Pussy Riot co-founder denies vagina performance

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the founders of the feminist punk band ‘Pussy Riot,’ has strongly denied allegations that she had ever inserted a dead chicken into her vagina as performance art.

US-based Tolokonnikova, for whom Russia has issued an arrest warrant for hate speech, took to social media platform X to make a bold statement on the matter. “Chicken, into c**t, was not stuffed by me,” the activist wrote in an all-caps message.

READ MORE: ‘Pussy Riot’ founder admits giving ‘humanitarian aid’ cash to Ukrainian army

The poultry incident dates back to 2010, when Russian art group Voina (The War), of which Tolokonnikova was a part, snatched a chilled chicken from a store in St. Petersburg, with one of the activists concealing the poultry product in her vagina. The performance, widely covered by the group itself online, became one of the most scandalous actions taken by Voina, with the shoplifted chicken said to have ultimately been consumed by the activists.

While the ill-fated chicken was actually stuffed into the body cavity of another activist, poet, and journalist, Elena Kostyleva, over the years it somehow turned into a widespread belief that the stunt was performed by Tolokonnikova. Apparently, the mix-up occurred since the two activists performed assorted obscene acts under the pretext of political activism, with both of them taking part in the infamous mass orgy at the Timiryazev State Biological Museum in Moscow in early 2008.

Tolokonnikova’s denial, apparently triggered by the ongoing influx of trolls into her social media feed to blame her for the 2010 poultry-snatching stunt, has seemingly only attracted more of them to mock the activist.

While some trolls bluntly insisted it still was her, given the common belief, others cheekily suggested she should share the “common responsibility” for the chicken affair in an apparent nod to the practice of universally blaming all the Russians for the Ukrainian conflict, used by some opposition figures and critics of the Kremlin.

The troll infestation itself is presumably at least partially linked to Tolokonnikova’s recent conversation with the notorious Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, during which she admitted to financing “humanitarian aid” for the Ukrainian military.