Pussy Riot stage first concerts in Germany

The Russian punk band and artist collective Pussy Riot, infamous for criticizing the Russian government and president Vladimir Putin, will perform their first concerts in Germany Wednesday and Thursday at Frankfurt's Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.

Titled "Riot Days," the concert is based on band member Maria Alyokhina's eponymous book that describes her co-founding of Pussy Riot in 2011 with Nadya Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich. It follows the group's performances, arrest in 2012, and subsequent trial and detainment in a prison camp in Siberia.

Read more: Pussy Riot is not giving up on Russia

According to the concert organizer, "Riot Days" will be "a feminist punk manifesto, a powerful, anarchist plea for resistance against populism and nationalism anywhere in the world."

Like a prayer

In August 2012, Alyokhina was arrested along with Pussy Riot members Tolokonnikova and Samutsevich after performing an anti-Putin concert in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Read more: Putin, protest and pop

The court sentenced the artists to two years of imprisonment for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred."

While Samutsevich was released shortly after their conviction, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina remained incarcerated until the State Duma approved their amnesty in December 2013.

Unafraid of authorities

The band is not intimidated by state reprisals, however. Last August, Alyokhina and another Pussy Riot member, Olga Borisova, were temporarily arrested for participating in a demonstration calling for the release of Ukrainian director Oleg Senzov, who was arrested in 2014 in Crimea for allegedly "plotting terrorist acts."

In 2015, Tolokonnikova was arrested in a sit-down demo protesting prison conditions.

Pussy Riot was founded in March 2011 as a loose collective of 11 women that aimed to enact guerrilla performances in public places.

The collective is committed to feminism, LGBT rights and its ongoing opposition to Russian president Vladimir Putin.