I woke up to a call from Vincent van Gogh today. He told me he wants the Just Stop Oil protesters who threw soup on his Sunflowers to be released immediately. I nodded and promised to do everything I could to ensure Phoebe and Anna would be freed soon. Our conversation continued. “What would life  Continue Reading »

When Nadya Tolokonnikova was 22, “the spirit of oprichnina” was already making its way through the capital of Russia. She formed Pussy Riot, a Riot grrrl-esque punk performance art group, in 2011, the year before Vladimir Putin’s administration sentenced her to two years in prison for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” a vindictive response to  Continue Reading »

It’s 2007, a warm, sunny spring day in Moscow. It’s my first rally, and I’m nervous. I’m 16, silly and shy, falling in love with courageous and loud people around me. I hear my quiet voice join others screaming, “Russia without Putin.” We lock our arms and together push the police out of the street.  Continue Reading »

“Despite the fact that I am in a cell, it is possible that I am much more free than all of you.” These were the defiant words of the 33-year-old Russian artist Aleksandra “Sasha” Skochilenko in the closing statement of her trial in St Petersburg last Thursday. Two hours later the judge sentenced her to  Continue Reading »

2011, September 30th – Pussy Riot was just willed into existence by myself and Kat during a lecture on punk feminism. We didn’t find any good examples of it in russia, so we created a fictitious band, Pussy Riot – “they are doing some very excellent work”. You can watch this lecture in Tasya and  Continue Reading »

Normal Russian Due Process or Absurdist Theatre? The court in Russia tried to arrest me (again) today. As usually happens, my phone buzzes and someone sends me a link to a telegram post or some article that some new development on my criminal case has come to pass. I’m writing this blog in case people  Continue Reading »

It’s the TED Radio Hour from NPR. I’m Manoush Zomorodi. And on today’s show, Loudmouths – stories of women taking a stand, pushing boundaries, and the moment when the systems they’re fighting against start to push back hard.

Mass protest movements changed the world’s attitude toward social justice.

As a founding member of the activist band Pussy Riot, I’ve fought for years against autocracy. My country has only slid deeper.

On the 21st of February, 2012, five members of the Russian protest art collective Pussy Riot burst into Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in balaclavas, shouting about rotten dictators and begging the Virgin Mary to incarcerate Vladimir Putin. Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria “Masha” Alyokhina were arrested first, followed by Yekaterina Samutsevich a few weeks  Continue Reading »

Hey hey, Mr. President, it’s Nadya Tolokonnikova. You might remember that two-year prison sentence you slapped me with back in 2012, when I performed a 40-second act of protest and beseeched the Virgin Mary to chase you away. I was 22 at the time, and my young daughter Gera had just turned 4. But right  Continue Reading »

We’ve put together the 13 terms you need to know to resist right now… and 10 days from now, and two weeks from now, and next month. 1. Oligarchy: A pathetic situation where a small portion, one percent, owns everything, and more than 99 percent of the population are getting just poorer. This is the current  Continue Reading »

I was born a few days before the fall of Berlin wall. They thought at that time that if we ever got over the socialism/capitalism contradiction, we’re going to live in peace. What we’ve seen in fact is the rise of inequality, empowerment of oligarchs here and there, threats to public education and health care,  Continue Reading »

If we measure the success of a politician by his or her ability to reflect the tendencies of their time, then Trump and Putin are triumphant. They both are managing to reflect the worst impulses of our world. Greedy, unethical, uncaring. If you ask me what I would like to say to President Putin, I’d  Continue Reading »

“We’re not offended when a husband beats his wife”, says senator Elena Mizulina (a woman!), whose role in Russian government is to express the most cannibalistic views of Russia’s so-called elite. She’s supporting severe restrictions on abortions, tax on divorce, condemning any gender and sex diversity. This moronic surrealism is fast turning into reality with  Continue Reading »

In case of political catastrophe: 1. Don’t panic. 2. Stay focused. Though don’t focus just on yourself. The question “How would I survive under a Trump presidency” is false at its core: Think about those who are the most vulnerable, who’s going to suffer from a Trump presidency the most. Find ways to help them. And then —  Continue Reading »

The year started with the news that Oleg Navalny was being sent to a penal colony for 3.5 years. On Dec. 30, thousands of people took part in a rally on Manege Square to protest the sentence. In November, performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky staged the most significant artistic stunt of the year by setting fire  Continue Reading »

In the early 1900s the suffragettes fought for the right to vote. In the 1960s tens of thousands of people united to fight for civil rights. More recently, the issue of LGBT equality has raged in Russia and beyond. In each of these instances it was not governments or the media who led the way.  Continue Reading »

He just conquered Crimea. He has proclaimed himself a unifier. But Vladimir Putin’s meddling in elections is another sign that his power is not as unconditional as he would have you believe