Pussy Riot have been targetted by the Russian police once again.
A Pussy Riot music video shoot was shut down by Russian police on Sunday, according to a statement made by the band. Citing Russia’s “gay propaganda”, laws police ordered Lenflim – the studio where Pussy Riot were shooting the video for БЕСИТ / RAGE – to cut off power and forbade the group from bringing in a generator to finish filming. According to the statement, the Russian police accused the group of “extremism” and “making an illegal video.”
Pussy Riot shared a clip of the video alongside the statement, including footage that appears to show the police ordering shoot be closed. “150 activists, mostly female or queer, took part in the shoot” before it was shut down, the band claim. “We spent $15k on the video production today – and lost them all because of the absurd “gay propaganda” law”.
As Pitchfork report, Lenfilm has given a statement to Russian media claiming the police in the video are actors, however, the group have dismissed this saying, “Damn it, if the actor played this, he would have been given an Oscar [sic].” Russia’s “gay propaganda” laws were ruled to be illegal by the European Court of Human Rights in 2017, but are still widely enforced.
Read Pussy Riot’s statement and watch a clip of the БЕСИТ / RAGE video above.