Russian Protesters Detained At World Cup Final, Say Activists

The activists were stopped by security before they could enter the pitch. (File)

Members of Russia’s Pussy Riot band were detained on Sunday after trying to enter the pitch at the World Cup final in Qatar to protest the war in Ukraine, the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the oppression of women in Iran, activists said.

According to the Cinema for Peace Foundation, a Berlin-based charity that focuses on humanitarian and environmental issues, security detained member Nika Nikulshina, an associate of the protest group, Peter Verzilov, and a Ukrainian member of Pussy Riot.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

The activists were stopped by security forces before they could invade the pitch, Cinema for Peace said in a statement.

Jaka Bizilj, founder of the Cinema for Peace Foundation, told Reuters that Verzilov told him that he was pulled back by security forces seconds before entering the pitch.

“When I texted with Peter he was in police detention,” Bizilj said.

Verzilov, one of Russia’s best known human rights activists and the publisher of independent media outlet Mediazona, has been placed by Moscow on its wanted list.

Navalny, the most prominent domestic critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a strong opponent of the war in Ukraine, is serving prison terms totalling 11-1/2 years for fraud, contempt of court and parole violations, all of which he rejects as trumped-up charges.

Iran’s clerical rulers have faced the biggest protests in years since September when 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police who enforce strict dress codes.

The 2018 World Cup final in Moscow was briefly interrupted when Pussy Riot activists, including Verzilov, burst onto the pitch to draw attention to human rights abuses in Russia before being hauled off by stewards.

Cinema for Peace evacuated Verzilov after the 2018 World Cup in Moscow for treatment for alleged poisoning. The foundation also brought Navalny in 2020 from Russia to Berlin for life-saving treatment after his poisoning.

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