Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina have joined forces with Julian Assange to support the Courage Foundation, an international organisation that raises legal funds for whistleblowers like Edward Snowden leaking information in the public interest.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina met Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy – yes, he's still there – and agreed to sit on the advisory board of the foundation, of which the Wikileaks founder is a trustee. Slavoj Žižek and Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg are also members of the board.
You wouldn't necessarily expect members of a feminist punk protest group to team up with Julian Assange; after all, the Wikileaks founder is still wanted in Sweden on charges of sexual assault. But apparently they found that they had "more in common than we expected" (and presumably it didn't involve hiding in an embassy to escape extradition).
"We did not review this charge (of assault) that has been directed at him," Tolokonnikova said through a translator. "We do not think it is in relation to the things that he is doing right now."
Alyokhina added: "We also try to... see the direction of one’s intentions in the future, what he is trying to do and is doing right now."
The Courage Foundation recently led an international coalition of artists, designers and musicians including M.I.A. and Vivienne Westwood to urge support of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. The group currently manage Snowden's legal and public defence funds.
The women were in London to promote Zona Prava (Rights Zone), a prisoners' rights organisation, and Mediazona, their independent news service.
At an Amnesty International event earlier the week, they described the importance of having a truly independent media: "When people have no access to basic information they have no options and will keep choosing the only thing that is being shown to them: that is Vladimir Putin. It’s very simple logic."
