Pussy Riot, also known as Пусси Райот, is a feminist protest punk band from Moscow, Russia. They are known for their feminist, pro LGBTQ+, and anti Putin politics.

The band was founded in 2011 and is made up of about 11 women. The group proforms protests that are filmed and used as music videos in public places wearing colourful tights, and dresses, as well as balaclavas. During interviews they tend to use nicknames for each other.

The group became well known in 2012 when five members did such a performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior and were stopped by church officials who deemed it sacrilegious. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and later Yekaterina Samutsevich, three of the five preformers, were arrested after the event and charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” each recieving two years. The entire ordeal gained attention and criticism in the west. Samutsevich was freed on probation and her sentence was suspended, and the other two served only 21 months before being granted amnesty.

A documentary on the group and the women’s trials was released in 2013 titled Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.