Protest group Pussy Riot, long a thorn in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s side, on Sunday claimed responsibility for four people who brought the FIFA World Cup final to a brief halt by running onto the pitch dressed in police uniforms as the Russian president and a global audience watched.
Stewards tackled the three women and one man who charged onto the pitch simultaneously in the 52nd minute of one of the world’s most viewed sporting events.
Croatia defender Dejan Lovren pushed the man, helping a steward to detain him, and suggested the incident put Croatia off their game. The team was 2-1 down when the protest happened and they eventually lost 4-2.
“I really was mad because we’d been playing at that moment in good shape,” he said. “We’d been playing good football and then some interruption came. I just lost my head and I grabbed the guy, and I wished I could throw him away from the stadium.”
Before being hauled away, one of the women reached the center of the pitch and shared a double high-five with France forward Kylian Mbappe.
“Hello everyone from the Luzhniki field, it’s great here,” the political punk performance group said on Twitter, before releasing a statement calling for the freeing of political prisoners, an end to “illegal arrests” of protesters and to “allow political competition” in Russia.
The four were charged with contravention of spectators’ rights and illegal wearing of law enforcement symbols, and could face penalties of up to 11,500 rubles (US$185) or 160 hours of community service, Interfax news agency reported.
Pussy Riot’s statement also referenced the case of Oleg Sentsov, a vocal opponent of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, who was sentenced in 2015 to 20 years for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.
He denies the charges and has been on a hunger strike since mid-May.
The group said the police uniforms symbolized how Russian police’s actions fall short of their “heavenly” depiction in literature and called for reforms.
It was not clear if they used the uniforms as a ruse to enter the stadium amid tight security and the group could not immediately be reached for comment.
“The citizens in question were taken to the local police station,” the Moscow branch of the Russian Ministry of the Interior said, without providing further details.
A video circulated on Russian social media after the match appeared to show two of the protesters, still in police uniforms, being harshly interrogated at a police station.
The Internet TV channel Dozhd identified one of them as Pyotr Verzilov, one of the group’s most prominent members.
Pussy Riot rose to global prominence after several balaclava-covered female members sang a raucous song denouncing Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral.
Two of them, including Verzilov’s wife, served nearly two years in prison for the protest.
The group posted a second statement later with three women, one wearing a pink balaclava, reading a statement acknowledging police had relaxed somewhat during the tournament, but calling for greater restrictions on their powers .
“The World Cup has shown very well how well Russian policemen can behave, but what will happen when it ends?” one of the unmasked women said in the video.
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