Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina, Lucy Stein and Taso Pletner were detained in Rubigen, Switzerland, while trying to paint an anti-war graphic on a road curb. The producer of the group, Alexander Cheparukhin, announced this to Mediazone.
“They took me away in handcuffs. The policeman said that they could be expelled from Switzerland,” Cheparukhin said. “I have photos, but Olya [Borisova, another member of the group] took a photo of my passports and warned me that if I publish these photos on social networks, I will be held responsible – policemen cannot be photographed here.”
“The police forced to remove the photo of the girls in handcuffs,” Borisova tweeted.
Cheparukhin added that the police refused to name the department where the detainees would be taken; a senior employee said he had heard about Pussy Riot's performances in Switzerland from the news.
Graffiti that Pussy Riot members tried to leave. Photo: Olga Borisova/Twitter
In April, Maria Alyokhina and Lyusya Shtein left Russia, having cut off the electronic bracelets of the Federal Penitentiary Service, which were supposed to be worn during the hearings on the “sanitary case”. As part of Pussy Riot, they are now playing concerts in European countries.