She sits on stage dressed in black, smoking an e-cigarette, her blond, curly hair flowing down from her thick knit cap. The unrelenting Maria Alyokhina, a 37-year-old activist and performance artist best-known as a member of Pussy Riot, is presenting her new book "Political Girl: Life and Fate in Russia" in Cologne as part of the literary festival lit.COLOGNE. Maria Alyokhina is one of several women who staged a protest the evening before Vladimir Putin was reelected president of Russia
The charges stem from an April 2024 protest at Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne museum, where Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina, Alina Petrova, and Anastasia "Taso" Pletner condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine. During their performance, the group called Vladimir Putin a war criminal, and Pletner urinated on a portrait of the Russian president. Meanwhile, prosecutors claimed Alyokhina, Pletner, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot, and Alina Petrova spread "false information" about Russian soldiers killing Ukrainian civilians in their "Mama, Don't Watch TV" video.