‘Six years we’re gonna fight, six years we’re not gonna obey’
This weekend saw the announcement of another totally democratic and not at all rigged presidential victory for Vladimir Putin. Pussy Riot’s new track “Elections” is a direct response to the phony campaign: the lyrics are mostly in Russian, but refer to the next six years of resistance under Putin’s despotic reign.
“Six years we’re gonna fight, we’re not gonna obey during this term,” are lyrics spat defiantly over the scuzzy industrial track, produced by CHAIKA.
The hazy music video makes visual reference to Russia’s hulking prison system and includes paintings by political prisoner Oleg Navalny, who is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for embezzlement charges that are widely considered fabricated.
Navalny is the brother of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s main political opponent who was denied the right to run against him.
A note issued by the Russian punk artists states:
“Arrests, poisonings, tortures, murders of political activists. Institutional corruption which is HUGE. Total erosion of democratic institutions. Giant economic inequality. Worsening of prison conditions. Environmental catastrophe in lots of industrial regions of Russia. Censorship everywhere – in media, in education, in internet, in people’s heads. Self-censorship, caused by fear. You should not be deceived, this event on 18th of March is not elections. Falsifications, eliminations of political opponents, Kremlin-controlled media leave no chance to anybody except Putin.”
“Elections” follows another recent musical offering from Pussy Riot, “Bad Apples” – a song that zones in on the poor gaps in healthcare, police violence, and the broken political system.
Pussy Riot members served two years in Russian prison following a conviction for hooliganism – the group performed a punk prayer in a Moscow cathedral and were detained. Ever since, they’ve made music that exposes the state’s failings. Some of their most major output includes “I Can’t Breathe”, dedicated to police brutality victim Eric Garner, “Chaika”, about Russia’s corrupt prosecutor general Yury Chaika, and Donald Trump-swiping “Make America Great Again”.
Recently, two members were detained and briefly went missing in Crimea. Last year, the group shut down Trump Tower in a demonstration for political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Olexandr Kolchenko.
Pussy Riot will be appearing at political rallies and events over the next few months in the U.S.