Despite constant surveillance by the Russian police, Pussy Riot activist Maria Aljoschina fled the country and is now allegedly in Lithuania.
Pussy Riot members Yekaterina Zamutsevish, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyoshina in court in Moscow Friday, July 20, 2012.
(dpa)
According to her lawyer, the activist of the punk band Pussy Riot, Maria Aljoschina, left Russia via an unknown route despite police surveillance. Alyoshina is no longer on Russian territory, her lawyer Daniil Berman said on Tuesday evening, according to the Interfax agency. According to unconfirmed reports, she is said to have left her place of residence in the uniform of a food delivery service.
The New York Times (May 10) reported that Alyoshina is now in Vilnius. An acquaintance brought her to the Belarusian border in a car and then reached Lithuania after about a week. No further details about the course of the escape were given. “I’m glad I made it,” she was quoted as saying.
Alyokhina has repeatedly come into conflict with the Russian judiciary. In September of the previous year, she was sentenced to one year of imprisonment in connection with calls for demonstrations for the imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny. She was not allowed to leave her apartment at night. Since the beginning of the year, she has been picked up several times by the security authorities on various allegations.
Alyoshina was sentenced to two years in a prison camp with her bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova in 2012. She had protested against President Vladimir Putin in a church.
