Pussy Riot Prep for Moscow Protests With ‘Witches’ Video
On December 30th at 7 p.m. local time, the members of Pussy Riot will head to Moscow’s Manezhka Square to lead a nighttime protest demanding an “an end to Vladimir Putin’s regime, which is one of the real evils of the world today,” the controversial punk outfit said in a statement. To prepare for the rally, the group has released their minute-long video for “Witches of Pussy Riot Clean Manezhka,” a short, abrasive burst revolving around the message “Clean. Fair. Word. Deed.”
“Kremlin propaganda and Putin himself has long portrayed everyone who is dissatisfied with the way things are going on the country and wants political change as devils and witches,” the band said. “Members of Pussy Riot are 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.”
The video, which finds the members of Pussy Riot dressed as witches and sweeping the Square with their broomsticks, arrives just days after Russia changed the sentencing date of opposition leaders Alexei and Oleg Navalny. “The four words heard in the musical piece: Clean, Honest, Word and Deed are implying that Russians are ready to start cleaning up their country, putting an end to mass arrests, fighting for their political rights and putting the real meaning back in the words that matter,” the group writes.
The video is the band’s first since they caused an uproar and got whipped by police at the Sochi Winter Olympics in “Putin Will Teach You How to Love the Motherland.”