Statement from Pussy Riot member Diana Burkot who got sentenced in absentia today to 8 years for a music video - alongside with four other members, who received from 8 to 13 years in jail:

Today, a Russian court sentenced me to 8 years in a penal colony. Under the so-called “law on fakes about the army,” for the music video “Mama, Don’t Watch TV.”

It sounds like joke.

This video is our anti-war statement.

I am the author of the music, I perform the “slogans-chants,” I am acting in the video, and I also directed the editing.

Brittney Griner was transported to IK-2 Mordovia, the WORST penal colony in Russia.

- 16 hours work days
- prisoners sew uniforms for the Russian army and police & getting injured bc of the outdated equipment
- beatings x torture are common
- medical care practically not exist - when not working in sweatshops, prisoners are subjected to heavy physical labor like digging trenches, breaking up frozen coal or manually sawing giant logs
- if a prisoner refuses to work, they're sent to a solitary confinement, a freezing cold tiny cell