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Police re-arrest Pussy Riot members who ran onto field during World Cup final

Source did not specify the cause for their detention

MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. Police have re-arrested four individuals (three from the Pussy Riot punk band along with the creator of the Voina Art group) who ran out onto the football field at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on July 15 during the final match of the FIFA World Cup 2018 championship.

"The police detained [Pyotr] Verzilov, [Olga] Pakhtusova, [Veronika] Nikulshina, and [Olga] Kuracheva as they were leaving the detention facilities where they had served their administrative arrest terms," a well-informed Interior Ministry source told TASS. "They were taken to the Luzhniki police department."

The source did not specify the reason for their arrest.

On July 15, Pakhtusova, Nikulshina, Kuracheva, and Verzilov, donning police uniforms ran out onto the Luzhniki stadium pitch where France was taking on Croatia in the final game of the World Cup 2018.

The police booked them on administrative violations regarding spectator conduct at official sporting events.

On July 16, the Khamovniki district court put all four of them into 15-day administrative custody and banned them from attending official sports events for three years.

In their defense, Pussy Riot members claimed that poet Dmitry Prigov’s ‘heavenly’ police officer inspired them to pull off this stunt.

On July 25, the court fined each defendant in the case a rather symbolic sum of 1,500 rubles [$24] and had their uniforms confiscated.

All four refused to acknowledge any guilt, saying they had used the uniforms as a means of artistic expression.