Pussy Riot members detained at World Cup final, activists say

Members of Russia’s Pussy Riot band were detained on December 18 after trying to storm 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, Report informs referring to Reuters.

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.

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

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 totaling 11-1/2 years for fraud, contempt of court and parole violations, all of which he rejects as trumped-up charges.