Trump Tower was taken over by feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot on Monday night, according to the Russian collective’s social media accounts.
Group member Masha Alekhina posted a video of the stunt on Pussy Riot’s official Facebook page, showing three women clad in signature balaclavas unfurling a white banner with “Free Sentsov” written on it in red paint from an upper floor of the Fifth Avenue tower’s lobby. The video also shows many photographs falling to the floor as the banner drops.
Security guards could be seen running up the stairs toward the women, but the NYPD had no record of a removal or an arrest at Trump Tower on Tuesday.
Pussy Riot, whose membership fluctuates but can include up to 11 people, is demanding that Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov and activist Oleksandr Kolchenko be freed from Russian imprisonment. The pair were arrested in Crimea in August 2015 after Russia annexed the territory the previous year. Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Kolochenko to 10, according to Pussy Riot.
“We came to occupy Trump Tower to call attention to political prisoners,” the group said in a Facebook post. “We are acting in solidarity against leaders like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, who has exercised authoritarian force and Trump, who is displaying authoritarian tendencies — because we all need to be fighting together on behalf of dissidents everywhere.”
The women, whose faces were covered in pink, green and blue balaclavas, cited a time when their fans covered their faces in a similar manner to protest their imprisonment in 2012. The group had performed a punk rock protest song titled “Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Putin Put!” at Moscow’s Cathedral Church of Christ the Savior, from which they were immediately thrown out. Three members were charged with “hooliganism” and imprisoned for two years, the BBC reported at the time.
It was unclear if the three women from the Moscow protest were the same three members who staged the Trump Tower protest on Monday.
In a typically controversial manner, they extended the following invitation in the Facebook post: “We, Pussy Riot, invite you to join our fabulous and bold path: Ask questions of your politicians who shake hands with Putin in international forums, support advocacy, go out into the streets.”
“Make America Great Again” and “Mother of God, Putin Put!” are some of their protest song titles targeting the Trump and Putin regimes.
Requests for comment regarding Monday’s protest were not immediately returned by Pussy Riot or the Secret Service.
