Pussy Riot Says They Were Behind the World Cup Final Disruption

[LiberalLovinLug]

Source: Washington Post, Vulture, The Independent



If you were knocking back some brewskis and enjoying the World Cup final between France and Croatia a few moments ago, you’d know that the shots of Mbappé joyously running around were temporarily replaced by four people unexpectedly storming the field to disrupt the match. It was swiftly dealt with and the final resumed not more than a minute later — Fox was conscious not to angle the cameras in that direction — under the assumption that some crazed soccer fans tried to get their 15 minutes of fame. But, not so. The feminist Russian band Pussy Riot has claimed responsibility for the organized disruption, writing on their official Twitter account why they were inspired to do so.

“The FIFA World Cup has reminded us of the possibilities of the heavenly policeman in the Great Russia of the future, but the earthly policeman, entering the ruleless game breaks out world apart,” they wrote, in part.
“When the earthly policeman enters the game, we demand to: 1) Let all political prisoners free. 2) Not imprison for ‘likes.’$2 3) Stop illegal arrests on rallies. 4) Allow political competition in the country. 5) Not fabricate criminal accusations and not keep people in jails for no reason. 6) Turn the earthly policeman into the heavenly policeman.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/dcunited/pussy-riot-claims-on-field-protest-at-world-cup-final/2018/07/15/c7f70662-884c-11e8-9d59-dccc2c0cabcf_story.html?utm_term=.3e3b5ba2beb0

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/world-cup-final-2018-france-vs-croatia-pussy-riot-pitch-invaders-video-watch-statement-putin-a8448486.html

Link to tweet

/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1018535251264638976&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vulture.com%2F2018%2F07%2Fworld-cup-finals-2018-pussy-riot-were-behind-disruption.html

Read more: http://www.vulture.com/2018/07/world-cup-finals-2018-pussy-riot-were-behind-disruption.html

---

I'm glad there was some political protest disruption to embarass Putin, who was sitting in the stands. Good for Pussy Riot. I hope they don't get roughed up and thrown in jail again.

[Pachamama]

1. Bravo Pussy Riot!!!!!

[dalton99a]

2. Great job.

[IronLionZion]

3. I hope Putin's goons don't make them disappear

I watched it on Telemundo because I don't get Fox and they showed a little bit of the security guards carrying someone out. I was wondering what happened.

[Downtown Hound]

4. Haha! I love these women!

If I wasn't already married I would try and make one of them my wife.

[joshcryer]

5. I love how the commentators referenced it throughout the game.

Saying "we have lightning, thunder, most goals scored in a game in many years, and we even had some interrupters from the stands." (Paraphrased.)

Good times.

[LiberalLovinLug]

6. They were understandably perplexed

I was watching as well. The BBC stream. The fact that it was a performance piece meant to reference a poetic passage about heavenly police, thus dressed as police, and that most were female, kind of flummoxed the play by play guys.

I still think it was terrible that Russia got to keep its FIFA World Cup after not only all the overt cheating they were caught doing in the Russian Olympics, and even afterwards, the illegal annexing of Crimea, the invasion of Ukraine, and also the meddling in the US, France and German elections as well as possibly others. Putin is an international scourge both for the world and for his own countries people, especially minorities.

[Snellius]

10. Like Hitler hosting the '36 Olympics

And rather than promoting peace among nations, it only encouraged him further.

[7962]

14. I agree. they should have lost the WC. nt

[Snellius]

7. Gooooooooooooal!

The winning score of the game. And they came well camouflaged for combat: fake wigs, official uniforms, even fake ID badges hanging around their necks. They deserve the World Cup.

[elmac]

8. Pussy Riot has been fighting fascism for a number of years now

we could learn from them!

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. I know I will get trashed for asking this, but

how can it be a political statement when no one gets the joke. I was watching when it happened and it looked like some drunken people ran onto the pitch.
Maybe I'm just not smart enough to get it.

