Pussy Riot invaded Trump Tower in New York yesterday in a protest that shut the building down for half an hour. The punk rock group hung a banner that read “Free Sentsov” inside the establishment, referring to Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov who is currently in a Russian prison.
Oleg Sentsov was imprisoned for terrorism charges and is serving a 20 year sentence. His lawyers and others who support him claim that the charges were bogus to silence the director, who was critical of Russia’s military actions in Crimea. Masha Alokhina, and two other unnamed members of the band were there in protest.
“We came to occupy Trump Tower to call attention to political prisoners. We believe that political prisoners and their protection are more important than the sexist bulls— that people have been focused on.”
Pussy Riot posted a statement to Facebook, calling to “raise attention” to political imprisonment. See the video of their protest below.
“We decided to do an action right now, while we are in New York, with activists here because we believe there are no borders to our solidarity.”