Radical Russian art group shows love for the police

Radical Russian art collective Voina released a new video today, marking the Russian police force's official renaming from "militsia" to "politsia." Watch below as members of the group come up to unsuspecting female police officers and shower them with kisses. It's amazing it doesn't get more violent.

The song, according to this blog anyway, is an old Yiddish-Anarchist tune sung against the Tsarist regime. Its chorus goes: “Hey, hey, down with the police! Down with autocracy in Russia!”

Voina is at the forefront of Russian radical art (GlobalPost has written about them here and here). Recently, two of their members were released from prison on bail, after they were detained on charges of hooliganism for overturning police cars in St Petersburg. Many here were surprised when they were included in the list of nominees for the Ministry of Culture’s innovation award for their drawing of an enormous penis on a drawbridge in St Petersburg last year. Less surprised were we when their nomination was dropped on Monday.