She disguised herself as a food delivery girl to evade the Moscow police who had been staking out a friend’s apartment where she was staying
The leader of the Russian feminist collective Pussy Riot, Maria Aliokinahas escaped from Russia with foreign aid and his friends to avoid being a victim of the growing repression imposed on the country by the president, Vladimir Putin, The New York Times reported.
Alyokhina began her activism when his punk music band and the performing arts group Pussy Riot organized their first protest against Putin in 2012, at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of Moscow, for which she was sentenced to two years in prison.
After being imprisoned numerous times for similar protests last April, while Putin cracked down more harshly on any criticism to his war in Ukraine, the authorities announced that Alyokhina, then under house arrest, would now serve a 21-day sentence in a 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.
He left his mobile phone there as a decoy to avoid being tracked, added the New York newspaper, to which Aliójina herself recounted her adventures.
A friend He took her to the border with Belarus and it took her a week to cross into Lithuania. In a studio in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, she agreed to be interviewed by The New York Times to describe what it called a dissident’s harrowing flight from Putin’s Russia.
“I’m glad I made it. because it was an unpredictable and big goodbye kiss & rdquor; for the Russian authorities, Alyokhina told the newspaper ironically. “I still don’t fully understand what I’ve done & rdquor ;, she admitted.
While, 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 he has spent his entire adult life fighting for his 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, “Riot Days & rdquor ;, and traveled internationally performing a show based on that writing.
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Alyokhina also participated in the demonstrations in support of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni, that took place in early 2021 and were violently suppressed by the Russian police.
The activist had committed to remain in Russia despite surveillance and pressure from the authorities, but now, the newspaper said, he has joined the tens of thousands of Russians who have fled since the invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.