The activists were detained by security before they could enter the field. (File, Archive)
Members of the Russian band Pussy Riot were detained on Sunday after trying to enter the World Cup final pitch 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, detained security member Nika Nikulshina, an associate of the protest group, Peter Verzilov, and a Ukrainian member of Pussy Riot.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports.
The activists were detained by security forces before they could invade the camp, Cinema for Peace said in a statement.
Jaka Bizilj, founder of the Cinema for Peace Foundation, told Reuters that Verzilov told him that security forces pulled him back seconds before he entered the field.
“When I texted Peter, he was being held by the police,” Bizilj said.
Verzilov, one of Russia’s best-known human rights activists and editor of the independent media outlet Mediazona, has been placed on Moscow’s 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 totaling 11 1/2 years for fraud, contempt of court and probation violations, all of which he reject as false. -up charges.
Iran’s clerical rulers have faced their biggest protests in years since September, when a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, died in the custody of morality police who enforce strict dress codes.
The 2018 World Cup final in Moscow was briefly interrupted when Pussy Riot activists, including Verzilov, stormed the field to draw attention to human rights abuses in Russia before they were led away by delegates.
Cinema for Peace evacuated Verzilov after the 2018 World Cup in Moscow to receive treatment for suspected poisoning. The foundation also brought Navalny in 2020 from Russia to Berlin for life-saving treatment after his poisoning.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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