A former member of the Russian protest group Pussy Riot says Russia’s FSB security service coerced her into informing on Kremlin critics for three years. She says she left Russia this month.
Rita Flores, whose real name is Margarita Konovalova, described the alleged cooperation in a video interview published on August 24. DR reports that she says the FSB forced her to work for the service from 2023 onward.
According to her account, agents threatened to kill her family and to make her disappear if she refused. She says she was told to report on what other artists she knew were doing. She describes sitting at a table, forbidden to move or look away.
Deutsche Welle reports that she operated under the codename Harley and has stopped active participation in Pussy Riot. The German broadcaster identifies the interview as published on the YouTube channel PortVideo, together with the Russian human rights lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov.
Meduza reports that the recruitment followed a search of her Moscow apartment in February 2023. Per Meduza, her assignments included informing on the performance artist Pavel Krisevich and on Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina. She says the FSB also threatened her with prosecution over social media posts about the killing of civilians in Bucha, near Kyiv.
Another target was the street artist Philippenzo, from Volgograd. According to The Art Newspaper, he fled Russia in 2023, when he risked three years in prison over a work describing Russia’s war in Ukraine as a rape. Flores says she provoked arguments with several artists to avoid completing the tasks.
She also says she was paid for the work. UA.news cites her saying the amount was 50,000 rubles a month. The Kyiv Independent reports that the FSB took her passport and demanded information on artists and activists both inside and outside Russia.
Flores has now left Russia with help from Zakhvatov, who says he assisted her about 10 days before the interview appeared. She has not disclosed her current location. She urges others recruited by the FSB to contact Zakhvatov for advice on leaving the country.
Zakhvatov was sentenced in absentia to 21 years in prison by a Russian military court in 2021, for helping Ukraine’s military. Russia’s Ministry of Justice has also designated him a foreign agent.
Claims not independently verified
DR states that neither it nor the other outlets reporting the story have been able to confirm Flores’ statements. The FSB has not commented on the allegations. Europa Press also notes that the account rests on her own testimony.
