Former Pussy Riot member leaves Russia: The FSB forced me to infiltrate the opposition

Rita Flores, a former member of the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot, has said that threats of criminal prosecution forced her to work for Russia’s FSB security service and infiltrate opposition circles.

The 29-year-old, who had been involved with Pussy Riot since 2020, left Russia last month after cooperating with Russian intelligence for around three years. In an interview with The Guardian, she said she decided to flee when she was asked to take part in an operation against a pro-Ukrainian activist.

According to Flores, the FSB recruited her in February 2023, when the authorities were monitoring her over criticism of Russia’s military actions in Ukraine that she had posted on social media.

She said intelligence agents gave her an ultimatum, warning that they would open criminal proceedings against her if she refused to cooperate.

“I believed they could do whatever they said,” Flores said. She explained that she agreed out of fear for her own safety and that of her family.

After being recruited, Flores claims she was assigned several missions, mainly focused on obtaining information about people with ties to the Russian opposition.

One of the most serious assignments, she said, targeted pro-Ukrainian activist Pyotr Verzilov. He had been associated with Pussy Riot and later left for Ukraine.

Flores says her FSB handlers asked her to travel to Serbia, meet Verzilov and help set up a trap intended to kill him.

However, before the plan could be carried out, she sought help from a lawyer, collected her belongings and left Russia.

Flores now intends to make her experience public, as well as what she alleges is the Kremlin’s use of infiltrators within opposition circles.

She described the practice as a “mass phenomenon” and also spoke about the pressure exerted on Russia’s artistic community.

According to Flores, those who have continued to live in Russia have been forced to adapt to rules set by the authorities. “You go to a gallery and every work might have a sign saying: ‘We are forbidden from saying anything,’” she said.

The Guardian published Flores’s account, which includes her claims about her years of cooperation with the Russian security services and the reasons that prompted her to leave the country.