<u+201c>make america great again,<u+201d> a new music video by the russian punk protest group pussy riot, imagines a future in which donald trump has won the presidential election. in the video (warning: graphic sexual and violent imagery), orange-wigged security agents punish women, gay people and immigrants for the crime of being themselves. nadezhda tolokonnikova, a member of pussy riot who also goes by nadya, stars in the dystopian parody. during a facebook live interview last thursday, she talked about trump, putin and women<u+2019>s activism with anna north, a member of the editorial board. nadya also took questions from readers. excerpts of that interview follow. anna north: what inspired you to make the video, <u+201c>make america great again<u+201d>? i<u+2019>m the person who spent sixteen years in quite close relationship with vladimir putin. i would say <u+201c>intimate<u+201d> relationship. so i know what does it mean to live under rule of person who is a so-called <u+201c>strong leader<u+201d> or <u+201c>strong hand.<u+201d> donald trump refers a lot to that kind of politician, and he praises guys like putin or bashar assad. i don<u+2019>t think that actually some americans realize what consequences could be for their country because of this so-called <u+201c>strong leader.<u+201d> i spent two years in jail just because i was singing against putin, and i don<u+2019>t really want lady gaga or katy perry who support hillary clinton right now to end up in jail just because they are doing that. and trump said openly in the debate that he wants to put hillary clinton in jail. it was the end of april when we wrote this song. i came up with this idea of portraying dystopian future, and ricky <u+2013> the producer who i worked with on the song <u+2013> he expressed some worries: <u+201c>yeah but in your idea, you will be raped in jail, but we don<u+2019>t have any evidence that trump actually sexually assaulted women.<u+201d> so when tape came out, ricky called me and he was like, <u+201c>how did you know?<u+201d> anna north: in the tape you mentioned, recorded in 2005, donald trump talks about grabbing women by the pussy. as a member of a group with <u+201c>pussy<u+201d> in the name, how do you feel about him using the word in that way? i feel like when you<u+2019>re talking about pussy, it<u+2019>s all about context. as a proud owner of pussy, i really want this word to happen just in the best possible context ever, and in the best possible situations ever. you should treat pussy with love, but not in the way how donald trump made it. i think it was terrible, it was misogynistic, it<u+2019>s not appropriate. he definitely should be disqualified from this election process just because of that tape. because it<u+2019>s the most horrible thing i<u+2019>ve ever heard from a person who wants to be the president. lauren ventura: how do you feel about women<u+2019>s rights in russia? i just got news that patriarchal russian orthodox church came up with the idea of banning abortions. and it<u+2019>s frightening for me because it<u+2019>s going on all around the world. so if you will take a look at what<u+2019>s going on in united states, donald trump wants to ban abortions. sadly i think there<u+2019>s a big chance that abortions could actually be banned in russia. because we really have this neo-conservative turn in our politics. and putin who is actually just trying to make himself and his friends richer and richer, he doesn<u+2019>t care about ideology, he doesn<u+2019>t have any. he<u+2019>s trying to fake an ideology, and when people trying to fake an ideology, they pick for themselves conservative and ultra-right ideology. anna north: do you think donald trump is trying to fake an ideology? definitely. he<u+2019>s interested in money and in his own fame. that<u+2019>s all. that<u+2019>s why he<u+2019>s telling you <u+201c>make america great again,<u+201d> because he doesn<u+2019>t have any prospects for the future, he doesn<u+2019>t have any plans. the same thing with putin: when putin annexed crimea, he told people, <u+201c>you will return to soviet union.<u+201d> and for a lot of people it sounded great, but in fact it was just a phrase, because in fact he doesn<u+2019>t care about those people. roxy richards: what do you think of our two-party system in the us? do you think votes for a third party are wasted? i think for now, if i would have american passport i would definitely vote for hillary. but in general, i think that<u+2019>s not a healthy situation. i would vote for hillary right now because it seems like political system of united states are going through huge crisis right now because of donald trump. if you have a vote you should do everything you can just to stop him. and it means, in this situation, to vote for hillary clinton. but i was and i am strong bernie sanders supporter. and i believe that after hillary becomes president, all those bernie supporters <u+2013> including me <u+2013> will not shut up, and they will not just wait for the next presidential election because you could change a lot of things on your local level. stephen shepard: what do you think about wikileaks? i support it in general. i think the initial goal of wikileaks is really great. i believe that information should be free, and people have the right to have access to information. though i couldn<u+2019>t really support what<u+2019>s going on with wikileaks right now, because it seems like clearly they support donald trump and they help putin in this instance. david cook: are you concerned about hillary calling for a no-fly zone over syria and the potential of war with russia and the us? i<u+2019>m concerned about the situation in syria in general. i couldn<u+2019>t really support hillary in her active actions in war zones. i<u+2019>m not a big supporter of that, and i don<u+2019>t support putin when he does his actions in syria. instead of that, i really would like american, european countries and russia to accept more refugees. i think it will help more than war actions. i support hillary in that instance, because her take on that is much better than donald trump<u+2019>s take on that. but i think even hillary<u+2019>s numbers on that is not enough. natasha tavares: what writers and artists inspire you? i think first of all i have to mention bikini kill and their song <u+201c>rebel girl.<u+201d> when i heard this song, actually made us start pussy riot, because pussy riot is kind of just a cosplay version of riot grrrl. and we were like how could we call a <u+201c>girl,<u+201d> and we could go <u+201c>pussy.<u+201d> it<u+2019>s not always the best way to call <u+201c>girl<u+201d> but we wanted to empower this word, like how it happened with <u+201c>queer,<u+201d> so that<u+2019>s why we called ourself pussy riot. solina jean-louis: what advice would you give to young feminists in the united states and around the world? be proud of your vagina, and wear your vag as a badge of honor. as we stated in our <u+201c>straight out of vagina<u+201d> song, just be happy. i think that<u+2019>s the final goal of feminism and every type of activism. i got some questions from people, like if everything is so bad as you<u+2019>re describing right now, why are you so happy? i<u+2019>m happy just because i don<u+2019>t want them to steal my life, i don<u+2019>t want them to steal my happiness and joy. just take back your joy. and fight back. watch the rest of nadya<u+2019>s facebook live interview here (warning: contains graphic language ) .
pussy riot<u+2019>s nadya: trump <u+2018>should be disqualified<u+2019>
phoebe lett