Summary:
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A Moscow court designates Pussy Riot as an “extremist organization,” banning their activities in Russia.
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Pussy Riot responds defiantly, declaring themselves proud extremists in today’s Russia.
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The ruling creates legal risks for supporters and associates, expanding the definition of “extremism” in Russia.
A Moscow court has designated Pussy Riot, the anti-Kremlin feminist punk band and art collective, an “extremist organization,” effectively banning its activities inside Russia and widening the net for anyone who has supported, shared, funded, collaborated with, or even casually boosted the group’s work.
The ruling was made after a closed hearing, according to multiple reports, and was initiated at the request of Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office. In the Russia 2025 playbook, “extremism” is not just a label. It is a legal trapdoor, the kind that turns proximity into liability.
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And Pussy Riot, predictably, responded by in it’s own Pussy Riot way.
“In today’s Russia, telling the truth is extremism. So be it, we’re proud extremists, then,” founder Nadya Tolokonnikova said in a statement circulated after the decision.
Today Russian court designated Pussy Riot as an extremist organization.
And yet, we’re freer than those who try to silence us. We 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… pic.twitter.com/ymz3BbApTo
— 𝖕𝖚𝖘𝖘𝖞 𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖙💦 (@pussyrrriot) December 15, 2025
Calling a group “extremist” in Russia is not symbolic. It creates more legal room to go after supporters and associates, not just the members themselves. Human Rights Watch has described how Russian law can punish participation in or financing of organizations labeled “extremist,” with penalties that can reach years of prison time.
Tolokonnikova framed the ruling as an attempt to erase the collective from public life, warning that even small signals of fandom or solidarity could be risky inside Russia. That fear is not abstract. “Extremism” designations have been used on a widening set of targets, from opposition groups to religious communities and even broadly defined “movements,” creating a chilling effect where culture, identity, and politics blur into prosecutable behavior.
Prosecutors pointed to two of Pussy Riot’s most infamous actions as justification, reports said: the 2012 performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior (the “punk prayer” protest) and the 2018 World Cup pitch invasion in Moscow, when members dressed as police officers ran onto the field in front of President Vladimir Putin.
This ruling lands in a moment where Russia has increasingly treated public dissent as a contagion, especially since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Pussy Riot’s exiled members have been outspoken against the war, and several have faced harsh legal consequences in absentia.
There’s also a global knock-on effect: the “extremist” designation can complicate practical life outside Russia, including financial and institutional relationships, because banks and platforms tend to overcomply when legal risk enters the chat.
