25th February, 2015
Two members of Pussy Riot punk rock band who served jail time for a stunt slamming President Vladimir Putin have once again struck out at the Russian leader.
The forum for their latest swipe at the Kremlin strongman is season three of the critically acclaimed US television series The House of Cards, which premieres Friday on Netflix, they said in an interview published Wednesday.
In the third episode of the new series, Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova come face-to-face with a fictional Russian leader, Viktor Petrov, at a dinner party thrown by Kevin Spacey’s machiavellian anti-hero Frank Underwood.
The dinner turns into a disaster as the Russian punks, who play themselves along with fellow activist Pyotr Verzilov, launch into an angry tirade against Underwood’s guest.
“We stand up, Petya (Verzilov) bangs the table with his fist and says that we would like to propose a toast,” Tolokonnikova told the New Times, a Russian opposition magazine.
“And we drink to the Russian president who loves his friends so much that he has sold them half the country, the commander-in-chief who is not afraid of anyone except gays,” the 25-year-old said.
Underwood then watches the activists perform a song they wrote for the series, together with Le Tigre, a US feminist band.
Tolokonnikova said that the creator of the series, Beau Willimon, asked them to write a song “directed against this fictional ‘Putin.'”
“We thought such a move would be too blunt and we wrote for them an international English-language song Don’t Cry Genocide, which is devoted to the militarisation of society and to American drones in particular.”
In February 2012, several members of Pussy Riot stormed the altar of a Moscow church and attempted to sing what they called a “punk prayer” calling on the Virgin Mary to “drive Putin out.”
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were jailed for hooliganism and released in late 2013.
Tolokonnikova said that Petrov’s character had been modelled on Putin.
The Russian leader is played by Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen who bears a strong resemblance to the president.
For Tolokonnikova however, Mikkelsen was too tall. “And his face is too withered. This is an early Putin, before Botox.”
The activists said they felt the creators of the US hit drama had failed to grasp the true nature of former KGB agent Putin.
“I think they don’t quite understand what a member of the KGB is. In the film Petrov is more of a little tsar,” said Alyokhina, 26.
“He is too jolly for Putin, of course. Actually this is some sort of hybrid between Yeltsin and Putin.”