KREMLIN-bashing punk band Pussy Riot have been banned by Vladimir Putin’s regime – in another desperate attempt to crack down on free speech in Russia.
The feminist art collective was labelled an “extremist” organisation by Moscow in a petty bid to “erase” the group from Russian minds.
The spiteful ruling means that anyone in Russia who types the words “Pussy” followed by “Riot” into Google could be jailed by Putin’s yes-men.
The Russian tyrant has also outlawed all of the band’s activities – despite their members living in exile.
Members of Pussy Riot, who have openly slammed Putin’s war in Ukraine, were previously handed jail sentences in absentia of up to 13 years in September – after being convicted of “spreading lies” about Russia‘s army.
One of them, Taso Pletner, 28, was sentenced to 11 years after urinating on a portrait of dictator Putin.
The masterpiece was pulled off during a courageous performance in Germany.
The group were then also labelled “foreign agents” – charges which they rejected.
The new ruling puts Pussy Riot on the same level as Jehovah’s Witnesses and late opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s political group.
Putin’s cronies will now have a much easier time cracking down on Pussy Riot’s fans as well as those who have worked with the punk group in the past.
Founded in Moscow in 2011, Pussy Riot first made headlines after an anti-Kremlin performance of their song Punk Prayer inside the landmark Christ the Saviour Cathedral.
Wearing colourful balaclavas, they sang: “Holy mother of God, free us from Putin!”
Two of the founding members, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were jailed for two years for the Vlad-bashing stunt.
Tolokonnikova has branded the latest court decision a feeble attempt to “erase Pussy Riot from the minds of the Russian people”.
The rockstar told The Insider: “A balaclava under your pillow, our song on your computer or even a ‘like’ on our [social media] post can lead to prison time.
“Pussy Riot has essentially become the name that cannot be spoken in Russia.”
She added: “When we were on trial for our Punk Prayer, we told the judge and prosecutors that even though we were in a cage, we were still freer than them.
“A decade and a half later, that’s still true… If refusing to keep your mouth shut is extremism, then so be it, we’ll be extremists.”
The band’s lawyer blasted the new law as “another action that shuts up those who speak out of turn”.
Paranoid Putin has clamped down on political and social dissent following his ruthless war in Ukraine.
The Russian president has banned dozens of groups critical of him, and employed mass surveillance over social media.
A recent law in Russia punishes those who “knowingly search for or access extremist materials” online.
The offence carries a fine of up to £47.
Last week a 20-year-old man living in Sverdlovsk became the first person to be convicted under the new law.
He is understood to have searched for information about the Azov Brigade, a unit in the Ukrainian army.
