Band who defied Putin to go Doune the Rabbit Hole

The notorious Russian group whose members were jailed for offending President Vladimir Putin are set to make an appearance at next year’s Doune The Rabbit Hole festival.

Three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich – were jailed for two years in 2012 on a charge of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.’ Their music explores gender identity, personal freedom, climate change, transgression and how activism can help shape the better world.

Five members of the protest group had performed a punk-prayer‘Virgin Mary, please get rid of Putin’inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 2012 amidst concern about increasing ties between church and state.

Condemned by the Orthodox Church as sacrilegious, they were arrested the following month – and spent more than four months in prison before trial, having been denied bail. The women had maintained that their protest was directed at the Orthodox Church leaders’support for Putin, whom they considered a dictator, during his election campaign.

The Patriarch had described the Russian president as‘a miracle from God’but following their church appearance the band called him‘a man who is as far as can be from God’s truth.’

Group members were also attacked with whips and pepper spray by Cossacks employed as security guards at the Sochi Winter Olympics of February 2014.

Following appeal Samutsevich was freed on probation and her sentence suspended, but the other two women’s sentences were upheld.

Pussy Riot will be part of a line-up which also includes Glasgow indie band Belle and Sebastian. Doune The Rabbit Hole takes place at Cardross Estate near Lake of Menteith over the weekend of Friday July 17 to Sunday July 19, 2020. For tickets and more information: http:// dounetherabbithole.co.uk/tickets.

Pictured above are Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (left) and Maria Alyokhina