Russian band Pussy Riot issued a challenge to the country’s president, Vladimir Putin.
“All these old men ruining the world right now act tough, but we see [through] their fragile egos — and I’m not afraid to call them out,” the band stated in a Monday, June 1, press release, announcing debut album CYKA. “They are, in fact, p******. While the world is waiting for the UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 at the White House, I challenge President Putin to a cage match.”
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the UFC will host an exhibition tournament at the White House on June 14. Pussy Riot, led by musician Nadya Tolokonnikova, has long disapproved of Putin’s control over Russia and now wants to be added to the Freedom 2025 lineup.
“He thinks he’s so tough, but afraid of a girl? Let’s see. He loses? He gets the f*** out of Ukraine,” Tolokonnikova, 36, added in the band’s statement, referring to Russia’s ongoing invasion of the neighboring country of Ukraine. “The world can watch him lose to a girl, even with all his judo training. He can’t even URA anymore, but he throws the world into despair.”
Tolokonnikova continued, “Just like [Alexander] Brener in 1995 when they bombed Chechnya, and he challenged [Boris] Yeltsin, now they bomb Ukraine, and I challenge Putin. ‘Putin! Come here!’”
Tolokonnikova’s band is known as a protest collective, announcing CYKA during a protest at the Venice Biennale last month.
Vladimir Putin. VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
“We were always outcasts in the music industry, since we came from the art world, a group of performance artists starting a fake punk band,” Tolokonnikova told Artnet earlier this month. “I’m a workaholic, and don’t know how to rest, so the minute I was out of [Museum of Contemporary Art], I realized I miss producing. The eureka moment for me was that if a f***ing AI can produce a song at this point, I could too.”
Ahead of CYKA’s release, Pussy Riot debuted new single “Candy Dopamine” this week.
“This song is kind of a love and hate song to prescription and designer drug culture. It started with my dependence on antidepressants, but it’s also looking at everyone now mentalhealthmaxxing [sic] and looksmaxxing via pills and injections,” Tolokonnikova said in a Monday statement. “It’s not a judgment, it’s just an observation and my personal experience with these things is that I have to be in a long-term relationship with them for my PTSD and depression.”
The group even listed Putin, 73, as a collaborator of the record in the liner notes. Putin has not publicly responded to the band’s criticism and UFC challenge.
CYKA will be released Friday, June 12.
