After the sudden change of the sentencing date of one of the leaders of Russia’s opposition Alexei Navalny, and his brother Oleg, members of the band Pussy Riot have decided to prepare and clean up the Manezhka square in downtown Moscow, where this evening’s protest rally will take place.
Pussy Riot – “Witches of Pussy Riot clean Manezhka”
Kremlin propaganda and Putin himself have long portrayed those dissatisfied with the way things are going and in favor of political change as ‘devils’ or ‘witches’. During Pussy Riot’s own trial in 2012, a massive campaign unfolded showing the women as a dangerous, foreign, and evil threat to Russia. Just this year, Russia’s economy has been crumbling, the country started in an undeclared war in Eastern Ukraine and was subsequently boycotted internationally both in the financial and political sectors. With all this still hanging over the country’s head, Pussy Riot wants Russians to make their choice and decide who has been the real evil.
The band is taking their image to the heart of Moscow to prepare the square for thousands and thousands of Russians who are ready to take their city back and demand an end to Putin’s regime.
The 4 words heard in the musical piece: Clean, Honest, Word and Deed are implying that Russians are ready to start cleaning up their country, to put an end to mass arrests, to start flighting for their political rights and put the real meaning back in the words that matter.
