Pussy Riot Claim Responsibility For World Cup Pitch Invasions

Anyone watching the World Cup final yesterday couldn't help but notice a few things; that, in the inimitable words of The Guardian's Barney Ronay, Croatian midfielder Luka Modric is indistinguishable from a 'boy dressed as a witch'; that if ever you need a garishly dystopian closing ceremony featuring Will Smith and two other people that you will need to Google the names of, then get in touch with the Russian World Cup committee, and, that the pitch was invaded in the first half by a group of what appeared to be errant flight-attendants. Fears were quickly allayed that they were not in fact late entrants, from a hitherto unheard of nation comprised entirely of flight-attendants, into a reformed three-way World Cup final - it was in fact, a classic pitch invasion.

While running onto a pitch during a large sporting event is usually the preserve of the nude and the deeply deranged* - descriptors which are by no means mutually exclusive - responsibility for this invasion was quickly claimed by the famed Russian protest group Pussy Riot. They posted on their social media feeds during the invasion, alongside a curious piece of prose which both contained both the reasons for their actions as well as a curious sort of fable about a 'heavenly' and an 'earthly' policeman, presumably clarifying their costumes.

Despite the superficially positive press that this World Cup has brought to Russia, they were attempting to highlight that the image presented to the world of the country is little more than that, a veneer. There are very few opportunities where someone giving a double-high-five to teenage sensation Kylian Mbappé would also serve as an opportunity to highlight the systemic constrictions placed on liberty and personal freedoms within Russia, but, by god, did they manage to create one.

They have said that the four members of the group who ran onto the pitch have been detained in a Moscow police station and remained there overnight.

They are continuing to give updates through their social media on the four members that have been detained following the pitch invasion.

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