Visitors to Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral today were shocked by a surprise visit from a Russian feminist punk band "Pussy Riot," whose members eluded security long enough to put on a five-minute performance near the church's altar, the Moscow Times reports.
WARNING: Explicit language below
Four members of the all-girl punk band, dressed in their usual outfits of brightly-colored mini-dresses and masks, rushed the cathedral and managed to play for a few minutes before security guards escorted them from the building, according to Russian news site Izvestiya.
"It lasted no more than five minutes and then it was over," blogger Alexander Kashin told Russian news site Gazeta.ru. "It was right inside the building, in front of the altar. As soon as they started to perform, guards came from all sides, starting to grab them and trying to chase them out by yelling at them."
Kashin posted a picture of the impromptu performance of their song "Holy Shit" to his Twitter account.
The church has declined to comment on the incident and is conducting further investigation, according to Izvestiya.
In the meantime, the band is facing backlash from journalists, parishioners and others who have called the band "demoniac" and an "abomination."
Boris Yakemenko, leader of the youth movement "Orthodox Body," told Izvestiya that the group just pulled the stunt for publicity.
"Any filth is always more visible against a clean background," Yakemenko told Izvestiya. "If they had done this in a brothel, nobody would have noticed. It is for people like this that churches are needed."
Since forming last September, the band has been known for pulling fast performances in highly visible places around Moscow, according to NPR.
Earlier this year, eight members of the group were arrested in Moscow's Red Square after playing a minute-long punk anthem in protest of Vladimir Putin's recently announced plans to return to the presidency.
The group's current membership, including crew, stands at around 30 people, most of whom are college-educated, hardcore feminists, according to founding members of the band who spoke to the Guardian. They told the paper many members of the band met at small protests and monthly demonstrations aimed at voicing a range of grievances against the government, including political corruption, state monopoly on the media, and banned gay pride marches.
All members of the band are sworn to anonymity, even when giving interviews, because "it shows we can be anybody," a member told the Guardian.
But the band is especially confident of the ability of women to effect political change.
"The revolution should be done by women," one band member, who goes by the name Garazhda, told the paper. "For now, they don't beat or jail us as much. There's a deep tradition in Russia of gender and revolution -- we've had amazing women revolutionaries."
ABOVE: Check out video of Pussy Riot performing at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.
BELOW: Another of the band's performances from earlier this year.