The Russian feminist movement Pussy Riot staged a pitch invasion during the World Cup final between France and Croatia to demand the release of political prisoners and democratic political competition in Russia.
During the second half of the World Cup football final, played between France and Croatia on 15 July in Moscow, Russia, a pitch invasion took place. Four people, three women and one man, stormed the pitch dressed in police uniforms and ran towards the players before being stopped by security and arrested. The invasion was the work of Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist collective that has spent years organising protests and provocations with a political backdrop against the establishment and, in particular, the government of Vladimir Putin.
Claiming responsibility on social media, the group described it as an artistic performance entitled Policeman enters the game, staged on the occasion of the eleventh anniversary — falling that very Sunday — of the death of Russian poet Dmitriy Prigov. The group credits Prigov, a dissident who challenged the authority of the Soviet Union within his writings, with having created the image of an ethereal, celestial policeman — a bearer of the status of an independent nation within Russian culture — in contrast to the figure of the earthly policeman, belonging to the institutions.
"The celestial policeman gently touches a flower in a field and rejoices at the victories of the Russian football team; the earthly policeman is indifferent to Oleg Sentsov's hunger strike. The celestial policeman watches over the sleep of children; the earthly policeman persecutes political prisoners and imprisons people for likes and reposts." In the text of the message, the movement mentions Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian director sentenced to 20 years in prison in Russia in 2014 for opposing Russia's annexation of Crimea, who in June began a hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners.
In claiming the act, Pussy Riot explain that the World Cup was the right opportunity to highlight what the country's future could look like according to this vision, setting out a list of demands: that all political prisoners be freed; that people no longer be arrested for "likes"; that there be no more illegal arrests at demonstrations; that political competition be permitted; that criminal charges no longer be fabricated; that people no longer be detained without reason; and that the earthly policeman become the celestial policeman.
Pussy Riot are often remembered for having been thrust into the international spotlight following charges of violent and outrageous behaviour in February 2012, when they entered the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and performed at the church's altar a song whose chorus called for the downfall of the Russian president: "Madonna, rid us of Putin." After being convicted and imprisoned, they were released in what many described as a diplomatic move by the president ahead of the February 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, to avoid international debate over the protection of human rights in Russia.
