15 June 2026

Photo by Max Avdeev

You can’t shut up the imperishable Russian collective of political and feminist activists PUSSY RIOT and their global fanbase. This year marks their 15th year of opposition against the Kremlin tyranny.

Last Month, the clamorous PRs showed up at the Venice Biennale, the so-called
“Olympics of the art world”, timed deliberately, to coincide with Russia‘s controversial
return to the event. The stunt made headlines globally.

Mastermind and driving force since day one is NADYA TOLOKONNIK, who spent two years, along with fellow pussy riotiours Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina, in a
Russian jail for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after her protest performance
in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour church in 2012.

Thus far, they have expressed their fierce discontent through several mixtapes,
a series of barbed-wire singles, and countless live protests in their home country,
Ukraine, and the Western world.

And now their pungent debut album CYKA is out.

Tolokonnikova about the LP’s reactionary motivation, the ongoing war with Ukraine:
“Me and my countrymen could have prevented it, we just had to fight harder for our dream
of a peaceful democratic Russia. I live in exile, like a rat. Everything I loved was taken from me; my entire country was stolen. My mother died of cancer in Moscow, and I couldn’t be there to say goodbye.

The father of my daughter nearly died after being poisoned with a nerve agent by the FSB. My friend Alexey Navalny was murdered in jail. And I no longer know whether I’ll ever be able to let people get close to me again – being torn away from everyone I loved cost too much. Vengeance is what forces my eyes open in the morning, and what keeps me going. “OUTRO” is dedicated to my mother and my love to her.‘

TUTV: Don’t expect a clamourous Bikini Kill noise. Only on smoking punk grenades
Faceless Pigs, Disobey, Candy Dopamine and Blizzard) they lash out with rage. Sonically,
CYKA is for the greater part a trip and hop, EBM-orientated record spiked with both, reflective and spiralling synth-orchestrated flare-ups.

Vocally, she alternates bouncy, whispering rap rants with poppy, near-helium-like
echoes. We have a unqiue party album here. One to dance when Putin is going down.

Lyrically Tolokonnikova unravels all her outrage and is on constant attack mode.
She will never quit attacking the Russian dictator (who appears on the title track).
She will never stop exposing his crimes. She’ll never back down. She’s a fearless
warrior. She’s a tenacious bitch. Hail hail.

Singles.

– DISOBEY –

– CANDY DOPAMINE –

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CYKA on Spotify – Instagram – Website