Pussy rioter reveals ‘spy novel’ escape from Russia

A founder of the anti-Kremlin punk music group has fled Russia disguised as a food courier after being sentenced to hard labour.

Maria Alyokhina has been arrested six times since last summer. Picture: Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns

A founder of Pussy Riot, the anti-Kremlin punk music group, has fled Russia disguised as a food courier after the authorities sentenced her to hard labour.

Maria Alyokhina, 33, a longtime opponent of Vladimir Putin’s regime, was under house arrest for political activism and had been due to spend 21 days in a penal colony before she escaped.

Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina has left Russia, she said in an interview, after disguising herself as a food delivery courier to escape.

She told The New York Times how, dressed in a hooded coat and carrying a delivery backpack, she managed to evade the Moscow police officers who were waiting to arrest her outside her apartment.

Alyokhina left her mobile phone behind to avoid being tracked and was driven to the Belarusian border by a friend. It took her another week to cross into Lithuania with the help of an Icelandic artist who secured her travel documents. Her documents were smuggled into Belarus by an unnamed EU government and gave her the same status as an EU citizen, allowing her to enter Lithuania, Alyokhina explained.

“I was happy that I made it, because it was an unpredictable and big slap in the face [of] the Russian authorities,” Alyokhina said. “I still don’t understand completely what I’ve done,” she added, comparing her story to a spy novel.

Pussy Riot in court in 2012; Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. Picture: Getty Images

“I don’t think Russia has a right to exist any more. Even before, there were questions about how it is united, by what values it is united and where it is going. But now I don’t think that is a question any more.”

Alyokhina and the other members of Pussy Riot first came to global attention when they staged an anti-Putin protest at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in 2012.

After a trial at which prosecution witnesses accused the group of “waging war on God”, Alyokhina and two other protesters were sentenced to two years in a prison camp for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

Alyokhina is detained at a rally in Moscow in 2019. Picture Getty Images

As one of the few opposition activists to have remained in Russia since President Putin ordered troops into Ukraine, she has been arrested six times since last summer, serving 15 days in jail each time. Alyokhina told The Times last month that she was under constant surveillance by the secret police.

“The last time, I was in a taxi and two grey cars blocked us in front and from behind,” she said. “Three guys jumped out and one of them pushed the driver’s face down on to the steering wheel, while the other two dragged me out.” She was accused of “resisting police”. She had been free for four days after serving a jail term on identical charges.

On April 26, amid a mounting crackdown on all opposition voices, the Russian interior ministry added Alyokhina to its wanted list and changed the remainder of her house arrest sentence to prison time. She has now joined tens of thousands of Russians who have fled their homeland since the invasion of Ukraine.

Among them are Alyokhina’s girlfriend, Lucy Shtein, and several other Pussy Riot members who recently fled Russia. Shtein also escaped wearing a courier’s uniform. She said she left a month ago after someone posted a sign on the couple’s door accusing them of being traitors.

Alyokhina and her bandmates plan to perform on tour to raise money for Ukraine, beginning with a concert tomorrow (Friday) in Berlin. She said she hoped to return to Russia one day but that the invasion of Ukraine had changed her view of her homeland.

The Times