Russian police detained a punk group on Red Square on Friday after they performed a protest song criticising Vladimir Putin next to Saint Basil's Cathedral, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Russian police detained a punk group on Red Square on Friday after they performed a protest song criticising Vladimir Putin next to Saint Basil's Cathedral, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Eight members of all-girl punk group Pussy Riot, wearing brightly coloured minidresses and balaclavas, climbed over railings onto a stone platform next to the cathedral to sing a song about Putin.
The song included the lyrics "Riot in Russia" and calls people to "Come out on the streets / Live on the streets."
The band members lit flares with coloured smoke as they shouted out the lyrics of the song, waving unplugged electric guitars.
Passers-by on Red Square grinned and took photographs using cell phones during the concert, although one woman asked puzzedly: "They're against someone, aren't they?"
Police drove up immediately, but stood by while the band performed the song before detaining all the members and taking them to a nearby police station.
Four members were later charged with non-criminal public order offences and disobeying police, carrying a maximum punishment of 15 days behind bars, one of the band members, who uses the nickname Garadzha Matveyeva, told AFP by telephone.
The band earlier in December gave a roof-top concert next to the police cell where protest leader and blogger Alexei Navalny was serving a short sentence and has also performed in the Moscow metro.