Pussy Riot Activist Maria Alyokhina Flees Russia Amid Increasing Putin Crackdown
The leader of the Russian feminist collective Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, has escaped from Russia with foreign aid and from his friends to avoid being a victim of the growing repression that the president has imposed on the country, Vladimir Putin, as reported The New York Times. Alyokhina began her activism when her punk music band and performing arts group Pussy Riot staged their first protest against Putin in 2012, at the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior, for which she was sentenced to two years in prison.
Having been imprisoned multiple times for similar protests, last April, as Putin cracked down more harshly on any criticism of his war in Ukraine, the authorities announced that Alyokhina, then under house arrest, would go on to serve 21 days in a prison sentence. penal colony.
The activist then decided that she would leave Russia, at least temporarily, and disguised herself as a food delivery woman to evade the Moscow police that she had been staking out a friend's apartment where she was staying. She left her mobile phone there as a decoy to avoid being tracked, added the New York newspaper, to which Aliójina herself recounted her ordeal.
Maria Aliokina: «Putin does not scare me, he is nobody«
A friend took her to the border with Belarus and it took a week to cross to Lithuania. In a study in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, agreed to be interviewed by The New York Times to describe what he described as the harrowing flight of a dissident from Putin's Russia. “I was glad I made it because it was a big, unpredictable goodbye kiss.” for the Russian authorities, Alyokhina told the newspaper ironically. “I still don't fully understand what I've done”, he admitted.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs included her in its list of wanted persons after having imposed the last of the sentences and not appearing to enter prison.
The 33-year-old artist has spent her entire adult life fighting for her country to respect its own Constitution and the most basic human rights, such as freedom of expression. After being released from prison before completing her sentence, in December 2013, she and another member of the Pussy Riot founded mediazona, an independent media outlet focused on crime and punishment in Russia.
He also wrote a memoir, riotdays, and traveled internationally performing a show based on that writing. Alyokhina also participated in the demonstrations in support of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni, which took place in early 2021 and were violently suppressed by the Russian police.
The activist had promised to remain in Russia despite surveillance and pressure from the authorities, but now, the newspaper noted, has joined the tens of thousands of Russians who have fled since the invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
Pussy Riot has scheduled three concerts on June 1, 2 and 4 in Spain with the confirmed presence of one of its founders, Maria Alyokhina (Masha). The tour of the Russian group will start in the room Razzmatazz of Barcelona, will continue the following day in Zaragoza in the room Oasis, and will end in the Madrid room Shoko, inform the organizers in a press release.
Tickets for these concerts will be sold using the Ticketblok App, which allows followers to decide how much they want to pay for their tickets, and thus users can indicate the price they are willing to pay for their tickets so that, later, an algorithm takes care of distributing them in a fair and intelligent way.
