Feb 24, 2016
Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina of the Russian feminist punk-protest group Pussy Riot have come out in opposition to Donald Trump, and have compared him to Vladimir Putin. They join a growing list of artists, which includes Mark Foster of Foster the People and Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, to condemn Trump.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Nadya Tolokonnikova responded to Trump's comments about his friendship with Putin by saying, "I see similarities between Trump and Putin because they both like to provoke the audience... Artists and punks and musicians should provoke the audience, and politicians should serve the public interest. It's not their role to express their individuality, to do crazy gestures like Trump and Putin are doing."
She continued by saying, "I think it will be a disaster if Trump will win the election...I don't want to see two dangerous clowns as presidents of big countries."
In a separate interview with Huffington Post, Tolokonnikova's bandmate, Maria Alekhina commented about Donald Trump's candidacy saying, "Everybody [is] joking about Donald Trump now, but it's a very short way from joke to sad reality when you have a really crazy president speaking about breaking every moral and logic norm. So I hope that he will not be president. That's very simple."
Pussy Riot became famous in 2012 with a public "punk-protest" against Russian president Vladimir Putin, which resulted in three of the band members being arrested and jailed.
Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were among those arrested and spent over a year in jail.
Image: Forbes