Pussy Riot announce debut album CYKA with Putin listed as contributor

The album, set for release on 12 June, was not introduced with a conventional press cycle. Instead, Pussy Riot staged a protest at the Venice Biennale, "the Olympics of the art world", timing the action to coincide with Russia’s controversial return to the art event. The resulting footage forms the video for album track “DISOBEY”.

CYKA distils 14 years of activism, imprisonment and exile into a full-length collection. Founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, who spent two years in a Russian penal colony for the group’s “Punk Prayer” performance, positions the record as a confrontation. Putin’s inclusion in the credits - listed on the title track - is characteristically ambiguous, a gesture the band leaves for listeners to interpret.

The single “CANDY DOPAMINE” Tolokonnikova describes as a reckoning with pharmaceutical culture. “This song is kind of a love & hate song to prescription and designer drug culture,” she says. “It started with my dependence on anti depressants, but it’s also looking at everyone now mentalhealthmaxxing and looksmaxxing via pills and injections. It’s not a judgement, it’s just an observation.”

The wider tracklist draws in guests including Cypress Hill’s B-Real on “GORE” and salem ilese on “UTOPIA”, alongside the Avenged Sevenfold collaboration. A live show at the BEYOND THE STREETS exhibit in Paris on 20 June has been confirmed, with further dates promised.

Tolokonnikova’s statement accompanying the album announcement took direct aim at Putin. “All these old men ruining the world right now act tough – but we see through their fragile egos,” she said. “I challenge President Putin to a cage match. He loses? He gets the fuck out of Ukraine.” The challenge lands a few days before the UFC Freedom 250 event, scheduled for 14 June at the White House.

Among Tolokonnikova’s accolades, including Time Woman of the Year, the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought, LennonOno Grant for Peace, Woodie Guthrie Prize, and an Honorary Doctorate from RISD, Nadya also celebrates the 2025 designation of Pussy Riot as an Extremist Organization by the Russian Federation. She now lives in exile and remains geographically anonymous.

CYKA artwork

CYKA tracklist

“GODS LEFT”
“PAIN / БОЛЬ”
“NOTHING TO LOSE”
“CYKA ft Vladimir Putin”
“MURKA”
“GORE ft B-Real”
“CANDY DOPAMINE ft Avenged Sevenfold”
“FACELESS PIGS”
“UTOPIA ft salem ilese”
“DISOBEY”
“GOD LOVES THE FIERCE / БОГ ЛЮБИТ ЛЮТЫХ”
“CANCEL ME”
“BLIZZARD”
“OUTRO”