Pussy Riot is performing at the Funkas in Berlin today

Maria Alyogina, a Russian activist and musician from the Pussy Riot band, has fled Moscow and returned to Berlin. He was recently placed under police surveillance due to his anti-Kremlin attitude. To avoid further obstacles and go on a concert tour with his band, he has now decided to leave the country, Ajokina told rbb.

With their concerts at the Funkhaus in Treptow-Köpenick in Berlin on Thursday, the band say they want to protest against politics in their home country and support the Ukrainians.

The Pussy Riot song, recorded in 2014 for the Sochi Winter Olympics, says “Putin will teach you to love your homeland.” Putin and the love of the motherland? The paradox, of course, says Maria Alyogina. “I think Putin can only teach us to hate: he and his actions. In Russia and now in Ukraine. These are crimes. Yes, this is the only thing we can learn from him,” the activist emphasized in an interview with RPP.

That is why we must fight against Putin and his crimes. Do not stop the struggle. Help victims such as Ukrainian refugees.

Maria Aljocchina wants to go on a concert tour for this, she says: Raise your voice with your fellow campaigners – and donate the proceeds of the concert to the refugee organization. That’s why Alyogina now had to leave Russia, where he would have been threatened with three more weeks in prison – and the tour would have collapsed, as he says.

“Being in detention for more or less 21 days is not the only problem,” says Alyogina. “But I’m determined that I can spend my time more meaningfully. I’ve been in prison many times. Many times! Of course this is my decision.”

Maria Alyogina was imprisoned for two years in 2012 after a spontaneous Pussy riot at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. From this move, the band, founded a year ago by an artist collective, became known around the world. Alyogina has been in prison camps or under house arrest for the past year and a half. Will be strictly monitored 24 hours a day. She managed to escape though. In the role of the woman who serves the food.

“My girlfriend had an idea for a delivery service,” says Alyogina. She did the same thing three weeks ago and it was a little easier for her because, unlike me, she had a passport. But the distribution uniform was really helpful. “

Alyogina finally reached Berlin via Belarus, Lithuania and Iceland. Already in Belarus, the search for her took place because someone had stolen a travel document. Alyogina looks a little tired from the long journey. Again and again she had to answer phone calls and text messages. She has no time for herself.

Was she scared when she escaped? No, don’t worry, she says. On the contrary, she felt sad. And anger. The dream that one day the situation in Russia will change, she does not want to give up hope.

“I have faith. That’s why I like acting. I enjoyed it in the 1990s, I grew up in perestroika days. The Russians want freedom and I know it’s going to be wonderful,” he said.

But this freedom is also fragile – and Maria Alyogina firmly believes that it will not be under Putin. So he will continue to fight the Pussy riots against the Russian regime. With cheeky, contradictory punk songs and spontaneous actions.

And with his “Riot Days” show, he and his band will now be touring in Germany and other European countries. The focus is on the ongoing struggle in Ukraine and the demand for peace and freedom. The foreword will take place on Thursday evening in Funkas, Berlin.

Display: rbbKultur, 05/12/22, 7:10 am