Pussy Riot Mocked by Chicken-Costumed Putin Supporters in Moscow

MOSCOW – About a dozen young people, either chicken-costumed or waving a U.S. flag, met Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport as the feminist punk band’s members arrived from Sochi late on Feb. 20.

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They performed a song that mocked Pussy Riot’s recent anti-Putin track, “Putin Will Teach You How to Love Your Motherland” and tried to hand Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina frozen chickens in a reference to a scandalous performance by the art group Voina, with which Pussy Riot are believed to be affiliated.

The organizers of the performance, who referred to themselves as “civil activists” but were apparently pro-Putin youths, said that Pussy Riot’s activities are “aimed at instigating hatred between different groups of Russia’s population and creating a negative image of the country abroad,” the pro-government online newspaper Ridus reported.

The U.S. flags, according to the organizers, symbolized Pussy Riot’s adherence to Western values. The chicken costumes and frozen chickens were a reference to Voina’s performance “How to Snatch a Chicken” in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2010. During the performance, Voina’s activist Yelena Kostyleva unwrapped a frozen chicken in a supermarket, put it into her vagina and shoplifted it.

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When the Pussy Riot case was being considered by court in 2012, the “chicken” performance was often cited as an example of the band’s “immorality,” even though none of its known members played any role in that performance.

In Sochi, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were whipped by Cossacks while trying to perform in front of an Olympic venue. According to the most recent media reports, one man was fined by the police for attacking the musicians, while videos of the event clearly show at least several attackers.