The 33-year-old woman reported that she also left her cell phone behind to distract herself and not be located. According to Interfax, the anti-government feminist activist’s lawyer said only on Tuesday night that Alyokhina was no longer on Russian territory.
“I still don’t fully understand what I did,” the artist told the newspaper in an interview. But she’s glad she made it. “When your heart is free, it doesn’t matter where you are,” she said in the interview. “A lot of magic” happened last week. “Sounds like a spy novel.”
Alyokhina was sentenced to two years in a prison camp with her bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova in 2012. She had protested against President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow church. In late 2013, they were pardoned and released. Recently, however, Alyokhina has repeatedly come into conflict with the Russian judiciary. In connection with calls for demonstrations for imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, she was sentenced to one year in prison in September last year. She wasn’t allowed to leave her apartment at night. Since the beginning of the year, she has been detained several times by security authorities on various allegations.
The artist has now said that her decision to leave Russia was made in April, when Putin began cracking down on criticism of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Authorities announced that Alekhina’s house arrest at the time would be converted into a 21-day prison camp.
An acquaintance drove her to the Belarus border and arrived in Lithuania after about a week, she said. It was refused twice by Belarusian border guards, but it worked the third time.
An artist friend from Iceland arranged for an unidentified European country to give the 33-year-old – whose passport had been confiscated by Russia – a travel document that gave her similar status as an EU citizen. This document was smuggled into Belarus. In the countryside, Alyokhina avoided hotels and other places where she would have to identify herself. Meanwhile, Russian authorities are already looking for her.
The fact that she managed to escape is also demonstrated by the chaos of Russian law enforcement agencies, the artist told the New York Times. “It looks like a giant demon from here, but it’s very disorganized inside. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.” Despite everything, she hopes to be able to return to Russia at some point.
Other band members reportedly left Russia in the meantime, including a friend of Alyokhina’s, with whom she shared an apartment. She also disguised herself as a food delivery boy.
The band is now rehearsing in Vilnius and Iceland for their upcoming European tour to raise money for Ukraine. A concert is scheduled for this Thursday (May 12) in Berlin, and Maria Alyokhina will also be there, said a spokeswoman for the XJazz festival.