Russian feminist punk protesters Pussy Riot say police shut down their recent video shoot, calling it “gay propaganda.” The incident occurred February 9 at Lenfilm studio in Saint Petersburg.
Per a statement from the group, Pitchfork reports Pussy Riot were shooting a video for their song “БЕСИТ / RAGE” when police invaded the shoot, citing Russia’s gay propaganda law as their cause for interrupting and ultimately shutting down the shoot. While the law was codified in Russia in 2013 it was ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights in 2017.
Pussy Riot further say the police accused them of “extremism” and “making an illegal video.” However, the group says the police failed to provide legal justification for their removal from the studio. The below video, released by Pussy Riot, chronicles some of their interaction with the police, apparently notifying the band they are being “accused of gay propaganda” and “promoting hatred.”
Per the band, the music video was to feature “150 activists, mostly female or queer.” They say police ordered the studio to shut off power and barred the band from bringing in a generator. Lenfilm is claiming the police in the video are actors and that the power outage stemmed from an electrical problem. Per Instagram, the band responded, “Damn it, if the actor played this, he would have been given an Oscar.”
The band say they lost $15,000 in video production costs “because of the absurd ‘gay propaganda’ law,” and that they were only able to film 1/20 of the video. They asked for any monetary or exposure support, saying “we’ll be thankful if you share this info and/or be kind enough to help us to raise the money to make this video happen anyway.”
Pussy Riot has been creating protest music and advocating for a wide range of feminist and LGBT rights since their formation in 2011. In December they released a music video for “Hangerz,” featuring Vic Mensa and Junglepussy, which took aim at anti-abortion legislation.
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