The queer feminist punk group says the video for БЕСИТ / RAGE was accused of breaking Russia’s gay propaganda law
It’s been eight years since all three members of Pussy Riot were sentenced to serve in a penal colony in Russia, charged with “premeditated hooliganism performed by an organised group of people motivated by religious hatred or hostility”. Since then, not much seems to have changed.
Yesterday, on Sunday, February 9, the band were shooting a music video when Russian police broke into the location of the shoot and shut it down. Aptly, the song the video was for, “БЕСИТ / RAGE”, is “dedicated to a pain that we – feminists and the queer people – feel being the enemies of the state,” according to the band. “A police baton on my ribs, I'm singing with blood today,” are some of the lyrics.
In Russia, spreading “gay propaganda” has been illegal since 2013, and is supposed to prevent children from being exposed to information about homosexuality while protecting Russia’s “family values”. In the years since, queer clubs have been raided, gay films attemptedly banned and trans people prevented from driving.
According to Pussy Riot’s spokespeople, they were accused of “gay propaganda”, “extremism”, and “making an illegal video” when the “БЕСИТ / RAGE” shoot was raided.
“We had a contract with the location and paid for everything,” they said in a statement, “it did not matter, because the police's task was to prevent a video shoot.”
They continued: “Russian political police commanded to the studio where we were shooting, Lenfilm, to cut off electricity in the whole building. When we rented an electric generator, the police who surrounded the building did not let us bring the generator in – to be sure we couldn't film. Later we were kicked out of the building – with no legal explanations. We lost $15k on video production.”
The video features 150 activists, mostly female and queer, including Nadya Tolokonnikova, Sasha Sofeev, and Lolja Nordic from Pussy Riot, as well as activist Nixel Pixel and drag queen Lorina Rey, who has recently taken part in Charli XCX's Moscow show.
Pussy Riot says they’re planning on finishing the video, in a stand for freedom of speech and expression in Russia. In the meantime, they’ve released the preview clip from the video above.