Towered from Moscow
Escape as a food courier – Pussy Riot activist Alyokhina secretly fled Russia
The Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina, here at a performance in Germany in 2019, secretly left Russia
© Uwe Anspach / DPA
Together with her friends from Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina challenged the Putin system and was harassed by the Russian security apparatus. Now the activist has apparently left Russia under spectacular circumstances.
According to her lawyer, the activist of the punk band Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, has left Russia via an unknown route despite police surveillance. Alyokhina is no longer on Russian territory, said her lawyer Daniil Berman, according to the Interfax agency. According to unconfirmed reports, she is said to have left her place of residence in the uniform of a food delivery service. She left her cell phone behind so that it could not be tracked.
the The New York Times (Tuesday) reportedthat Alyokhina is now in Vilnius. An acquaintance brought her to the border with Belarus in a car and then reached Lithuania after about a week. No further details about the course of the escape were given. “I’m glad I made it,” she was quoted as saying.
Alyokhina has repeatedly come into conflict with the Russian judiciary. In connection with calls for demonstrations for the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, she was sentenced to one year of restricted freedom in September last year. For example, she was not allowed to leave her apartment at night. Since the beginning of the year, she has been picked up several times by the security authorities on various allegations. According to the New York Times, she was told in April that her sentence had been increased to 21 days in a prison camp.
Alyokhina was sentenced to two years in a prison camp in 2012 with her bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. She had protested against President Vladimir Putin in a church.