Pussy Riot Strikes Again on the Biggest Stage

Pitch invaders are not something to be surprised about especially in Finals like when Real Madrid was leading 3-1 against Liverpool in the closing minutes of the 2018 Champion League Final.

Cristiano Ronaldo was close on goal with the Liverpool goalkeeper already committing fatal mistakes earlier but was interrupted by a pitch invader who was probably frustrated at Liverpool’s poor performance.

However, it is rare for a pitch invader to interrupt a game for political reason because it is usually emotionally driven, but this was not the case for the 2018 World Cup held in Russia.

France was leading 2-1 at halftime against Croatia and within the first 30 seconds of the second half, 4 members of Pussy Riot invaded the pitch while wearing police uniforms which gave them an increased prison time for impersonating police officers.

This is not the first time the protesters took centre stage when in 2012, three members were arrested for performing anti-Putin songs in a cathedral.

One of the pitch invaders was the husband of the jailed Pussy Riot member, Pyotr Verzilov who was grabbed by Croatia defender Dejan Lovren in frustration while France superstar Kylian Mbappe gave a high five to another pitch invader.

Pussy Riot is a protest group calling for free democratic elections and political freedom in Russia, and all political prisoners to be free.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained earlier this year which barred him from running for the presidency or registering a political party.

Apart from the political stunt in the final, the World Cup in Russia went reasonably well with not much incidents whereas before the tournament Western critics of Putin’s regime criticised the event being held in Russia.

Britain’s former Foreign Minster Boris Johnson comparing the World Cup to the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany which the Russian government found “offensive and unacceptable”.

Nonetheless, the World Cup went well and Vladimir Putin passed on the hosting responsibility to the Emir of Qatar.