The Russia that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina have walked into as free women isn’t all that different from the one that existed when they were sent to prison a year and a half ago. Those differences that do exist aren’t in substance but in scale, and those are quite pronounced. If there were any question as to whether this was still Putin’s country when Nadya and Masha were sentenced, there can be no misgiving today.
When footage of Pussy Riot’s guerrilla neo-riot grrrl performances first began to spread around the world, their entire aesthetic teemed with the liberation that seemed at hand. According to members the collective first formed on the very same day that Medvedev handed power back to Putin. They and the democracy movement that brought thousands onto the streets of Russia’s cities for several weeks were born on the same day. The aggressive, primitive sound was undeniably one of riot; the colors of the dresses and balaclavas bold and garish, dynamic shapes stampeding through staid symbols of unchecked power.
Radical arts writers and cultural activists are sometimes accused of exaggerating just how greatly power overextended may fear free artistic expression; there was no need exaggerate the way in which the Russian state cracked down on Pussy Riot after the events at Christ the Savior Cathedral. Nor was there any need to embellish the cozy relationship between Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church. Some may quibble or turn their nose up at how “crude” these songs and performances were, but in the end they did exactly what good art is supposed to do: they illuminated the corners of corruption that the establishment would rather remain shrouded.
Contrary to what Putin’s supporters were likely expecting, these illuminations didn’t end after Nadya, Masha and Katya went into prison. The world has had confirmed that Russia’s prisons are little different from the Stalinist gulags. The virulent anti-feminism that runs through Russian society has become much more common knowledge. While some of Pussy Riot’s more fair-weather establishment supporters have fallen away after the initial upsurge around their sentencing died down, their radical credentials have been burnished. Nadya’s correspondence with Slavoj Zizek is odd and disjointed but nonetheless fascinating; she ends up coming off as far more erudite and insightful than he. Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s documentary provided us with some background to the women’s political and artistic journeys, as well as a glimpse into Russia’s large actionist-inspired art scene such as Voina. Western modern art scenes have lost track of the gratification and possibility that exists in the disgust of bourgeois sensibility; Voina and Pussy Riot thrive off of it.
This isn’t to say that power can merely be embarrassed into relinquishing its grip. We would all love to believe that Masha and Nadya’s freedom will mean a return of the brash public performances. The deliberately nicknamed "Pussy Riot laws," ordinances which in practice make it a crime to show support for the group, make such a development unlikely. And of course any notion that a punk performance can literally drive Putin from power is way off base. It’s not just that Putin himself remains in power. Given the setbacks for the democracy movement (there are no longer tens of thousands pouring out on the streets), the continued marginalization of the Russian left and a steadily tightening grip on power, it’s difficult to picture a world stage where Pussy Riot continues to play as prominent a role as such.
In particular one worries of Nadya, Masha and Katya being used as political pawns in the maneuvers of global empire. So far they’ve been successful in dodging attempts at co-optation, but there can be little doubt that in relation to Russia the West sees the cause of sexual liberation — in which many of Pussy Riot’s members have participated — as a political football in their jockeying with Russia and Putin. To these same powers, Putin’s vicious anti-gay laws aren’t so much an opportunity for principle as they are for PR. Dave Zirin’s recent piece at TheNation.com rightfully pointed out that Obama’s choice of hockey player Caitlin Cahow and tennis great Billie Jean King (both out-of-the-closet members of the LGBTQ community) to lead the official delegation at the upcoming Sochi Olympics is worth celebrating, but is also a transparent power play against an imperial rival from an administration that has dragged its feet on meaningful pro-gay legislation every step of the way.
It’s the same logic that ultimately forced Putin’s hand to release Pussy Riot in the first place. Naturally there’s little genuine concern or sympathy in the decision to grant amnesty to Nadia and Masha along with the 30 Greenpeace activists locked up two months back. Bad press in the run-up to Sochi is the kind of thing a politician as shrewd as Putin can’t brook, and for obvious reasons; in fact it’s rather surprising he’s taken this much.
Nadya and Masha show no signs of being dragged into support of either Putin’s supposed beneficence or the West’s designs. Nadya’s words upon her release reveal her to be as defiant as ever:
[R]eleasing people just a few months before their term expires is a cosmetic measure… This is ridiculous. While Putin refuses to release those people who really needed it. It is a disgusting and cynical act.
She also is currently urging a boycott of the Sochi Games. The embarrassing interview with Ksenia Sobchak also reveals that Nadya and Masha have as little tolerance for the capriciousness of pop culture as they did when they went to jail.
Will it matter though? Putin’s regime allows even less leeway for dissent than it did before. Even if a wily gang of balaclava’d gender-fuckers could be seen out in public without being targeted by cops and regime loyalists alike, the likelihood they would be able to go through with any of their anarchic open-air gigs seems slim. I hope I’m wrong, and there are certainly those closer to the situation who can speak on it better than I, but the backlash against any urge toward liberation seems to be quite potent and orchestrated from the top.
Pussy Riot and similar artistic experiments of their nature — radical, confrontational — inevitably come up against a limit at one time or another, and that limit is roughly along the same parallel as how much on-the-ground power is being exerted by a movement with similar values. Nadya and Masha’s quizzical and frankly troubling comments that they would like to see ex-oil-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky run for president likely reflect what appear to be diminished horizons for radicals.
Russia isn’t the only place where this limit is being felt. More broadly, 2013 was a rough year for the uprisings that surged onto center stage in late 2010 and early 2011. And so it was for much of the music and art that was in turn inspired by them. Tunisia’s rap scene, which came to international prominence after the arrest of El General during the initial days of that country’s revolution, continues to face harassment from police and in some cases criminal charges. The fall of Ben Ali has over the past three years presented more challenges for the left to push things forward in the face of the troika government’s repression.
It would be wrong, however, to be impressionistic about all of this. While the news from most countries has been overwhelmingly grim this past year, the conditions of social and economic instability persist — perhaps more sharply than ever. Paul Mason’s recent column on the Guardian's website expresses well what this means:
The networked character of modern society makes country-specific unrest predictions pointless. There is, in reality, one political entity that matters. Right now it is more unequal than it’s ever been; its core economic model is destroyed; the consent of its citizens to be governed is eroded. It is the world.
Yet another reminder that the greatest world events share much in common with the best art. Both are unpredictable, chaotic and loud. And they have the ability to seize even the most cynical imaginations at a moment’s notice.