[LiberalLovinLug]

12. I really think they should get help with more professional branding orgs.

So that it could not be misinterpreted as anything but a protest against Putin's regime.

But I still think it was a success in this day and age, because of social media. They can, after the fact, explain why and what they were doing. It drove attention to their twitter and facebook pages, and they were able to get out their message.

http://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/pussy-riot-upstages-putin-with-protest-that-halts-world-cup-1.23368965


"Hello everyone from the Luzhniki field, it's great here," the heavily political punk performance group said on Twitter , and released a statement calling for the freeing of political prisoners, an end to "illegal arrests" of protesters and to "allow political competition" in Russia.

The statement also referenced the case of Oleg Sentsov, a vocal opponent of Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, who was sentenced in 2015 to 20 years for conspiracy to commit terror acts. He denies the charges and has been on a hunger strike since mid-May.

The group said the police uniforms symbolized how Russian police's actions fall short of their "heavenly" depiction in literature and called for reforms. It wasn't clear if they used the uniforms as a ruse to enter Luzhniki Stadium amid tight security, and the group couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

[JDC]

13. Me either. I was watching and I just thought: Idiots

A banner saying Down With Fascists would have had far more meaning to me.

[Snellius]

15. They immediately released a statement on Twitter. To be heard you have to make listen.

Last edited Sun Jul 15, 2018, 07:17 PM - Edit history (1)

They knew it was impossible to yell their message, to get on that field carrying signs or banners, whatever. They had to be in disguise. Unexpected. Keep in mind, this is a subversive act of protest in the middle of Putin's repressive state in the middle of one of the most watched and guarded events in the world. How do you get the world's attention facing those odds? It was an agitprop masterstroke. Only then would anyone listen. They made their cause and demands clear. And they made it loud.

[MountCleaners]

22. Thank you!

I can't believe how conservative some critics of Pussy Riot are being here.

It's like they can't be bothered to learn about Russia or Pussy Riot.

Amnesty International adopted their case.

I thought this was a site for people with a social conscience.

[mcar]

16. That's what it looked like to me too

Just a dumb drunken stunt. No message was delivered except, "really?"

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. They're not the swiftest. They thought publicly fornicating

in a cathedral was the essence of 'cool'.

Anyway, they are 'tools' of the western propagandists, whose degenerate, 'deep state' paymasters want to resume their plundering of Russia's natural resources, which Putin 'knocked on the head', to their immense 'chagrin' and anger.

[MountCleaners]

21. They didn't "fornicate" in a church

They were dancing, and were wearing short skirts.

Here is the text of their "prayer".

[Chorus]
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, banish Putin
Banish Putin, Banish Putin!

Congregations genuflect
Black robes brag, golden epaulettes
Freedom's phantom's gone to heaven
Gay Pride's chained and in detention

The head of the KGB, their chief saint
Leads protesters to prison under escort
Don't upset His Saintship, ladies
Stick to making love and babies

Crap, crap, this godliness crap!
Crap, crap, this holiness crap!

[Chorus]
Virgin Mary, Mother of God
Become a feminist, we pray thee
Become a feminist, we pray thee

Bless our festering bastard-boss
Let black cars parade the Cross
The Missionary's in class for cash
Meet him there, and pay his stash

Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin
Better believe in God, you vermin!
Fight for rights, forget the rite –

Join our protest, Holy Virgin

[Chorus]
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, banish Putin, banish Putin
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, we pray thee, banish him!

The rest of your post doesn't make sense. They are tools of no one, and paid the price for their
protest with imprisonment. It's easy to criticize when you don't live in Russia.

For further information, I recommend Masha Gessen's book on Pussy Riot and the documentary "Pussy Riot:
A Punk Prayer".

[LanternWaste]

25. I'd exaggerate as well... to the point of being wholly inaccurate in my allegations.

And then failing to support any of my allegation with evidence.

If we did provide evidence to support our premise, I'd imagine we'd both have much less to say, regardless of the amount of scare words we place in inverted commas.

