Pussy Riot band member Maria Alyokhina escapes Russia dressed as food courier after criticising Putin | World News

Political activist and member of the Russian band Pussy Riot has reportedly fled the country disguised as a food courier after criticising Vladimir Putin.

Maria Alyokhina and her fellow band members first got here to the attention of the Russian authorities after staging a protest towards the Russian president inside Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral in 2012.

Despite being sentenced to two years in prison for their activism, the group continued to talk out against the Kremlin chief, with Ms Alyokhina remaining decided to fight Mr Putin's system.

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After being released from jail, she continued her activism and set up a news outlet targeted on crime and punishment in Russia, known as Mediazona, with another member of the band.

In April, Russian authorities placed her underneath home arrest as they tried to stop these within the nation who opposed their invasion of Ukraine.

The 33-year-old was then ordered to spend 21 days in a penal colony.

Nonetheless, the band chief managed to evade the Moscow police by disguising herself as a food courier and leaving her cellphone behind as a decoy.

She was then in a position to cross into Lithuania after in search of the help of an artist from Iceland, who secured her travel paperwork.

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Evaluating her story to a "spy novel", Ms Alyokhina instructed The New York Occasions: "I was joyful that I made it, because it was an unpredictable and large kiss-off to the Russian authorities.

"I nonetheless do not perceive fully what I've done."

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Ms Alyokhina added: "I don't think Russia has a proper to exist anymore.

"Even earlier than, there were questions about how it's united, by what values it is united, and the place it is going. However now I do not think that could be a query anymore."

In 2019, fellow bandmate Nadya Tolokonikova spoke to Sky News about her time in a jail camp and protests going down in Russia.