Russian President Vladimir Putin was greeted by topless protestors at a trade fair in Germany on Monday. They were there to protest Russian discrimination against homosexuals.
"As for the protest, I like it," Putin said later at a press conference, stating that he was entertained by the demonstration.
Alexandra Shevchenko, the protestor who stripped in front of the president, with a Cyrillic slogan on her back reading "F-k you Putin," chosen "because it's really simple."
"Putin is a bastard," she said in Berlin. "If you're a normal person you have to be against him.
"The most important [criticism] for us is human rights, the rights of women, this situation with Pussy Riot," she said. "Of course we don't want to say this is all he's done, he has committed a lot of other crimes."
Shevchenko was one of a group of five female protestors who confronted Putin, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday morning.
"I think his answer was really stupid," she said, regarding his comment about enjoying the protestors. "It was really in this Russian, pot-USSR style."
"The president of a European country would never say something like - I like her, in such a sexual way," she said. "He does it because he's a stupid man."
The group of women were arrested, but have since been released by the police while German authorities determine whether they will face charges.
The women are members of Femen, a feminist group famous for semi-naked protests, including burning a Salafist flag in front of the Grand Mosque in Paris.
Shevchenko studied business administration before helping to found the Ukrainian group in 2006 to campaign against the sex industry. They have been protesting topless since 2010, and will soon be establishing themselves in the U.K. Shevchenko has been in Germany since January to establish a local chapter of the movement there.
"There was a lot of his security and a lot of police around him, a lot of journalists," said Shevchenko, describing the moment of protest. "So we have to find some gaps and just jump through them."
Later, Putin tried to laugh off the incident.
"Say thank you to the Ukrainian girls, they helped to promote the trade fair," he said. "To be honest, I didn't really hear what they were shouting because the security [guards] were very tough.
"Those huge guys fell on the lasses," he continued. "That seemed not right to me, they could have been handled more gently."
"Topless protest - I think this is the only effect that can work," Shevchenko said. "This way of protest is being used by women all over the world, in new countries, in Mexico, in the U.S., in Brazil, France and Germany."
Regular threats of violence have resulted from the activism of Femen, according to Shevchenko. She cited a recent fatwa against an activist in Tunisia who posted a topless image of herself online and the abduction of a group of activists by secret service agents in Belarus.
"When a woman's nudity is not controlled by men, when she's not using it to entertain men, to give them sexual satisfaction or advertise men's products, when she's using her sexuality for her own aims, political aims, that really makes patriarchy irritated," Shevchenko said. "And you can see the result."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
