Pussy Riot crashed the World Cup Final with a poetry-inspired pitch invasion
16 July 2018
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Katie Marie Davies
Russian activist group Pussy Riot have claimed responsibility for gatecrashing Sunday’s World Cup final, with a four-man pitch invasion inspired by one of Russia’s greatest modern artists.
Three women and one man dressed as police officers ran onto the pitch at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium during the match’s 52nd minute, forcing the referee to halt play while stewards wrestled the activists off the field. Croatian player Dejan Lovren was spotted trying to stop one protester on his own, while France’s Kylian Mbappe was snapped giving an activist a cheeky high-five.
Minutes after the invasion, Pussy Riot said on social media that they were behind the protest and called on the Kremlin to release inmates they described as “political prisoners”.
Writing on Facebook, the group said that the action was inspired by Russian writer and artist Dmitriy Prigov, and his poetic image of the mighty “Heavenly Policeman.” By dressing as Russia’s “Earthly Policeman” — who have no respect for the real rule of law — the group said they aimed to spotlight the wrongs of the Russian justice system.
“The heavenly policeman is the organizer of this World Cup’s beautiful carnival, [while] the earthly policeman is afraid of the celebration. The heavenly policeman carefully watches for obeying the game rules, the earthly policeman enters the game not caring about the rules,” they said.
“The FIFA World Cup has reminded us of the possibilities of the heavenly policeman in the Great Russia of the future, but the earthly policeman, entering the ruleless game, breaks our world apart.”
The group then listed its demands: “Let all political prisoners free; Not imprison for ‘likes’; stop illegal arrests on rallies; allow political competition in the country; and not fabricate criminal accusations and not keep people in jails for no reason.”
The four activists were detained overnight by police, but are yet to be charged.
