Punk rocker Maria Alyokhina's amazing escape from Putin's Russia

The leader of the P***y Riot, a punk rock band that has been challenging the conservative Putin regime for many years successfully escaped from Russia. Maria Alyokhina, better known as Masha has managed to flee the country in a surprising way.

Masha recounted her adventure to The New York Times. She said her escape was like something out of a spy movie.

In order not to be recognized, she and her girlfriend (both under house arrest) disguised themselves as food couriers so as to leave the building where their home is located and thus circumvent police surveillance.

Photo: Instagram@eitmedia

According to what Masha tells The New York Times, the support of a group of friends was key to her escape from Russia. A friend took her to the border of Belarus. But there she had to wait for days before leaving the country known as a faithful ally of Putin and always ready to arrest any dissident that Russia demands.

Masha hide in Belarus for a week until she was able to cross the border into Lithuania, safe territory. But she didn't make it the first time.

The Russian authorities were looking for her and, in fact, in a first attempt to cross the border, the Belarusian guards held her for six hours and did not let her pass.

On a second occasion, the official simply told her to go away. And surprisingly, on the third try she was allowed to cross the border. The Kafkaesque absurdity (and, so often, ineffective) of autocratic regimes.

Masha fled because she was waiting to be sent to a prison. The conditions of her sentence of house arrest were changed to coincide with the war in Ukraine and that did not bode well.

The rocker left her smartphone turned on at her home as a decoy, convinced that the Russian security services geolocate dissidents like her through their phone signal.

The New York Times article specifies that Masha, as a well-known militant, suffers constant persecution in Moscow, and in the months prior to fleeing she was arrested every 15 days on false charges with the idea of curbing her political activism.

The Putin regime has a special aversion to P***y Riot for their radicalism when it comes to denouncing heteropatriarchy and their relious irreverence.

In fact, three members of the band were tried and sentenced to two years in prison for breaking into the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow in an act of protest.

The Russian authorities failed to see the impact that the images of three very young rockers would have being tried with security measures typical of those accused of terrorism. Images like this, went viral around the world.

Currently, P***y Riot is more than just a punk rock band. It is a feminist protest collective that has also achieved international resonance. That puts them on the list of Putin's greatest enemies.

One of her lines of combat is in favor of LGTBIQ+ rights, absolutely threatened in Russia. P***y Riot would not give up in that fight and they have known the legal consequences of doing so.

In The New York Times article, Masha's return to Russia is not ruled out. But she certainly won't be going back any time soon.

Today, says the rocker and activist "I no longer believe that Russia has the right to exist." Difficult to return home uttering phrases like that.

The climate for those who criticize Putin is suffocating in Russia. Masha, like other activists, has been prosecuted for a simple post on Instagram that the authorities judge "against the interests of Russia" or that they consider to be "propaganda of Nazism".

What both Masha and her companions and fellow militants are clear about is that they will continue their fight from exile.

For Maria Alyokhina, Masha, only escape remained. And it was enough to dress up as a delivery girl and leave her building to outwit the dreaded Russian police. Sometimes boldness works.