Russia Declares Punk Band Pussy Riot 'Extremist' Organization As Crackdown On Critics Deepens
Two of its activists were jailed for staging a performance in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral against Putin's return to presidency in 2012, an action that brought them international attention.
Russia declared the punk band Pussy Riot an extremist organization on Monday, according to a lawyer for the group, as the Kremlin continues a deepening crackdown on critics of President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court granted an application by the Prosecutor General’s Office to ban the group as extremist in a closed court hearing, said Leonid Solovyov, the attorney. “We will appeal,” he said. “The state is gradually trying to suppress those who openly oppose its decisions.”
Members of the group, who have fled abroad, were given lengthy prison terms in absentia in September for criticism of Putin’s war in Ukraine under Russia’s “fake news” law. Two of its leading activists, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, spent nearly two years in prison for staging a performance in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in protest at Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012, an action that brought them international attention.
The latest judgment comes as the Kremlin intensifies a legal crackdown on Putin’s opponents including those it labels as “foreign agents.” More than 1,000 organizations and individuals risk jail for failing to comply with strict monitoring requirements under Russia’s “foreign agent” law and many have fled abroad in response.
Lawmakers will shortly begin reviewing proposals for tough new restrictions including on “foreign agents” and other opponents who’ve left the country, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said Monday on Telegram. They include suspending rights to own property, banning them from driving, freezing access to bank accounts and refusing to provide them with online access to state and municipal services, he said.
