Pussy Riot pitch invasion

[speakingwoman]

So, whilst our idea of protest is an anti Trump carnival in London, this group invades the World Cup final knowing that prison and worse awaits, no doubt.

They can spoil my football enjoyment anytime. Truth is inconvenient.

Sorry AssassinatedBeauty I did note above that you explained it wasn't Pussy Riot who put on that event. I was including it because it was something I read about in an interview with one of the Pussy Riot members.

As for the football protest, it didn't come across as anything of note to me. As I said further up, I was listening to the match on the radio and they mentioned a pitch invasion followed a few minutes later by saying "apparently it was Pussy Riot". That was it and then back to the game. I don't know what they showed on TV.

I think that some people might have wondered what these women were protesting about and been curious. The name's quite distinctive and it's easy enough to find out more online. Even if you just find out more about women's rights and Russia, rather than Pussy Riot as an organisation.

I agree with Procrastinator:

Putin has been using the world cup to "enhance" his reputation. Everyone else seems to have forgotten the human rights violations carried out by Putin and his government. What better than the final in the gaze of the world to remind everyone.

I can't believe so many people are calling Pussy Riot's protest "selfish". Protests generally have to.stick out to make an impact. That's why Pussy Riot invaded the pitch, and why the Get the L Out protesters went to the head of the parade.

The World Cup should never have taken place in Russia, with its relentless drug cheating in other sports and abysmal human rights record.

Perhaps the people who are really selfish are the spectators who happily went to Russia knowing what they know about Putin's regime, and all those who profited from the World Cup being played there?

LaSquirrel - Not sure that Pussy Riot are under the control of a man, you might be thinking of that, supposedly, radical feminist group Femen.

Those acts tend to turn people off whatever message the protesters were trying to convey which seems to render the whole thing pointless. well that's basically a description of the public perception of the pride protest isn't it? The message didn't get across and the media coverage was almost universally hostile.

But coming back to Pussy Riot in particular, I get that church stuff may be beyond desecration in that sense, or football matches, but I don't agree that this should make them places where protest should not happen.

Different places and events are dear to the heart s of different tribes, for want of a better word, and to get their attention you disrupt the things they pay attention to, like football, churches and parades.

To a lot of people Pride is a once a year event of enormous importance which was spoilt for them in a big way by the protest this year - if you condemn Pusey Riot for protesting in a church then you ought also to condemn the pride protestors for protesting at pride. Which you don't seem to at all, even if only for that aspect.

So why single out pussy Riot? Is it the orgy thing again? Because that wasn't them.

Some of the spectators who went along did try and do their bit on theological awareness raising side of things, but it's severely risky.

I saw some pics of a group who spent the entire time walking round in a line to make a Pride rainbow out of their single coloured shirts. Nifty!

Didn't hear about anything of the women's rights side of things so much, but I did read that vastly more Russian women than usual attended matches because the presence of international spectators and cameras mean that it was safe for them to do so for once.

There is also speculation about how the influx of foreign visitors in vast numbers may permanently affect the provincial host cities in particular, where diversity like hat has literally never been seen.

the pride colours thing was cool.

What message were they trying to get across with the pitch invasion?

They released a statement of demands Lass:

[the "heavenly policeman" thing is a bit of a Russian thing but if you think about the old joke about heaven being a place where the policemen are British you get the idea].

Their demands are (badly translated from Russian)

"Set all political prisoners free.
Not imprison for "likes" on social media
Stop Illegal arrests at rallies.
Allow political competition in the country.
Not fabricate criminal accusations and not keep people in jails for no reason.
Turn the earthly policeman into the heavenly policeman.[this means have non-corrupt policemen who protect people instead of hurting them]"

And because they don't have these things, most forms of protest are closed to them.

Having high stunt/shock levels presumably gives some form of limited protection as it means that Western celebrities like Madonna know and care who they are and would ask which labour camp they are in.....

They are in and out of prison in a rather cat and mouse like way.

What message were they trying to get across with the pitch invasion?
God knows. They were a bit annoying. Mbappe gave one of them a high five.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Riot

No one in France or Croatia seems to be saying how hurt and upset they were by the protest

I expect Croatia might have more to say about the first French goal being an own goal of astonishingly bad about the second French goal being the result of a rather dubious penalty.

bad luck