Like their entire European tour, the performance of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot in Munich is all about solidarity with Ukraine. Front woman Maria “Mascha” Alyokhina emphasized this at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon: “This tour is first and foremost about the message that we stand behind Ukraine and secondly it’s about fighting indifference. And it’s international, no matter which one Pass you have.”
Alyokhina sets an example with a Russian ankle bracelet
Only at the end of April was the activist and musician Alyokhina able to escape from house arrest in Moscow and then from Russia. Disguised as a food deliverer, the 33-year-old activist fled from her guards. But it was not an escape in the true sense, but she wanted to come to Europe to be able to accompany the other Pussy Riot members on the already planned tour.
She wore the electronic ankle bracelet on Tuesday, for symbolic reasons, she said. She wanted to show what was happening in her home country.
“Art can change the world”
She can no longer remain silent on Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine: “Art is important. Art can change the world and paint a different picture of what is happening right now or of what will happen in the future. That’s why totalitarian states and authoritarian states are afraid of political art,” said Alyokhina at the press conference.
The band attracted worldwide attention in 2012 with a “punk church service” when three activists – including Alyokhina – stormed a Moscow church: masked with balaclavas, they had shouted their protest against Putin into the world from the sanctuary. Alekhina was imprisoned for two years.
New song against Putin, promoting energy embargo
But no reason for her to be silenced. Two weeks ago she and other Pussy Riot members wrote the latest song against the war and against Putin. He, too, will appear in the Munich Kammerspiele on Tuesday evening be presented to a sold-out house. Start is at 7.30 p.m.
Pussy Riot played a total of 19 shows on their tour. Part of the proceeds will go to a hospital in Kyiv. But the activists attach just as much importance to getting their message out there and getting people in Europe to rethink their thinking: “You have to understand that Europe is financing this war by buying oil and gas from Putin. Now it’s not too late to understand that. It’s not too late,” said Alekhina.
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