Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova Added to Russia’s Most Wanted Criminals List

Nadya Tololonnikova, the most visible member of the artist-activist collective Pussy Riot, is now on Russia’s most wanted criminals list. The Associated Press reports that earlier today a Russian news outlet, Mediazona, found Tolokonnikova’s name on the Russian Interior Ministry’s database, which claimed Tolokonnikova faced criminal charges without specifying what those charges are.

“Oopsie, I was just added to Russia’s federal wanted list,” Tolokonnikova wrote on Instagram next to a photo of herself flipping the bird. Tolokonnikova believes the charges relate to her art.

In 2012, Tolokonnikova and other members of the collective staged a demonstration in a Moscow cathedral, which they dubbed a “Punk Prayer,” begging Mother Mary to “drive away” the country’s president, Vladimir Putin. She and two others were later convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” and she subsequently spent two years in prison. She has continued using the Pussy Riot name to speak out against Putin and champion women’s and LGBTQ people’s rights. In 2021, Russian authorities dubbed her a “foreign agent.” (Tolokonnikova reportedly lives in the U.S., according to the AP. Earlier this year, she told Rolling Stone she was still a Russian citizen and would not seek refugee status.)

Earlier this year, Tolokonnikova’s lawyer, Pavel Chikov, claimed that the Russian government had made a criminal case against her for offending religious beliefs. Ironically, the law in question is known colloquially as the “Pussy Riot Law,” passed after the group’s “Punk Prayer.”

Tolokonnikova remains active in the art and music spaces, creating works that reflect her activist outlook. In January, art dealer Jeffrey Deitch opened an exhibit for an installation she made called Putin’s Ashes, in which she and other women who feel wronged by the Russian president burnt an effigy of him and collected the ashes. Earlier this month, she curated an auction for Sotheby’s, titled My Body, My Business. It featured works by many notable female artists, including Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, and Marina Abramovic, among others. Proceeds from the sales benefited Planned Parenthood and other organizations that support sexual and reproductive health care, education, and rights.

Tolokonnikova believes the charges stem from the attention she got for Putin’s Ashes, including articles in The New Yorker and Los Angeles Times. “Coincidentally my Instagram vanished and this new criminal case was announced within a week of the show,” she said in a statement. “Police detained friends and family, and my lawyers sent me the documents they found.

“Any truly political artist risks their personal safety for the sake of their art,” she continued. “It is not a new concept for me. They threaten us but we cannot show fear. I will use the tools I have as an artist and crypto enthusiast to keep fighting. I’m not a soldier, I’m an artist, art is my weapon. Glad to see they are scared.”

The Russian government’s court papers related to the “Pussy Riot Law” also refer to an NFT that Tolokonnikova was selling in Sept. 2021 that portrayed the Virgin Mary in the form of a vagina. “A publication containing signs of insult, an expression of obvious disrespect in relation to the icon image the Virgin Mary, depicted in an obscene form, so that the image is perceived as outwardly similar to the anatomical details of the female external genitalia,” the papers say (in a translation furnished by Tolokonnikova), “that is, it visually repeats them, thereby expressing disrespect, disregard for the image revered in Christianity.”

In recent years, she has consistently spoken out against Putin and his policies. At a New York concert last year, she told the audience, “I love peace. I support Ukraine. Fuck Putin. I hope he dies soon.”

This year, when Rolling Stone asked her about the pending “Pussy Riot Law” charges, she said the charges validated her. “My job is to hurt Putin as much as possible, and [the threat of lawsuits] means that he and people around him are actually getting hurt by Putin’s Ashes, so that’s great news,” she said. “I’ll keep doing my work and keep pushing.”

When asked if there was ever a scenario in which she’d stop speaking out against Putin, she said there was only one. “Well, if he’s tried as a war criminal in the International Criminal Court of the Hague, then I’ll happily focus on something else,” she said. “But before that, I’ll just continue pushing.”

From Rolling Stone US.