‘Sounds like a spy novel’: Pussy Riot musician details her crafty escape from Russia

Maria Alyokhina, the leader of the notorious activist Russian band “Pussy Riot,” just fled Russia in a daring escape that is reminiscent of a Cold War spy thriller.

But instead of stealing a top-secret, thought-controlled Soviet plane like Clint Eastwood in “Firefox,” or orchestrating a daring defection like Soviet ballet virtuoso Mikhail Baryshnikov, Pussy Riot’s controversial leader made her escape dressed up as a food delivery worker.

“A lot of magic happened last week,” Alyokhina said in an interview with The New York Times. “It sounds like a spy novel.”

It’s not the first time Alyokhina has run into trouble with the Russian authorities. She’s been arrested numerous times for her criticisms of the Kremlin and of Putin’s domestic and foreign policies, and she’s been jailed six times in the last year alone. But amidst the increased pressures occasioned by Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, Alyokhina decided that it was probably high time she flee Russia for good—especially after authorities made the unwelcome announcement that her house arrest would now be changed into a 21-day sentence at a penal colony.

According to the Times’ reporting, that’s when Alyokhina put her great escape into action. With admirable forethought, she arranged to dress as a food courier (complete with green jacket and food backpack) in order to evade detection by the police surveillance unit keeping tabs on her Moscow apartment and left her phone behind so she couldn’t be tracked.

A friend waited for Alyokhina outside her apartment and was good enough to drive her to the Belarusian border. She then undertook to cross into Lithuania, and after being turned away twice at the border, she finally made it to freedom. Waiting for her in Lithuania was Alyokhina’s girlfriend, and fellow Pussy Riot band member, Lucy Shtein, who also escaped Russia dressed as a food delivery worker. They were also joined by other members of the band.

The group is now reunited in Iceland, where they intend to perform at pro-Ukraine events with Björk and other Icelandic artists.

“I don’t think Russia has a right to exist anymore,” Alyokhina said in her interview. “Even before, there were questions about how it is united, by what values it is united, and where it is going. But now I don’t think that is a question anymore.”

Meanwhile, she says that although the Kremlin “looks like a big demon,” the ease of her escape is proof enough that Russia is “very disorganized if you look from the inside.”

Alyokhina and Pussy Riot achieved international fame in 2012 when they staged an event at a Moscow cathedral criticizing Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church—a stunt that earned her two years in prison for “hooliganism.” And, according to a CNN report, her bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was last year added by Russian authorities to a list of “foreign agents.”

Despite their current disagreement with the Russian government, Alyokhina and the other members of Pussy Riot hope someday to return to Russia—but when or if that will ever happen is anyone’s guess, as all other activists in the country have either been jailed or exiled.

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Todd Jaquith

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