Law enforcement authorities conducted searches at the residences of several relatives of exiled Pussy Riot members as part of an ongoing criminal probe into the alleged dissemination of “war fakes,” the protest group reported on Thursday.
Last year, Russia’s Interior Ministry issued international arrest warrants for Pussy Riot activists Maria Alyokhina, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot, Alina Petrova, and Taso Pletner. In January, a Moscow court ordered that all five women be placed in pre-trial detention in absentia on charges of disseminating “false information” regarding the military.
Borisova recounted to The Moscow Times that police “stormed” her parents’ apartment in St. Petersburg at around 5 a.m. local time, searching through their personal electronic devices. She mentioned that the search lasted roughly four hours but was unaware of any additional details.
According to reports, an investigator informed Alyokhina’s mother that the search was connected to her daughter’s anti-war music video. Police also raided the home of Alyokhina’s father, who, according to the exiled news outlet Mediazona, is seriously ill and unable to walk.
Reports indicate that some officers were seen using sledgehammers during the search at a relative’s home of Pletner in St. Petersburg. In Yaroslavl, an investigator told Petrova’s mother that her daughter had “danced naked in a church,” referring to the group’s 2012 protest in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.
Mediazona also stated that at least one relative of a Pussy Riot member has been summoned by the police for questioning as a witness.
Under Russia’s wartime censorship regulations, the dissemination of “false information” about the armed forces carries a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison.