Pussy Riot Pushes for Sochi Olympics Boycott

As the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi get underway, members of the Russian female punk rock band Pussy Riot urged Americans at an Amnesty International concert in New York this week to tune out of Putin's Olympic spectacle. 

Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina spent 21 months in prison after being arrested for their 2012 performance at one of Moscow's orthodox cathedrals. The pair have been outspoken on Russia's human rights abuses.

Reason TV's Kennedy (now host of FBN's The Independents) sat down with James Panero, Managing Editor of New Criterion, to discuss how bands like Pussy Riot are using the punk rock ethos to fight against authoritarian regimes and advocate for change in their home countries. 

Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Original release date was October 10, 2012 and original writeup is below:

"In the case, recently, of Ai WeiWei and Pussy Riot…what differentiates this new form of political art? I realized that they have a punk aesthetic," says James Panero, Managing Editor of New Criterion, to Reason TV's Kennedy.

The protest art created by the Chinese artist and the all-female Russian perforamnce art collective bear the idioms of punk as well as it's defiant anti-authoritarian streak, according to Panero. He believes their art is "having a real effect" as the "conscience of reform" against the authoritarian governments under which they live.

About 4.33 minutes.

Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Camera by Jim Epstein and Fisher.