Founded in 2011 after Vladimir Putin was given a third term as Russian president, Pussy Riot is a feminist art collective/punk band based in Moscow. The group's protest inside the cathedral was intended to protest Putin's union of church and state. On Feb. 21, 2012 they participated in a 40-second "punk prayer protest" on the altar of Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral before being detained. Arrested and tried for trespassing, wearing "inappropriate" sleeveless dresses and disrupting social order, Nadia, Masha, and Katia were accused of religious hatred in a trial that reverberated around the world and transformed the face of Russian society.