During a week that saw Russia’s protest group Pussy Riot arrested under questionable circumstances for seemingly unfounded charges, the band recorded and have now released a video for their much publicized track, ‘Putin Will Teach You To Love The Motherland’.
Following the high-profile arrest and incarceration of Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina in March 2012, the band have continued to push their view on Russia’s controversial human rights legislation by various means, including open letters from penal colonies. Despite reports that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina had left the band to take the agenda stateside, both band members were arrested earlier this week following a widely condemned attack on the protesters.
In a recent press conference which, according to Billboard, took place on the street following reported plumbing problems at the original venue, Pussy Riot revealed their video for ‘Putin Will Teach you To Love The Motherland’. The video shows footage of the recent whipping attack, alongside the band performing around Sochi.
Billboard continues to report that Mark Adams, the spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee – who have found themselves under attack following their reluctance to acknowledge the poor human rights situation in Russia – stated that the Krasnodar region governor has apologised for the attack.
In addition, Adams notes that he personally “found the pictures and the video very unsettling, but that “it’s a shame if the Olympics is used as a political platform”.
Both the video, and the lyrics (in English) can be found below:
50 billion and a gay-driven rainbow,
Rodnina and Kabaeva will pass you those flames
In prison they will teach you how to obey
Salut to all bosses, hail, duce!
Putin will teach you how to love the motherland
Sochi is blocked – Olympic surveillance
Special forces, weapons, crowds of cops
FSB is an argument, the police is an argumentState tv will run your applause.
Putin will teach you how to love the motherland
Spring to Russia comes suddenly
Hello to the messiah as a shot from Avrora
The prosecutor will put you down
Give him some reaction and not those pretty eyes
A cage for the protests, vodka, matrioshka
Prison for May 6, more vodka and caviar
The Constitution is lynched, Vitishko’s in prison
Stability, the prison meal, the fence and the watchtower
For TV Rain they’ve shut down the airwaves
They took gay pride down the washroom
A two-ass toilet – a priority
Sentence to Russia, medium security, 6 years
Putin will teach you how to love the motherland
The motherland
The motherland
The motherland