Pussy Riot members arrested after LGBT+ flag protest

Art collective raised pride flags to mark Putin’s 68th birthday

Russian police detained two leading members of the Pussy Riot art collective on Thursday.  

The news follows the radical group’s LGBT+ protest that saw them raising pride flags at five government buildings in “honour” of Vladimir Putin’s birthday on Wednesday. Maria Alyokhina was arrested just as she arrived to give an interview at a liberal TV station in Moscow. 

Footage of the arrest shows two officers manhandling Ms Alyokhina as she attempts to enter the first-floor editorial offices. She is then frogmarched to an unmarked grey van waiting outside.  

The detention of Veronika Nikushkina, another Pussy Riot member, was reported by her lawyer Sergei Telnov. She was taken to a police station in central Moscow, he said. 

Thursday’s arrests continue the Russian authorities’ tetchy response to the group’s birthday stunt. Late on Wednesday, criminal police detained Vasily Andrianov and Elizaveta Diderikh, two members of the wider collective, only to release them later on administrative charges. Law enforcement officers also arrived at the home of Ms Alyokhina’s parents.

In an interview with The Independent on Wednesday, Ms Alyokhina said the idea of hijacking Mr Putin’s birthday party with an LGBT+ message was a direct response to his insincerity on the issue. 

In July of this year, the Russian president claimed there was “no discrimination” in the country on the grounds of sexual orientation. In reality, the two decades of his rule have been accompanied by a gradual erosion of LGBT+ rights. 

In 2013, his authorities introduced a much-derided “gay propaganda” law, which coincided with an uptick in violence against LGBT+ people across the country. His project to change the constitution this year promoted a heteronormative vision of the family and outlawed same-sex marriage in principle. 

“We are against bans and discrimination,” Ms Alyokhina said. “You can’t win if you ban love.” 

In a series of demands shared on social media following the flag protest, Pussy Riot called for Mr Putin to end a “witch-hunt” on the LGBT+ community. 

They asked that he finally order an investigation into the arrests, torture and murders of hundreds of gay men in Chechnya; put a stop to the repression of activists; legalise same-sex partnerships; end the practice of taking children away from gay parents; and overturn all discriminatory legislation. The group also called on the president to mark 7 October, his birthday, a “day of LGBT+ visibility” nationwide.