The court order is designed to erase Pussy Riot’s existence from the minds of Russians, placing the group in the same category as Meta (Facebook/Instagram), the International LGBT movement, and the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
The group’s founder, Nadya Tolokonnikova, currently in exile, responded with defiance: “In today’s Russia, telling the truth is extremism. So be it – we’re proud extremists, then. I can say what I think about putin—that he is an aging sociopath spreading his venom around the world like cancer.” She added that while the ban is meant to sow fear, Pussy Riot remains committed to truth, progress, and justice, stressing, “We wear masks because you cannot stamp out an idea.” Alexey Knedlyakovsky, a Pussy Riot member since 2011, called the designation an “important event” confirming he was “extremely right to choose this path — the path of traditional human values: freedom, love, and equality.”