Name: Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina Escapes Russia Amid Putin’s Crackdown on Dissidents
Brand: pitchfork.com
SKU: pitchfork-com-35
Availability: OnlineOnly
Rating: 100 (1 reviews)

critic

Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina Escapes Russia Amid Putin’s Crackdown on Dissidents

preview

One of Putin’s most prominent detractors, best known for her work as a member of the Russian activist punk band and performance art collective, has fled the country amid the war with Ukraine.

Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina has fled Russia amid President Vladimir V. Putin’s war on Ukraine and crackdown on dissidents. In the past year, Alyokhina was jailed multiple times for short stints—attempts to stifle her activism when she was arrested, for example, at an anti-Putin rally. In April, when authorities announced that her house arrest would turn into 21 days in a penal colony, she decided to exit the country. A new report from The New York Times outlines the punk activist’s efforts to evade Russian authorities and find her way across the border.

Alyokhina had been staying at a friend’s apartment and said Moscow police were staking the place out. She reportedly slipped away disguised as a food courier and left her phone behind to avoid being tracked. Likely because the Russian government had confiscated her passport, Alyokhina said she was turned away by border guards in Belarus two different times. During the time when she was attempting to cross, she was placed on Russia’s “wanted” list.

Her friend Ragnar Kjartansson, the Icelandic performance artist who has collaborated with the National, reportedly convinced a European country to issue Alyokhina a travel document that essentially offered her European Union citizenship status. With that document ensuring safe passage, she made it beyond the Belarus border and traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania.

“I still don’t understand completely what I’ve done,” Alyokhina told The Times. She added: “A lot of magic happened last week. It sounds like a spy novel.” Read the full story, called “Leader of Pussy Riot Band Escapes Russia, With Help From Friends,” at The New York Times.

Alyokhina has vocally opposed Vladimir Putin for over a decade, most notably with the 2012 performance titled “Punk Prayer” at a cathedral in Moscow. She was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Two months into the sentence, she was sent to finish her two-year term at a women’s prison camp in Siberia. Alyokhina was released under an amnesty law in December 2013, discharged only two months before her sentence was scheduled to end. She has since traveled and performed internationally. She also founded the Russian courts and law enforcement watchdog publication MediaZona.

One of Putin’s most prominent detractors, best known for her work as a member of the Russian activist punk band and performance art collective, has fled the country amid the war with Ukraine.

Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina has fled Russia amid President Vladimir V. Putin’s war on Ukraine and crackdown on dissidents. In the past year, Alyokhina was jailed multiple times for short stints—attempts to stifle her activism when she was arrested, for example, at an anti-Putin rally. In April, when authorities announced that her house arrest would turn into 21 days in a penal colony, she decided to...

Investigative

public

Journalist, critic, news editor @pitchfork, member of @p4kunion, he/him

Evan Minsker

The most trusted voice in music 〰️ @pitchforkfest for festival info and tickets 🎟️

pitchfork.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Andy Miller

Pussy Riot’s Masha Alyokhina Escapes Russia Amid Putin’s Crackdown on Dissidents

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS