Pussy Rioter’s daring ‘delivery’
A member of dissident punk group Pussy Riot escaped Russia while disguised as a food delivery worker — a daring journey to “make a statement” against the invasion of Ukraine, she said.
Maria Alyokhina — who spent nearly two years in prison with bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova after their 2012 arrest for criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin at Moscow’s main cathedral — said Wednesday she decided she’d had enough while staying at a girlfriend’s apartment.
Alyokhina, better known as “Masha,” told CNN she has been arrested six times since last summer for her public rebukes of Putin and spent 15 days in jail each time.
Russian authorities said in April that her latest house arrest would be converted to 21 days in a penal colony, the New York Times reported.
“This time I just decided that my tour was scheduled and it’s important for me to make a statement against the war as loud as I can and to speak as loud as I can [on] what I’ve seen in Russia,” she said. “So, I made a small change and decided not to spend these 21 days in prison but spend it at the rehearsal studio.” Alyokhina told CNN she and her girlfriend, Lucy Shtein, donned green jackets while disguised as food couriers to evade Moscow police officers who had staked out her friend’s apartment. “I think that was Lucy’s idea and she used it first,” Alyokhina told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I used it when it was my turn.” Alyokhina, who said her passport had been confiscated by Russian authorities, had a friend drive her to Russia’s border with Belarus before making her way into Lithuania without formally registering. It took her three tries to get into Lithuania, Alyokhina, 33, said. “First time was terrible. First time was like a search of me, the car of where I was, two hours speaking with terrible KGB investigators and so on.” She and 11 other members of Pussy Riot began touring Thursday in Berlin to raise money for Ukraine.