There’s a track on the first full-length album from Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, CYKA, titled “Utopia” – featuring the singer-songwriter Salem Ilese, it’s a moment of relative hope among a tracklist of aggressive punk and apocalyptic hip hop. “It’s ironic. The song was written a few years ago,” Tolokonnikova tells Dazed. “I had some thoughts about utopia three or four years ago, but not any more. I don’t really have a lot of utopia left in me now.”

In fact now, she could spend hours listing all the things she feels pessimistic about, she adds. “Conservative assholes are taking over the entire world,” with evidence ranging from Donald Trump’s second term to the rise of the AfD in Germany. Technology is “breaking” politics. And most notably the Russian invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year, with little hope that things can change in the near future.

“All the peace negotiations are pure bullshit,” adds the activist and artist, who has been ‘geographically anonymous’ since being placed on a list of foreign agents by the Russian government (and its ‘most wanted’ list since 2023). “Putin is doubling down on trying to destroy Kyiv… and he’s using everything in his power, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, and Shahed drones, to destroy as much as he can and break the spirit of the Ukrainian people. Imagine going to sleep without knowing if you’re going to wake up. That’s the experience of everyone I know in Ukraine.”

The opening song from CYKA (which translates to “bitch” in Russian) arrived in a fog of pink smoke grenades this May, via a protest video filmed during the 2026 Venice Biennale. Pussy Riot were on-site to stage a demonstration against the inclusion of Russia in this year’s art competition, which was basically “a nightmare scenario” says Tolokonnikova. “Russia is whitewashing its crimes in Ukraine, while Europeans are opening their doors to Russian propaganda.” This included the presence of Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian journalist – or “propagandist” – and alleged goddaughter of Putin. “She was welcomed like nothing’s happening. The European Union says that it sanction Russia’s war machine and war criminals, but I have been meeting them on the streets of Venice.”

That said, many artists from other nations supported the masked protest. More than 100 artists have also threatened legal action against the Venice Biennale this month, over ignored requests to remove them from competition, seemingly due to the involvement of Russia and Israel.

“I don’t really have a lot of utopia left in me now” – Nadya Tolokonnikova

The resulting video from Pussy Riot’s protest, “DISOBEY”, was filmed by Taisiya Krugovykh and Vasily Bogatov, who shot many of Pussy Riot’s “OG” performances, this time alongside their 10-year-old daughter who navigated the crowds with a Go-Pro. Just don’t call it a music video. And don’t call Pussy Riot a punk band, either. “In the beginning, we were a bunch of performance artists who decided to call our interventions music videos, mocking the music industry,” she says. “But it became a bit old, because people associate that with something that brings money, something commercial. It’s quite the opposite of that. Everyone travels there on their own money.” There were also significant political risks involved, since many attendees were Russian or Ukrainian immigrants. “They’re in a difficult position, if they get caught by the police.”

CYKA does take the shape of an album, though, even if it’s difficult to pin down its genre and style. So why now? What does a full-length album enable Pussy Riot to do that a performance or a visual artwork wouldn’t? “Spend thousands of dollars on my expensive housewife’s hobby I can afford doing because I run [an] OnlyFans,” Tolokonnikova jokes, before getting more serious. “I needed some time off after making POLICE STATE” – a durational performance staged at LA’s MOCA in 2025, which was disrupted by the real National Guard amid ICE protests – “so I closed myself in my bedroom for two months, and wrote and produced the album.”

The record was completed with the help of the producer duo Gold Glove, also including features from the heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold and samples of Putin (although he isn’t getting any royalties). “The album is chaotic as fuck,” she adds. “But I love doing it. It prevents me from killing myself, because I am quite a depressed and pessimistic person. Making music is one of the tools that keeps me afloat. Another is my dog. Another is creating art.”

Beyond the subject of Russia, songs on CYKA draw directly from Tolokonnikova’s experiences with growing authoritarianism in the US, including “Faceless Pigs”, which was written in the direct aftermath of POLICE STATE and the ICE protests. “I participated in the protest because it’s very close to home,” she explains. “I had some friends being detained by ICE, and spending weeks in horrible conditions, for bullshit reasons.” Then, there’s “Gore”, which discusses Tolokonnikova and her family’s experiences with jailtime, with the American rapper B-Real hopping on the track with his own perspective on police violence.

Criticism of the Trump administration comes naturally for the Pussy Riot co-founder, having seen the ugly face of authoritarianism in the country of her birth. This doesn’t stop some online commentators pedalling the theory that the protest and performance art group, founded in 2011, is actually a CIA psy-op or is at least sympathetic to the US imperial project. But, Tolokonnikova says: “This is a classic Kremlin talking point: anyone who mounts a resistance against the Kremlin works for the CIA or State Department. Of course some punk girls could never come up with an idea, or powerful resistance message, on their own.” 

In some cases, she adds, associating with political figures she doesn’t necessarily agree with is simply necessary. “While my friends and colleagues get thrown in jail or even murdered, I’ll meet with anyone who may have the possibility of getting them out via diplomacy, prisoner swaps, or force. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t spent time in prison has any right to weigh in.”

If CYKA served as a kind of therapeutic project, could it also make a meaningful difference to the kinds of issues it discusses – war, political censorship, the police state, and unjust imprisonment? In other words, to what extent can art really change the political situation we’re living in? “It can move people and help create communities,” Tolokonnikova answers. “Obviously, it’s not as strong as tanks and bullets, but everyone has their own expertise. I don’t believe that by making music I’m changing the course of history, but maybe I’m changing the lives of a few dozen people. That’s perfectly acceptable for me.” And who knows? Maybe Putin will accept her invitation to a cage fight, and she can deliver some more literal hits.

CYKA is released on June 12.