Rita Flores, a Russian artist and activist formerly associated with the Pussy Riot collective, claims she was subjected to pressure from Russia’s FSB security service for three years. According to her, she was forced to cooperate, provide information about other activists and, ultimately, assist in an operation to abduct and kill a Kremlin opponent.
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The 29-year-old, whose real name is Margarita Konovalova, says her contact with the FSB began in February 2023, after police searched her home.
As she recounted, after the search she was approached by two men who introduced themselves as FSB officers. They allegedly threatened to launch criminal proceedings against her over an Instagram post in which she had condemned killings carried out by Russia in Ukraine, The Guardian reports.
Flores says the threats also extended to her mother. According to the artist, the officers told her they could arrange her mother’s murder if she refused to work for them.
She said she believed the threats and was convinced they could do everything they claimed. The fear, she said, was overwhelming, and she was worried both about her family and her own safety.
After agreeing to cooperate, Flores says she received only one payment, worth approximately 30,000-40,000 rubles.
Her initial assignments, according to her testimony, involved gathering information about other opposition artists and activists in her social circle.
The two officers who allegedly recruited her became her “handlers” and regularly arranged meetings with her. Flores describes one of them, whom she calls “Ivan,” as friendlier and focused on gaining her trust. She nicknamed the other one “Jacket” and says he appeared more aggressive and threatening.
According to Flores, Ivan told her that the FSB and he personally would “re-educate” her so that she would lead a quiet life, love Russia, have children and become an obedient wife.
Although she was ordered to keep her recruitment secret, the artist says she immediately told around 20 people what had happened.
She insists she did not provide the officers with the information they sought about other artists. Instead, Flores says she fabricated disputes with them in order to push them away and avoid obtaining sensitive information from them.
In May last year, she says, the FSB officers began asking her about Pyotr Verzilov. The activist, who was formerly associated with Pussy Riot, lives in Ukraine and is fighting against Russia in the ranks of the Ukrainian army.
Flores claims she was initially asked to find Verzilov’s address. The FSB then allegedly asked her to use her former friendship with him to persuade him to meet her in Serbia.
According to her account, the officers explained that Verzilov would be abducted and killed in Serbia by an FSB team. Flores says she was promised an additional payment of 50,000 rubles a month to carry out the assignment.
The Guardian has been unable to independently verify these claims. The newspaper notes, however, that cases of security services infiltrating Russian opposition groups have been documented in recent years.
While claiming that the FSB continued to use and threaten her, Flores began preparing to leave Russia.
She married her partner last September and, according to her account, used the marriage as a reason to avoid the mission in Serbia. She told the officers that her husband would not allow her to travel to meet another man.
Flores later contacted lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov, with whom she began organizing her departure from the country.
The method used to carry out the escape has not been disclosed. The reason given was that publishing the details could compromise methods that might be used in the future to help others in similar circumstances.
Flores managed to leave Russia at the end of August.
In her first media interview after leaving, she said that for the first time in many years she felt at peace. Flores added that throughout that period she had dreamed of escaping and being able to tell the whole story.
After leaving Russia, she and her lawyer released a video testimony. Flores said she wanted to encourage other people recruited by the FSB to sever ties with the security service.
Her story has been supported by several representatives of the Russian opposition living in exile. At the same time, she has been criticized because her cooperation continued for a long period.
Pussy Riot activist Masha Alekhina said that fear can change a person.
According to Alekhina, what matters is that Flores is now outside Russia and has spoken publicly about her experience. She added that, as far as she knows, no one was killed and no one ended up in prison as a result of Flores’s actions.
Flores now says she intends to help others who may face the same situation. She also believes that the FSB’s efforts to recruit activists are far more widespread than they appear publicly.
