Pussy Riot Steal the Stage in the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour:Punk Prayer on Trial Online and in Court.

This article considers Pussy Riot Punk Prayer, a controversial performance by a feminist punk-rock collective, that took place in the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 2012, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of several of its members. The article explores the punk prayer, in turn, as an art performance and as a criminal and a religious offence. To this end it focuses on three public arenas for Pussy Riot’s performance, which also serve as sites for its interpretation: a Moscow court of law, an Orthodox Cathedral and the internet. In this context Pussy Riot’s performance is read as the collective’s vehicle for polemicising with the Russian Orthodox Church and as an act that not only profanes but also problematises the consecrated space of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour