MOSCOW, July 25 (RAPSI) – A judge of a Moscow magistrate court has fined 1,500 rubles ($23.8) each of three activists of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot involved in a pitch invasion during FIFA World Cup 2018 final match for unlawfully wearing police uniform, RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom.
Olga Pakhtusova, Olga Karacheva and Veronika Nikulshina were found guilty of committing an administrative offence, as Russian laws prohibit wearing of uniforms and insignia of police, paramilitary units and supervisory bodies.
The decision was taken on the same day another member of the group, Petr Verzilov, was found guilty of the same offence and fined accordingly.
Earlier, the court found the defendants guilty of violating the rules of conduct for audience during sporting events. They were placed under administrative detention for 15 days and were also prohibited from attending sports events for 3 years.
On July 15, on the 52th minute of the match, four people broke through to the football field. Later, Pussy Riot group announced on its Facebook page that its members organized a public action called “Militiaman enters the game”.
The feminist punk group Pussy Riot became known in February 2012, when five young women wearing brightly colored balaclavas staged a punk rock prayer in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. An edited video of their performance was posted on the Internet and caused a public outcry.
In August 2012, the Khamovnichesky District Court in Moscow sentenced Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to two years for hooliganism. In October 2012, the Moscow City Court changed Samutsevich's verdict to a suspended sentence and released her immediately based on her new attorneys' argument that she had been seized by security guards prior to reaching the altar. In December 2013, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were pardoned under the amnesty dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution.