Maria Alyokhina first came to the attention of Russian authorities – and the world – when her punk band and performance-art group Pussy Riot staged a protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral.
For that act of rebellion in 2012, she was sentenced to two years in prison for “hooliganism.” She remained determined to fight Mr. Putin’s system of repression, even after being jailed six more times since the summer, each stint for 15 days, always on trumped-up charges aimed at stifling her political activism.
But in April, as Mr. Putin cracked down harder to snuff out any criticism of his war in Ukraine, authorities announced that her effective house arrest would be converted to 21 days in a penal colony. She decided it was time to leave Russia – at least temporarily – and disguised herself as a food courier to evade the Moscow police officers who had been staking out the friend’s apartment where she was staying. She left her cellphone behind as a decoy and to avoid being tracked.
A friend drove her to the border with Belarus, and it took her a week to cross into Lithuania. In a studio apartment in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, she agreed to an interview to describe a dissident’s harrowing escape from Putin’s Russia.
“I was happy that I made it, because it was an unpredictable and big” kiss-off to Russian authorities, Ms. Alyokhina said, using a less polite term. “I still don’t understand completely what I’ve done,” she said.
Ms. Alyokhina, 33, 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 freed early from prison in December, 2013, she and another member of Pussy Riot founded Mediazona, an independent news outlet focused on crime and punishment in Russia.
She also wrote a memoir, Riot Days, and travelled internationally performing a show based on the book. Although her dream was to tour with it in Russia, only three venues agreed to host the show, and all faced repercussions.
Ms. Alyokhina was committed to remaining in Russia despite regular surveillance and pressure from authorities. But now she has joined the tens of thousands of Russians who have fled since the invasion of Ukraine.
During the interview she was surrounded by other members of the group, now a collective with about a dozen members. Most of them had also recently fled Russia, including her girlfriend, Lucy Shtein.
Ms. Shtein had chosen to leave Russia a month before, also evading restrictions on her movement by sneaking out in a delivery service uniform. Her decision came after someone posted a sign on the door of the apartment she shared with Ms. Alyokhina accusing them of being traitors.
Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Shtein were once imprisoned for Instagram posts calling for the release of political prisoners in Russia. In February, Ms. Alyokhina was sentenced to 15 days for “propaganda of Nazi symbolism” over another Instagram post, this one from 2015, that criticized Mr. Putin’s ally, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Ms. Shtein was detained at the same time on similar charges.
“They are scared because they cannot control us,” Ms. Alyokhina said.
By the time she arrived at Belarus’s border with Lithuania, she had a Lithuanian visa that she tried to use with her Russian domestic ID, as Russia had confiscated her passport. By then she had been placed on Russia’s “wanted” list.
In her first attempt to cross, Ms. Alyokhina was held by Belarusian border guards for six hours before being sent back. On her second try, the incredulous officer on duty just sent her away. But on the third try, she got through.
She eventually boarded a bus to Lithuania.
In Vilnius, Ms. Alyokhina’s phone buzzed with messages of support and relief that she was now “safe” after the week-long journey. Ms. Alyokhina chafed at these well-intentioned expressions, which she said were off the mark. “If your heart is free,” she said, “it doesn’t matter where you are.”
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