 On December 14 , 2011 , the group performed atop a garage beside the Moscow Detention Center No. 1 prison , where opposition activists were being held among the prisoners . Political activists Alexey Navalny and Ilya Yashin had been arrested one week earlier at a mass protest against the results of the State Duma elections . Pussy Riot played their song " Smert tyurme , svobodu protestu " ( " Death To Prison , Freedom To Protests " ) , and were applauded by the prisoners watching from inside the bars of the jail cell windows . 
