Why You Need To Hear Pussy Riot’s New Song ‘Election’

On the day of Russia’s presidential election which unsurprisingly saw Vladamir Putin re-elected to serve another term, Pussy Riotshared a new song called Elections.

The Russian feminist punk group, if you’re not already familiar with them, have long proactively opposed Putin and the regime he imposes. Almost six years ago the world watched as the collective performed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Expel Putin at the most prominent cathedral in Russia, mere days before that year’s election was won (by Putin). Yesterday, on the night of another election and another sure-thing win for the reigning president, Pussy Riot released more music.

‘It’s the election day in Russia (guess who’ll win)’, they wrote alongside their video posts on Facebook and Twitter. 'And here is Pussy Riot’s new song & video – E L E C T I O N S’

WATCH: Pussy Riot - Elections

‘What 18 years of Putin’s power has brought to us? Arrests, poisonings, tortures, murders of political activists.’ Pussy Riot wrote in the music video’s accompanying statement over on YouTube. ‘Institutional corruption which is HUGE. Total erosion of democratic institutions. Giant economic inequality. Worsening of prison conditions. Environmental catastrophe in lots of industrial regions of Russia. Censorship everywhere - in media, in education, in internet, in people’s heads. Self-censorship, caused by fear.’

They note that the images used within the video are the work of Oleg Navalny, brother of the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny who was banned from the electoral race back in December. They were both deemed to be unfairly convicted of financial crimes by the European Court of Human Rights, but were each given three-and-a-half-year prison sentences – Alexey’s sentence has been suspended and Oleg is currently serving his.

‘You should not be deceived, this event on 18th of March is not elections', Pussy Riot added. 'Falsifications, eliminations of political opponents, Kremlin-controlled media leave no chance to anybody except Putin’. There wasn't a chance for anyone else, no. Putin was re-elected in a landslide victory after winning 76.7 percent of the vote,despite numerous reports of alleged ballot stuffing.

So commences another six years of Putin in power. Six years which Pussy Riot's latest release promises will be filled with continued protest. '6 years we gonna fight, 6 years we not gonna obey', reads the translation of the *Elections *lyrics. '6 years i gonna start a gang. 6 years we’re not gonna eat slop scrap'.

'6 years we’re gonna fight fight we’re not gonna obey during this term 6 years i gonna start a gang cops you’d better eat your slops food by yourself'.

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.