REYKJAVIK, Iceland — For more than a decade, Pussy Riot — a feminist, anti-Putin art collective — has been staging brilliant, disruptive and often poetic political stunts. These “actions,” as the group calls them, have been part of its ongoing attempt to expose the absurdity and cruelty endemic in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Maria Alyokhina, member of Pussy Riot, on opening night of the exhibition “Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia” at Kling & Bang gallery on Nov. 24 in Reykjavik, Iceland. (Heida Helgadottir for The Washington Post)
For their efforts, Pussy Riot members have been subjected to government harassment, surveillance, beatings, detention, forced labor and now exile. They have also been championed by pop stars, including Madonna, and defended by human rights groups such as Amnesty International. They have been the subjects of documentaries, books and segments on “60 Minutes” and have graced the cover of Time magazine. All the while, as Pussy Riot’s fame has grown, its urgent warnings about Putin have come to seem increasingly prescient.
