A member of the notorious Russian activist group Pussy Riot was forced to flee Moscow under the guise of a food courier after Vladimir Putin began cracking down on their brand of dissent.
Maria Alekhina faced 21 days in a penal colony after she ended another stay under house arrest over her recent rebellion to criticize Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Deciding that leaving her homeland was better than getting lost in the Russian penal colony system, the leader of Pussy Riot devised a bold and sophisticated disguise.
Alyokhina is a longtime critic of the Russian president who first came to the repressive attention of Russian authorities when her punk activist band Pussy Riot performed a scandalous protest song at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 2012.
That act of rebellion earned her two years in prison for “hooliganism” and she has since continued her career of professional disobedience, having been jailed six times for 15 days each since last summer.
Pussy Riot singer Maria Alyokhina has escaped from house arrest in Moscow disguised as a food courier. Pictured: Maria Alyokhina, left, and fellow Pussy Riot member Lucy Shtein, right
Pussy Riot members in balaclavas protest at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow in February 2012
They sang a protest song against Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime ten years before he gave the order to invade Ukraine. They got two years in prison for their deviant act
Maria Alyokhina, member of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, addresses the media at a train station in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia December 23, 2013, as she faced two years in prison for ‘hooliganism’ over her performance of a protest song in Moscow Christ the Savior- Cathedral in 2012
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin May 10, 2022 in Moscow. Since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russian authorities have punished any dissent with harsh prison sentences
But in April, Russian authorities began to pull off the gloves when it came to activists who had previously been just a nuisance before Ukraine’s disastrous invasion.
She disguised herself as a food courier to fool the police, who staked out the house of the friend she was staying at, leaving her phone behind to trick anyone who tapped it into knowing her location.
A friend drove her across the border into Belarus with no problems, but crossing into the European Union via Lithuania was more of a challenge, being turned away on the first try.
Alyokhina told the NY Times that Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson convinced a European country to issue Ms Alyokhina a travel document that gave her essentially the same status as an EU citizen. State officials asked that the name not be released.
The document was smuggled into her and eventually allowed her to enter Lithuania a week after arriving in Belarus and escape the clutches of Putin’s security apparatus.
“A lot of magic happened last week,” she said. “It sounds like a spy novel.”
Masked members of the protest band Pussy Rot leave a police station in Adler during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia February 18, 2014.
Two Pussy Riot members, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, have been arrested in connection with a theft in the Sochi host city of the Winter Olympics, less than two months after their release from prison under an amnesty
Maria Alekhina was arrested in 2012 after Pussy Riot performed a protest song in balaclavas at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow in February 2012
Now in Vilnius, she is supported by a growing number of Pussy Riot members as activists of all stripes leave Russia after the Russian state decided to quash any dissent it had previously tolerated.
After Moscow launched its “special operation” on February 24, the State Duma quickly passed legislation banning any reporting it labeled “war” or “invasion,” punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
In 2013, Alyokhina founded Mediazona, a news agency focused on abuses in Russia’s prison systems.
The entire Pussy Riot collective has been repeatedly harassed and attacked by the Russian authorities for politically motivated reasons.
“They’re scared because they can’t control us,” she said.
Alekhina will join her friend and fellow Pussy Riot Lucy Shtein in exile in the European Union, along with tens of thousands of Russians who recently fled Russia.