Pussy Riot in Barcelona against Putin's hell

Barcelona"Anyone can be Pussy Riot," read the screen as two representatives of the Russian collective, wearing their characteristic colorful balaclavas, filled the night with rage. On the first night of concerts during the Fiestas de la Mercè, Pussy Riot filled the Plaza de Catalunya with an audience that was initially mostly expectant and gradually became more and more involved in a stage and musical proposal that has been engaged in a direct fight against Vladimir Putin's government since 2011. The reaction was especially loud when it came to freedom. Below, in the audience, a banner demanded freedom for Vladimir Bolobolov, currently in pretrial detention in Russia.

"Anyone can be Pussy Riot." In Barcelona, the show was led by Alina Petrova and Taso Pletner, who have been part of the artistic and activist collective since 2022 and 2020, respectively. Both have just been sentenced in absentia by a Russian court to eight and eleven years in prisonThe charge: "spreading false information" about the Russian military in Ukraine. Both live outside Russia: Pletner in Berlin and Petrova in Barcelona, ​​the city where she has been able to work as part of the Artists at Risk program. In fact, what they showed in Plaça de Catalunya is a performance they premiered at the Casal de la Trinitat Nova in February, and which updates the show. Riot days.

"Anyone can be Pussy Riot," because Putin has created a "hell with its own rules." Any dissident can be targeted, arrested, poisoned, imprisoned, or killed. This denunciation permeates a show with punk forms, featuring drums, an electric violin, and rhythmic beats, and an autobiographical narrative. It recalls Pussy Riot's first action, when on February 21, 2012, they entered Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral wearing colorful balaclavas to offer a punk prayer: "Our Lady, drive Putin out." They also performed it on Tuesday in Barcelona, ​​​​while denouncing the intolerant grip exercised by Putin and the Russian Church. The message is devastating: years and years of imposition of reactionary values ​​through violence and intimidation.

"Anyone can be Pussy Riot," and they can end up in a jail "in the middle of nowhere," as happened in 2012 with three members of the group. The memorable incident was also remembered in the Plaza de Catalunya. Putin will teach him to love the motherland, with which they sabotaged the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014. The story of Riot days It went beyond self-reference and was especially critical of the European Union's messages of "deep concern" regarding various human rights violations perpetrated by Putin's government.

"Anyone can be Pussy Riot." And Pussy Riot reminded Mercè of this.