[LiberalLovinLug]

27. You are getting two things mixed up

They were a part of a larger performance art group. You must learn about the context they were operating from. It was and still is more Russian-centric not America-centric.

Here is a great web page detailing their performances before pussy riot even was formed. Much of their work involved bringing up past Russian folk lore.

https://medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisky/scandal-insanity-art-language-f8f497e4678a
(Sorry, I have no idea why this full link doesn't work to click on. But if you copy and paste the whole line you'll get there)

Pussy Riot artists consider themselves disciples and heirs of Alexander Vvedensky, a Russian absurdist poet “purged” during Stalinist Great Terror in 1941.



And the piece where they 'fornicated' was in a museum, with a stuffed bear:

The art performance called “Fuck for the Heir Puppy Bear!” was staged the day before the election of Russian President — and Putin’s puppet — Medvedev in 2008. “Medvedev” means “a son of a bear.”


"A Punk Prayer" was their performance in an Orthadox church.
Putin had appointed his former KGB collegue as head of the church. And much like Republicans do here, Putin used the church to consolidate his support.


Both shock and laughter shake the observer from his or her comfort zone and suddenly reveal the absurdity of religious zeal with its kneeling, maniac bowing, and pagan throws of holy fools. The illusion of sacred ritual is broken. The comfort of habitual is exploded, revealing its mechanics devoid of magic.

Says Tolokonnikova: “We were looking for genuineness and simplicity and we found them in the holy foolishness of our punk performances. Passion, openness and naivety are superior to hypocrisy, cunning and a contrived decency that conceals crimes. The state’s leaders stand with saintly expressions in church but, in their deceit, their sins are far greater than ours.”

Taking the translation the “punk prayer” art-language a step further: The prayer is performed at the alter, banned for women in Russian Orthodox Church. The staging is meant to draw attention to the role of women in Putin’s Russia.

[LanternWaste]

24. What leads you to allege no one got the point?

[Ferrets are Cool]

29. Well, like I stated...

if you knew IMMEDIATELY when they ran out onto the pitch what it was they were protesting, you are smarter than me.
Which, of course, many, many people are.

And, just so no one misinterprets, I never criticized Pussy Riot. I am in favor of anything they do as a means of protest. I would just like to know what that protest is about without having to have it explained. That may be asking too much.

[jmbar2]

11. Something about this doesn't sit right with me

I've heard interviews with members of the group, and it's not how they speak. One member speaks English very well - can translate well. They would be smart enough to have someone at least edit their English in a demonstration like this.

This post sounds like jibberish. Sounds like a bad translation from North Korea.

[oberliner]

17. Very brave of them

Normalizing Russia is not OK.

[Snellius]

19. Video of Pussy Riot being interrogated:

With English subs:
https://www.thesun.ie/video/world-cup-2018/detained-pussy-riot-protesters-who-invaded-the-pitch-at-the-world-cup-final-are-interrogated-by-furious-police-officers/

Interrogator: "Sometimes I wish it was 1937 again".

[Eugene]

20. World Cup: Pussy Riot protesters charged over pitch demonstration

Source: BBC

World Cup: Pussy Riot protesters charged over pitch demonstration

16 July 2018

Russian authorities have charged four members of the punk activist group Pussy Riot for disrupting the World Cup final by running onto the pitch.

They are accused of violating the rules for spectators at sporting events and of wearing police uniforms illegally.

The two offences carry maximum fines of 10,000 roubles (£121; $161) and 1,500 roubles, respectively.

Pussy Riot said it was a protest against human rights abuses in Russia. Stewards hauled the four off the pitch.

The incident interrupted the second half of the Croatia v France match for about 25 seconds. France went on to win 4-2.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44846446


One of the pitch invaders high-fived France's Mbappé

[Snellius]

28. "Sometimes I regret that it's not 1937" ...

... "the person off-camera says, alluding to the communist-era terror campaign instigated by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

[Sunlei]

23. Bravest of the Braves ,Pussy Riot are Heros!