Pussy Riot will speak at the Cambridge Union Society on 15th November, it has just been announced.

In yet another surprise speaker announcement, following the American actors Alec Baldwin and Robert Downey Jr., the Union has revealed that the feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot will grace their line-up on the 15th November.

CUSU Women’s officer Amelia Horgan has welcomed the news: “This is very exciting news, especially for an institution that tends to invite old, white men.”

Pussy Riot has a membership of around 11 women and write protest songs about feminism, LGBT rights and opposition to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their songs include ‘"Kill the Sexist",  "Death to Prison, Freedom to Protests", and "Putin Lights Up the Fires".

The group is most famous for their guerrilla-style performances in unusual places, most famously their 2012 performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Although they were stopped by security officials, by that evening they had created a music video of the performance called ‘Punk Prayer - Mother of God, Chase Putin Away!’, a protest directed at the leader of the Orthodox Church’s support of Putin’s political campaign.

Later in 2012 three of the group members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were arrested and convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred", and each was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Putin stated that the band had "undermined the moral foundations" of the nation and "got what they asked for".

Samutsevich appealed and was freed with a suspended sentence in October 2012, but the sentences of the two other women were upheld. They have now been released, but it is unclear whether they will be part of the Union appearance.

The move attracted widespread criticism from human rights groups such as Amnesty International, whilst other musicians and activists voiced their support for the group, such as Madonna, Björk, Paul McCartney and Aung San Suu Kyi.