Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist protest and performance art group that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in the fall of 2011 by the then 22-year-old Nadya Tolokonnikova, it has had a membership of approximately 11 women. The group staged unauthorized, provocative guerrilla gigs in public places. These performances were filmed as music videos and posted on the internet. The group's lyrical themes included feminism, LGBTQ rights, opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, his policies and his links to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The group gained global notoriety when five members of the group staged a performance inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 2012, an action condemned as sacrilegious by the Russian Orthodox Church. Three members of the group were arrested, tried, convicted, later amnestied and released on probation. The trial and sentence attracted considerable attention and criticism, particularly in the West. The case was taken up by human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which designated the women as prisoners of conscience, and by a number of prominent entertainers. Public opinion in Russia was generally less sympathetic towards the band members.

In December 2025, the Russian Ministry of Justice added Pussy Riot to its list of extremist organizations.

Pussy Riot is a collective formed in late 2011 in response to national politics in Russia. Its name, consisting of two English-language words written in the Latin alphabet, usually appears that way in the Russian press, though it is sometimes transliterated into Cyrillic as "Пусси Райот". The group consisted of around a dozen performers.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, her husband, Pyotr Verzilov, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were members of the anarchist art collective "Voina" from the group's early days in 2007, until an acrimonious split in 2009. Following the split, they formed a separate Moscow-based group, also named "Voina", saying that they had as much right to use the name as Voina founder Oleg Vorotnikov.

Tolokonnikova and Samutsevich gave a lecture on punk feminism in 2011, in which they refer to the "Pisya Riot" band as a striking example of punk feminist art in Russia, but did not reveal their relation to the band until their arrest in 2012.

The group was started by 15 women, several of whom were previously involved in Voina. While there is no official line-up and the band says anyone can join, it usually has between 10 and 20 members. The members prefer anonymity and are known for wearing brightly colored balaclavas when performing and using aliases when giving interviews. At the start, the group was relatively unknown, but this changed following a February 2012 performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Following the performance, three women, Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were publicly identified and eventually convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. Two other women involved fled the country and have never been named.

Tolokonnikova is seen as the face of the group. She was born in Norilsk and studied at Moscow State University. Tolokonnikova and then-husband Pyotr Verzilov were members of Voina from 2007. They were involved in provocative art performances that included drawing a 65 m (210 foot) penis on a bridge and having public sex in a Moscow biological museum. Alyokhina is a single mother, poet and previously did work as an environmental activist. She was a student at the Institute of Journalism and Creative Writing in Moscow.