Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokno: Julian Assange Is ‘Connected with the Russian Government’

[Libertine]

Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokno: Julian Assange Is ‘Connected with the Russian Government’

"Julian Assange openly works with Russia. It’s not a secret. He’s connected with the Russian government."


What’s your take on the current state of WikiLeaks? It’s an organization that’s done a lot of good, but they do seem to be doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding when it comes to influencing the U.S. presidential election.

It was a tough conversation between me and Julian Assange about that when I came to the Ecuadorian Embassy. We had the conversation and you can’t really blame people for having another position. I understood his position: he’s in a state of war with the American government. He’s smart and charismatic and will use any means to destroy the American government. And we had a conversation if it was really the ethical thing to do that with the hands of another government Russia which is, in fact, much worse and a real authoritarian government. Julian Assange is a really good diplomat, so he can basically just dodge direct answers from my questions on that, and gives other answers—as Putin usually does when people ask him directly about some uncomfortable things.

So Julian Assange didn’t deny that he was working with the Russian government?

He couldn’t deny it. On the next day after I visited the Ecuadorian Embassy, the head of Russia’s biggest propaganda network, Russia Today, the editor-in-chief came to him and they had a project together. He often works with the Russia propaganda machine, and doesn’t try to hide it. Julian Assange doesn’t try to hide that fact because he hosts at the Ecuadorian Embassy the editor-in-chief of the Russian propaganda team, Russia Today, and has projects with them. Russia Today has nothing to do with truth. They get tons of government money, so instead of that money going to healthcare or education, it serves these propaganda goals—which is disturbing for a lot of Russians because they’re undergoing a huge economic crisis. But Julian Assange, he openly works with Russia. It’s not a secret. He’s connected with the Russian government, and I feel that he’s proud of it. And with Julian Assange, I really like a lot of the things that he’s done, too.

How can you support Assange if he’s supporting Putin?

I wouldn’t say that I support him, I just support a lot of the work that he’s done and I feel that information really should be open. I generally support the work that WikiLeaks is doing, but I’m not that thrilled about his decisions that are unethical, in my view, concerning his connections to the Russian government.

It does seem that, during this presidential election, WikiLeaks is only releasing documents on the Democrats and Hillary Clinton—and no documents connected to her opponent, Donald Trump. So it seems to indicate that the organization wants to tip the election in Trump’s favor.

What sort of similarities do you see between Trump and Putin?

It’s the so-called “strong man” psychology—but it’s not a “strong man” psychology, it’s an asshole psychology. They want to oppress people and don’t want them to raise their voices. Their reaction when it comes to people who try to criticize them is very similar: Putin put us in jail, and Donald Trump wants to put Hillary Clinton in jail if he’s elected President of the United States. So it makes perfect sense that Putin would want someone like Trump to take power. And it’s not just Trump. Putin is also in bed with Marine Le Pen in France, and is supporting Viktor Orban in Hungary. These are people who want to establish a new conservative right-wing oppressive order all around the world, and we need to do everything we can to stop them.

Both Trump and Putin also don’t seem to hold women in very high regard, to say the least. They possess very patriarchal mindsets and view women as subservient to men.

I definitely see very frightening parallels between Donald Trump and Putin in their treatment of women. The Russian Orthodox Church is a big supporter of Putin, and I believe that’s how we ended up in jail—because the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church was really upset about our actions at the cathedral so he called Putin, complained, and that’s why I spent two years in jail, because of this guy. There’s also no respect for women in the eyes of Vladimir Putin. He doesn’t feel he needs to show respect for women.

It’s scary for me that people still support Trump knowing the fact that he’s called women “fat pigs” and “disgusting animals.” He’s ruined women’s lives by telling them they’re not beautiful. Look, I’m a confident person and don’t give a fuck what Donald Trump thinks about my shape, but for a lot of young girls it could be very dangerous. They’re following the election on television and the social networks and they hear all this crap, and then they start to hate their own bodies because of that. That is unacceptable. So even though Donald Trump will not be President of the United States, I can’t even express how much harm he’s already caused to so many people around the world.

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