The Pussy Riot has released a music video for the song "Swan Lake" (with English subtitles). The performers of the song are the group members Maria Alekhina, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot, and Lusya Shteyn. The video features the artwork of Russian artist Alisa Gorshenina, and the video was directed by Anna Aristarkhova. The central theme of the work is Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" (according to the members, this ballet was "shown on TV in the USSR when the truth needed to be concealed").
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Pussy Riot's statement:
"In Russian schools, compulsory patriotism lessons called "Conversations About Important Things" have been introduced. At the beginning of the war, teachers made students line up in the shape of the letter "Z" to show support for the war. Across Russia, children are forced to write "kind letters" to the occupying soldiers. In Yekaterinburg, a fifth-grader named Timofey wrote in a letter that he wishes the soldiers to "come back home, not kill people on foreign soil, and not cause harm." His teacher condemned the child, and his classmates started mocking him for his "lack of patriotism." "Soldier, do not kill people," wrote the boy, and this inspired us to write a song.
Patriotic events are organized in schools to teach children about self-sacrifice for the good of the Motherland. This year, high school students were given new history textbooks. To pass exams and receive a diploma, they must study propaganda about the greatness of Russia, which is fighting against fascists in Ukraine. Children are protesting—sixth-grader Masha Moskaleva created an anti-war drawing against Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Her single father was sentenced to two years in prison for "discrediting the Russian army," and Masha was sent to an orphanage.
Since the invasion, the Russian army has already killed more than 500 children. Putin is a killer and a war criminal.
Russian state propaganda poisons people's hearts and minds with hatred. Putin's propagandists are no less war criminals than the soldiers who kill and rape Ukraine's civilian population or the generals who give those orders.
Russian authorities hold thousands of Ukrainian children hostage. Children are held in "sanatoriums" where they are taught to love Russia. If the children say they miss Ukraine or speak Ukrainian, they are beaten. Abducted children are often declared orphans and put up for adoption, even though most of them have parents in Ukraine who are trying to locate and bring them back. Children are the most vulnerable in this war.
We demand:
From the Russian government:
- Stop poisoning children with fascist propaganda.
- Immediately return all abducted Ukrainian children.
From the rest of the world:
- Impose sanctions against Russian propagandists and so-called artists who glorify fascism and perform with abducted Ukrainian children at the "Luzhniki" stadium.
We will not forgive you, and we will trample on your remains. The Ostankino Tower will burn beautifully!"
