Pussy Riot frontwoman Nadya Tolokonnikova is writing a bi-weekly column for Vice.com, “The Pussy Riot Column,” that will chronicle the “various injustices occurring in present-day Russia that aren’t covered by state-run media,” according to a press release. “We hope that in this very difficult time for activism, art and media in Russia, when our government is trying to alienate the country from the rest if the world [sic], the collaboration between Pussy Riot and Vice will work towards moving Russia closer to the rest of the world,” Tolokonnikova said in a statement. “Besides that, the word ‘pussy’ will get to appear in Vice more often.”
Her first column, “I Was Arrested by Russian Cops for Sewing in the Street,” details a recent Russia Day incident where she and fellow activist Katya Nenasheva were detained (and later released) for stitching a Russian flag in the public Bolotnaya Square while wearing jail uniforms, as a gesture of protest and solidarity to the 600,000 Russians currently incarcerated. Tolokonnikova went on to use the arrest to point out the Russian government’s arbitrary legislation (“Laws are passed quickly here, before you can say ‘blueberry pie.’”) and remember how she dealt with her own prison term after Pussy Riot’s Moscow church performance.