MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Moscow court on Tuesday put Lyusya Shtein, a member of Pussy Riot who fled abroad, on an international wanted list for spreading knowingly “fake” information about the Russian armed forces, state news agency TASS reported.
After President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has passed a series of laws which impose tough punishments on anyone who is deemed to have discredited the armed forces or spread false news about them.
TASS cited a source at Moscow’s Basmanny court as saying that Shtein would be arrested as soon as she entered Russia. It did not say what specific information Shtein was accused of spreading about the armed forces.
Pussy Riot, a feminist opposition group, rose to prominence by donning balaclavas and storming into Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Feb. 2012, shouting out a song against Putin.
Lauded by some in the West for challenging the assumptions of Putin’s Russia, Russian officials say the group has intentionally tried to be disrespectful of Russian culture, morality and Orthodoxy.
Shtein, 27, who was previously a municipal deputy of a Moscow district, fled Russia after escaping house arrest.
She said she was able to escape by changing into the uniform of a food delivery man. On her Instagram account, she posted a photo of a tracking bracelet cut from her leg.
While in Russia, Shtein was repeatedly arrested by Russian police for participating in protest rallies. During one of these arrests in December 2021, Shtein, along with another Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, went on hunger strike.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
