The Pussy Riot activist turned Kremlin informer
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How did Pussy Riot’s anti-Putin protest lead to prison sentences?
This is The Guardian.
Today, the pussy riot artist who turned Kremlin informer. A quick warning before we start, there is some strong language in this episode. It's January 2012 in Red Square, Moscow. Snow covers the cobbles and dusts the onion globes of St Basil's Cathedral. The clock on the Kremlin chimes 11am. Eight women in colourful balaclavas leap onto a stone platform, worn with an electric guitar.
It's
Pussy Riot, a new feminist punk band, and their latest song. Putin has chickened out. Or pissed himself, to use the band's preferred translation. It's quite a punchy number. You can watch it all on YouTube, but I'll translate the first verse for you. The rebellious column is heading to the Kremlin. Windows are exploding in FSB offices. Bitches are pissing behind the red walls. Riot declares abortion on the system. Inspired by the Arab Spring the previous year, Pussy Riot hoped to bring revolution to Russia and stop Vladimir Putin becoming president for the third time. But it wasn't to be. The state cracked down hard.
I spent two years in prison. Then it became more like a movement. Many people started to support us and put balaclavas on. So these colorful masks, balaclavas, turned from the symbol of being anonymous to the symbol of protest and solidarity.
Abroad, Pussy Riot became celebrated freedom fighters.
These three girls, Masha, Katya, Nadia.
Yes.
But at home in Russia, they were treated as enemies of the state.
In December, the so-called High Court named Pussy Riot an extremist organization. So now all the symbols, including balaclava, are by Russian law an extremist symbol.
And then, in August this year, another video featuring a Pussy Riot member went viral.
Today we have Rita Flores.
This time, it wasn't a punk performance.
Rita
Flores had a confession. She was an informant for the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, she said. And now, she wants to tell her story.
From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pitt.
Who is Rita Flores, and how did she become connected to Pussy Riot?
Today in Focus, from pussy riots to Putin's spy.
Sean Walker, welcome back to Today in Focus.
Hi.
Great to see you. So remind me, what's your job title?
It's just changed. It's now Special Correspondent.
Oh, Special Correspondent. I actually think of you as our spy correspondent. And the last time we were chatting on the show was about this fascinating network of illegals, these Russian spies who spend years, decades undercover. And you, of course, wrote a great book about all of that called The Illegals. But your latest exclusive... and it's a cracking one, is also related to the spy world, isn't it? You were the first journalist to interview this member of Pussy Riot who has escaped Russia and confessed to being a spy. Who is she?
So, you know, Rita Flores is 29, so she was quite young back when Pussy Riot first made the headlines. The original Pussy Riot group was a kind of loose band of women who had this kind of Riot Grrrl punk aesthetic. In all of their public appearances, they would wear balaclavas. So the idea was that they were kind of anonymous, that it could be any woman. They had an explicitly feminist, anti-Putin, anti-religion, anti-conservatism agenda. And they would do these kind of dramatic and very visual art performances. The most notable of which, and the one that later ended up with three of them getting arrested and then jailed for many years, was when they did what they called a punk prayer. Calling for the Virgin Mary to kick out Putin inside Moscow's biggest cathedral.
people may remember back then that it was used by the authorities when Putin was just back in power after spending four years as prime minister and he was building himself up with this new image of a kind of traditional values leader.
I would like to
say that
our country, while going through complex and turbulent processes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, could not, neither the country nor each individual, rely morally on anything other than religious values.
Three of the women who'd been involved in it were arrested. It was a very high-profile trial in Moscow.
Our clients have not committed any sort of crime, so we will consider any decision other than acquittal to be illegal.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Pussy Riot’s anti-Putin protest lead to prison sentences?
0:00–3:09
2
Who is Rita Flores, and how did she become connected to Pussy Riot?
3:09–7:41
3
How did Russia’s invasion of Ukraine intensify repression of activists?
7:41–9:03
4
How did Rita Flores reveal she had been working for the FSB?
9:03–10:38
5
How did the FSB recruit Rita Flores and pressure her to inform?
10:38–16:36
6
What information did Rita Flores pass to the FSB, and did she sabotage her assignments?
16:36–22:11
7
How did Masha Alyokhina escape Russia, and why did she help Rita Flores?
22:11–28:05
8
How does Kremlin infiltration create fear and distrust among Russian opposition groups?
28:05–31:14
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Today in Focus
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