Pussy Riot have claimed responsibility for the four pitch invaders who disrupted the World Cup final between France and Croatia in Moscow.
Just after Croatia goalkeeper saved Kylian Mbappe in the 51st minute, four people emerged from the other end of the field.
One made it to the centre circle.
They were quickly tackled by security, and the match resumed after a delay of about one minute.
The women of Pussy Riot, a Russian punk rock group, rose to global prominence with their daring outdoor performances critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2012 that sent two members to prison for nearly two years.
The punk band said in a statement posted on their Twitter feed that the disruption was a protest.
The four people, three women and one man, who charged on to the field in the 52nd minute simultaneously in what appeared to be old-fashioned police uniforms were tackled to the ground by stewards.
Croatia defender Dejan Lovren pushed a male protester, helping a steward to detain him.
“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 woman managed to reach the centre of the field and share a double high-five with France forward Kylian Mbappe, who had a shot saved a minute earlier.
“Hello everyone from the Luzhniki field, it’s great here,” the group said on Twitter, and released a statement calling for the freeing of political prisoners, an end to “illegal arrests” of protesters and to “allow political competition” in Russia.
Their 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 terror acts.
He denies the charges and has been on a hunger strike since mid-May.
US President Donald Trump, heading to Finland for talks with Vladimir Putin, tweeted his congratulations to Putin and Russia for putting on a “truly great” World Cup.
Putin was watching the game alongside his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
The protest was briefly shown on international TV broadcasts, even though Fifa policy is usually to cut away from field invasions.
The group said the police uniforms symbolised 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 Luzhniki Stadium amid tight security.
“The citizens in question were taken to the local police station,” the Moscow branch of the Russian Interior Ministry said, without providing further details.
France won the match 4-2.
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.
Under barking queries from a man off camera, Verzilov says: “I am for Russia, just like you – if you are for Russia.”
“I sometimes wish it was 1937,” the man off screen says, referring to the year in which Stalinist purges were at their height.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel