Bernie Sanders Lands Punk-Rock, Feminist Endorsement From Pussy Riot

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the feminist punk-rock member of Pussy Riot, has come out strong for Bernie Sanders, and plans to write a love song to the Vermont senator’s message. The Russian singer even received some boos for her support, not as if she seems to care much.

According to the Daily Beast, Tolokonnikova, also known as Nadya Tolokno, got off of a flight early Friday morning in Washington, D.C. and tweeted “my a** just landed in Washington, and I urgently need a t-shirt with Bernie. could i pick it up somewhere tomorrow morning?”

The Bernie Sanders team was more than happy to comply.

just visited Bernie campaign office in Washington

thank u guys for an inspiration!

I love what u stands for! pic.twitter.com/h286rAn3e4

— Pussy Riot (@pussyrrriot) February 26, 2016

Some people weren’t happy about the Pussy Riot endorsement. Tolokno rushed over to the libertarian Students for Liberty summit, still donning the progressive T-shirt. She was apparently booed for her clothing choices, but the anti-Putin activist has suffered worse.

Tolokno was famously arrested in 2012 for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” in Russia, and sentenced to two years in prison. She was called a political prisoner by Russian civil rights groups, but was ultimately released early with fellow Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina as part of the Russian constitution’s 20th-anniversary celebrations.

Since then, Nadya Tolokno has expanded her political message abroad and regularly comments on American issues. Her song “I Can’t Breathe” addresses the Black Lives Matter movement and the killing of unarmed black suspects like Eric Garner.

The feminist punk rocker is now likely ruffling some feathers within the Democratic political party. As Madaline Albright explained of female Bernie Sanders supporters, “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”

Likewise, Gloria Steinem belittled Sanders’ women supporters according to the Guardian, saying they were thinking “Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie.”

“Women are more for [Clinton] than men are. Men tend to get more conservative because they gain power as they age, women get more radical because they lose power as they age. They’re going to get more activist as they grow older. And when you’re younger, you think: ‘Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie.'”

Steinem and Albright were criticized for their statements. Now, it seems that Bernie Sanders has the feminist credentials of Pussy Riot in his corner.

Tolokno and the rest of Pussy Riot have called Trump names like “douchebag” and “d**khead,” but perhaps Tolokno’s harshest statements about Trump were comparisons with Putin and Hitler.

“Trump, as a man who has called women fat pigs, and whores, and sluts if he doesn’t like them, and as a person who wants to send away all Muslims — I mean, what’s wrong with this religion? I was in prison because I was supposedly against Christianity, but I wasn’t. And I think it is fascism to persecute people, to send people away from the country where they live now…It is fascism. And I think Putin has a lot in common with Trump. They have a lot in common with Hitler…I know there’s a lot of differences, but still. It is dangerous [when] somebody announces that he hates somebody just because of religion, or race, or gender.”

In addition to his endorsement from Pussy Riot, Bernie Sanders also recently picked up a bit boost from the Arizona Latino civil rights group Living United for Change in Arizona.

[Photo by John Gress/Getty Images]