PUSSY RIOT LABELLED EXTREMIST ORGANIZATION IN RUSSIA

PUSSY RIOT LABELLED EXTREMIST ORGANIZATION IN RUSSIA RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF JUSTICE CLASSIFIES PUSSY RIOT AS AN EXTREMIST ORGANIZATION AND BANS ITS ACTIVITIES

The Ministry of Justice, in Moscow’s Tverskoy Court, officially classified the Art Collective Pussy Riot as an extremist organization on December 15, 2025.  Link to Tverskoy District Court of Moscow - https://mos-gorsud.ru/rs/tverskoj/news/tverskoj-rajonnyj-sud-goroda-moskvy-priznal-obedinenie-pank-gruppa-pussy-riot-ekstremistskoj-organizatsiej Link to Ministry Site - https://minjust.gov.ru/ru/documents/7822/ - to be updated still Link to Insider news article - https://theins.ru/news/287745   The judge who presided was Judge Maria Moskalenko, who has a history with Pussy Riot: in 2011, she imprisoned Ilya Yashin, Alexei Navalny and Peter Verzilov. From their cell, Yashin, Navalny and Verzilov held out a sign saying criticizing the judge - “JUDGE MOSKALENKO SERVES SATAN”  Photo Link + here (2011) / Info Link This follows a string of individual charges on members of the collective. Nadya Tolokonnikova was added to the wanted list and arrested in absentia in November 2023. Peter Verzilov was sentenced in absentia in April 2024. Five members, including Maria Alyokhina, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot and Alina Petrova were handed sentences in absentia in September 2025. The group’s founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, responded: “When I was tried for the punk prayer, facing seven years in a labor camp, I told the judge and prosecutors that I was still freer than they would ever be. Today, exiled from my own country, I still feel the same. I can say what I think about putin — that he is an aging sociopath spreading his venom around the world like cancer. In today’s Russia, telling the truth is extremism. So be it - we’re proud extremists, then. While russian trolls will flip on their VPNs and take to X and Meta to talk shit about Europe and the USA, they cannot even call a war a war. They cannot even tweet or use social media. And they certainly cannot call their president what he is, an aging and impotent loser. Clinging to some bygone dream while he runs his country to ashes, and exports his autocratic and murderous tendencies to the earth like a spreading cancer.  This court order is designed to erase the very existence of Pussy Riot from the minds of Russians. Owning a balaclava, having our song on your computer, or liking one of our posts could lead to prison time. Pussy Riot has effectively become “those who cannot be named” in Russia - and in countries that cooperate with Russia on extradition: Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, and many others. This court order is also meant to sow fear among our allies outside Russia. I’ve already lost many acquaintances who prefer to stay away from someone with putin’s target on her back. As a Russian saying goes, they shove their tongues up their asses — they stay silent out of fear. We wear masks because you cannot stamp out an idea. Putin may kill his opponents, but the world still does support truth, progress and justice over the delusional deeds of old decrepit men. The just people of this world stand with democracy, with the sovereignty of Ukraine, with freedom of expression and with a spirit of punk that is to stand up to the bad guy, even when he’s the one with more bombs.” Alexey Knedlyakovsky, Pussy Riot member from 2011: “It’s an important event. It’s not every day that an “organization” you remember from its infancy, and to which you devoted so much strength and time, is declared extremist. It can mean only one thing: I was extremely right to choose this path — the path of traditional human values: freedom, love, and equality.” Initially, the move to classify was published by Insider, on Nov 28 (link), putting the date of the court hearing on Dec 15, 2025. Previously, specific members, both Nadya Tolokonnikova and Peter Verzilov having been sentenced in absentia in 2023, as well as been labeled foreign agents, criminals, terrorists, or added to international wanted lists.But this is the first time the art protest group itself finds itself with the official designation. About Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova: Conceptual performance artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova is the creator of Pussy Riot, a global feminist art movement. She was sentenced in 2012 to 2 years' imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance Punk Prayer. Punk Prayer was named by The Guardian among the best art pieces of the 21st century.  Tolokonnikova's Putin’s Ashes art installation at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in January 2023 propelled her into a new criminal case and put on Russia’s most wanted criminal list. In 2024 her debut museum exhibition RAGE, opened at OK Linz, Linz, Austria, and the eponymous performance piece performed at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. In 2025, Tolokonnikova has solo shows at Honor Fraser gallery (Los Angeles), Nagel Draxler (Berlin), MOCA (Los Angeles), and most recently,POLICE STATE, a durational performance installation at MCA (Chicago).  Tolokonnikova's work is in the collections of The Brooklyn Museum, MOCA (Los Angeles), Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Art and Design, American Folk Art Museum, Taschen and Beth Rudin DeWoody, among others.  Born: Norilsk, Siberia Lives: Geographically anonymous Follow: https://pussyriot.love/ https://www.instagram.com/pussyriot/ x.com/pussyrrriot https://zona.media/ = Pussy Riot’s independent publication focused on Russian courts, law enforcement, and the prison system.