Russian punk band Pussy Riot used the holiday season to release a new song ten months later: “Mama Don’t Watch TV (Мама, не смотри телевизор)”. the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the issue, the group protests against the war, against the West’s commercial support for their homeland, as it keeps buying gas and oil, and demands it from the President Wladimir Putin be judged by an international court.
In a statement, the Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot and Taso Pletner, seen in the video, described Putin’s government as a “terrorist regime” and its officials, generals and spokespersons as “war criminals”. “. In this text, they explain that since the conflict began on February 24, military censorship has triumphed in Russia, banning calls for war and the publication of material about the invasion that has not previously been verified by the Kremlin. “Hell, we’re going to tell the truth! This is the music of our anger, outrage and disunity, a desperate and reproachful cry against Putin’s bloodthirsty puppets led by a cannibalistic monster,” they write.
The chorus is based on the phrase a jailed Russian soldier said to his mother: “Mom, there are no Nazis here, don’t watch TV.” After recalling how dissidents or opponents were eliminated by being sent to prison or poisoned, Pussy Riot calls for an embargo on Russian profits from the sale of gas and oil, a ban on the sale of arms and ammunition to that country, seizing bank accounts and properties of Russian officials and oligarchs in the West and increasing sanctions against them, in addition to an international trial of Putin and “everyone responsible for the Ukrainian genocide.” They urge their compatriots not to take part in the war or to listen to their propaganda. “Every action against the war is important,” he concludes.
Members of the Pussy Riot group targeted by Russian authorities while the 2014 Olympics were being held in Sochi, Russia, AP
One of the participants in the video, Maria Alyokhina, better known as Masha, is the leader of Pussy Riot. Last May he told the Spanish newspaper El País from Iceland: “They arrested me three days after the start of the war with Ukraine. I was in a labor camp again. When they released me, my friends had either left Russia or were in prison. Here everything is always so complicated and stupid. They took my passport. I am here thanks to the solidarity of other artists who helped me escape from Russia. We Pussy Riot exist because of this solidarity, with which we build something stronger than weapons.” Alekhina escaped from Moscow disguised as a food deliverer.
In August 2012, the Pussy Riot, wearing colored ski masks, stormed the Russian capital’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior to plead with Our Lady to rid the world of Putin. After that performance in 2012, she was sentenced to two years in prison for hooliganism, her longest sentence, and was released in December 2013. Alyokhina described her time in prison as a gulag, where she did forced labor “for 12 hours to date.” She was later arrested several times for her activism.
Maria Alyokhina, who fled Russia for Lithuania, poses for a photo taken by her friend at one of this punk group’s many actions against the war in Ukraine Emile Ducke – NYTNS
In that interview, he defined the Russian leader as follows: “Putin doesn’t scare me. It’s nobody. He’s just some guy who held the presidency in Russia and built a totalitarian state by pretending to be a new Stalin fighting the Nazis. It is not dangerous. The things you have are dangerous. nuclear bombs, missiles. But he’s nobody. He has done nothing but ruin the country. In 22 years he hasn’t built anything. And the rest of the world knows it. And if you spend enough time in Russia and see how it works from the inside, you realize that there is nothing more stupid. That’s why I’m not afraid of him. Nobody’s scared anymore, it’s ridiculous.” What’s scary is what’s happening in Ukraine, and that’s why the band got together outside of their country and started a tour. And in August, they released a new album, Matriarchy Now.
EL PAISMeet The Trust Project