A member of Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot, who escaped Russia while dressed as a food delivery driver, has been placed on an international wanted list by a Moscow court.
Key points:
- Pussy Riot member Lucy Shtein had been under house arrest for months before her escape
- Her girlfriend used the same tactic to flee Russia just a month later
- The Russian government passed new laws against speaking about the military after the Ukraine invasion
Longtime Kremlin critic and political activist Lucy Shtein, 27, had been sentenced to house arrest after promoting a protest calling for the release of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s imprisoned opposition leader.
Russian state news agency TASS cited a sourced at Moscow’s Basmanny court as saying Shtein was wanted for spreading knowingly “fake” information about the Russian armed forces.
They did not say what specific information she was accused of spreading. If she ever returns to Russia, she will be immediately arrested.
Pussy Riot rose to prominence by donning balaclavas and storming into Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February 2012, shouting out a song against President Vladimir Putin.
Lauded by some in the West for challenging Mr Putin, Russian officials have said the group has intentionally tried to be disrespectful of Russian culture, morality and Orthodoxy.
Just hours after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Shtein told the Guardian mid-last year, she knew it was time to escape.
While under house arrest, she had been fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet 24 hours a day. Police patrolled the street outside.
“I realised I could no longer stay in Russia,” she said in the interview, given only after her girlfriend had also escaped the country.
“I have worn different disguises before to dodge the police. Sometimes I would wear long coats, I even dressed as a construction worker once.
“It was really convenient that delivery couriers have such big bags. I even managed to put my beloved [pet rat] in the bag.”
The escape, she said, was “foolproof”. After a series of pre-planned car trips, the former local deputy arrived in Lithuania.
Her girlfriend and one of Pussy Riot’s founding members, Masha Alyokhina, used the same tactic to escape Russia a month later.
After war broke out in Ukraine, Russia passed a series of laws imposing tough punishments on anyone deemed to have discredited the armed forces or spread false news about them.
ABC/Reuters