After their release from prison on Monday, three members of the protest group Pussy Riot were detained by police as they celebrated their freedom.

A reporter from French news agency AFP saw Veronika Nikulshina, Olga Kuracheva and Olga Pakhtusova being forced into a police van seconds after their release.

A fourth activist tweeted that he was detained by riot police after being freed from a different Moscow detention center. Pyotr Verzilov said on Twitter: "They (the police) say they will leave us under arrest for the night."

They were taken to the Luzhniki police department, Russia's TASS news agency reported, citing "a well-informed interior [ministry] source."

A member of Pussy Riot high-fives France's Kylian Mbappe during the World Cup final

Pitch invasion

A Moscow court earlier this month sentenced the activists to 15 days in police cells, and also banned them from visiting sports events for three years after they ran onto the pitch dressed as police officers during the World Cup final.

Read more: Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina: 'Fear is the most dangerous thing'

The match, between France and Croatia, was attended by world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

Pussy Riot said their pitch invasion was a protest against Putin. They issued a list of political demands, including ending arrests at peaceful rallies in Russia.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Starting a riot All-girl Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot created an international storm in 2012 with a guerrilla performance in Moscow's main cathedral that called for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a new term as Russia's president a few days later. The protest attracted worldwide attention, and three members of the group were arrested.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance State censorship During the ensuing court hearing in Moscow in August 2012, Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova (right), Maria Alyokhina (center) and Yekaterina Samutsevich (left) could be seen in a glass-walled cage. Support for the Pussy Riot activists came from all over the world.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Cause celebre Pussy Riot's iconic colorful balaclava face masks allowed supporters near and far to become "members of the band." Here, a protester is arrested during a demonstration in support of Pussy Riot in 2012 in front of the Russian consulate in New York on the day a Russian judge found three members of the provocative punk band guilty of hooliganism.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance No way out Pussy Riot band member Nadya Tolokonnikova looks out from a holding cell during a court hearing in April 2013. Tolokonnikova was appealing her conviction for "hooliganism motivated by religious hate," for which she was serving two years in a remote prison. Many international stars such as Madonna called for the Pussy Riot members' release.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Back under attack After their release from prison under an amnesty in late 2013, Pussy Riot were soon protesting again, this time at the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi. While they were preparing to sing the song "Putin Will Teach You to Love Your Motherland," a spoof on state nationalism, a Cossack militiaman who was armed with a whip attacked band member Nadya Tolokonnikova and a photographer.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Fight the power Masked Pussy Rot members leave a police station in Adler during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014. Two members of the band, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were detained after they were wrongfully suspected of stealing a handbag from their hotel.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Getting the word out By 2015, Moscow-based Maria Alyokhina (left) and Nadya Tolokonnikova increasingly traveled Europe to continue campaigning against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here they answer questions from the audience at the 23rd Sziget (Island) Festival on Shipyard Island in Budapest, Hungary, on August 14, 2015.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Part of Banksy's world Here, in September 2015, Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina performed at the closing party of the "Dismaland" project by graffiti artist Banksy. The street artist described his subversive, pop-up exhibition at the derelict seafront Tropicana lido in the UK as a "bemusement park."

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance How to start a revolution Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova wrote her own guide to individual freedom in the face of totalitarianism, "How to Start a Revolution," which was published in 2016. She soon toured the book around the world, stopping in Berlin and at the Lit.Cologne literary festival (above).

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Provoking the corrupt security state In 2016, Pussy Riot were again indulging in political provocation at home, releasing a film clip to their new protest song "Chaika" that mocks corrupt and violent Russian security agencies – under whom the jailed band members faced "endless humiliations" – after it was revealed that the country's chief prosecutor, Yuri Chaika, had links to the local mafia.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Trump meets Putin Pussy Riot's criticism not only targets Russian authorities: At this performance in a San Francisco theater in February, a caricature of Donald Trump accompanied Vladimir Putin on stage. During the event, they discussed the current state of human rights in Russia, and how LGBT individuals and political activists in prison are affected.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance The struggle continues On August 6, 2017, Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Olga Borisova held flares and a banner on a bridge near a prison in Yakutsk, Russia to protest the jailing of film director Oleg Sentsov. He was arrested in Crimea – which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – and convicted by a Russian military court of conspiracy to commit terror attacks. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Live in Germany In September 2017, the group performed their "feminist punk manifesto" in Germany at Frankfurt's Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. Titled "Riot Days," the concert is based on band member Maria Alyokhina's eponymous book that describes her co-founding of Pussy Riot in 2011 with Nadya Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Shutting down Trump Tower In October 2017, the group stormed Trump Tower in New York City to voice opposition to Putin and Trump and the incarceration of political prisoners. Wearing their famous balaclavas, they held up a banner once again urging the release of Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov. Police closed the 58-story skyscraper for a half hour.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance Protest on the pitch Dressed as police officers, members of the collective invaded the pitch during the World Cup final in Russia, interrupting the game. According to the group, the goals of the protest were for the Russian authorities to free all political prisoners, stop illegal arrests at public rallies and allow political competition in the country. The members were sentenced to 15 days of jail time.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance A suspected poisoning One of the Pussy Riot activists at the FIFA World Cup protest was Pyotr Verzilov, who is also a publisher at MediaZona, an online news site that focuses on human rights violations in Russia's penal system. In September 2018, the dissident experienced symptoms of poisoning. He was sent to Berlin for treatment and was placed under police protection. He recovered. Author: Stuart Braun



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kw/rt (AP, AFP, DPA)