Four Pussy Riot activists were handed 15-day jail sentences in Moscow on June 23, along with four of their friends. Meanwhile, another Pussy Riot member, Veronika Nikulshina, was already serving time on similar misdemeanor charges. All of the detainees were jailed for allegedly disobeying police officers or for minor hooliganism. According to police reports, and some of the activists themselves, they were arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out a protest action on June 22 – Russia’s Day of Remembrance and Sorrow marking the anniversary of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. Meduza special correspondent Kristina Safonova looks into the sudden wave arrests targeting Pussy Riot activists and their friends, and finds holes in the official version of the story.
Meduza: Why Moscow police arrested 4 Pussy Riot activists in a single day
Russian police and National Guard (Rosgvardia) servicemen wearing face masks walk along Red Square in front of St. Basil's cathedral in central Moscow on June 18, 2021, amid the crisis linked with the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus.
