Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova added to Russia’s wanted list following indiction
Pussy Riot co-founder, Nadya Tolokonnikova, has landed on Russia’s federal wanted list after being indicted following an investigation carried out by Russia’s Investigative Committee.
After being named a “foreign agent” by Russia’s Ministry of Justice in 2021, Tolokonnikova has been newly accused of violating Russia’s “foreign agent law”.
As per Billboard, she is accused of flouting Part 2 of Article 330.1 of the national criminal code. Breaking this code carries a punishment of up to two years’ prison, offences including failing to register, or failing to label social media posts correctly.
In 2024, she was found twice guilty of administrative offences for violating foreign agent regulations. She was also accused of distributing materials on a messaging platform without the needed “foreign agent” label.
Renewed attention landed upon the group in the last week, after they staged a protest outside of the Manhattan offices of tech company Ubiquiti on March 27th, highlighting claims that the company’s Wi-Fi equipment is being used by Russian soldiers in their ongoing war against Ukraine.
In December, the masked Russian feminist collective was labelled as an extremist organisation in Russia, with officials in the country having banned its activities.
In reaction to that update, Tolokonnikova shared a defiant statement, saying: “When I was tried for the punk prayer, facing seven years in a labour camp, I told the judge and prosecutors that I was still freer than they would ever be. Today, exiled from my own country, I still feel the same.”
Tolokonnikova’s latest focus has been on Russia’s return to the Venice Biennale, one of the oldest cultural institutions in Europe. She recently penned an open letter online that reads, “Accommodating official state representation while curating ‘dissent’ risks turning the latter into a performative gesture and virtue-signalling rather than a position.”
Tolokonnikova’s latest indictment comes as no shock to the group; a rep shared a statement for Billboard, promising that this update “will not stop her from protesting Russia’s return to Venice Biennale”.
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