Episode 2.7: Art, Activism, and Putin: A Conversation with Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova

Interviewer: RAFAEL KHACHATURIAN. Conceptual artist and political activist NADYA TOLOKONNIKOVA is a founding member of the art collective Pussy Riot, which since 2011 has focused attention on feminism, LGBT rights and human rights violations at home and abroad. In August 2012, she was sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance by Pussy Riot in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. In her discussion with political theorist Rafael Khachaturian, she reflects on Russian politics, the promise of activism, and the origins and future of her art and music. Despite the entrenched economic and political power of elites in Russia and worldwide, she describes her reasons for feeling hopeful.