The leader of the Russian feminist collective Pussy RiotMaria Aliokina, has escaped from Russia with foreign aid and his friends to avoid being a victim of the increasing repression that the president has imposed on the country, Vladimir Putin, The New York Times reported. Aliokina began her activism when his punk music band and performing arts group Pussy Riot staged their first anti-Putin protest in 2012, at the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviorfor 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 of his war in Ukraine, the authorities announced that Alyokhina, then under house arrest, would serve a 21-day sentence in a penal colony. The activist then decided that she would leave Russia, at least temporarily, andand disguised herself as a food delivery girl 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 told her adventures. A friend took her to the border with Belarus and it took her a week to cross into Lithuania. In a study in Vilniusthe Lithuanian capital, agreed to be interviewed by The New York Times to describe what it described as the harrowing flight of a dissident from Putin’s Russia.
“I was glad I did it, because it was an unpredictable and big farewell 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 the Interior included her in the list of people in search and capture of her 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 Mediazonean independent media outlet focused on crime and punishment in Russia.
He also wrote a memoir, “Riot Days”, and traveled internationally performing a show based on that writing. Alyokhina also participated in the demonstrations in support of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalniwhich took place in early 2021 and were violently suppressed by the Russian police.
The activist had promised to remain in Russia despite vigilance and pressure from the authorities, but now, the newspaper noted, he has joined the tens of thousands of Russians who have fled since the invasion of Ukrainewhich began on February 24.
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