Maria Algoshina is the lead singer of the notorious Russian activist group Pussy Riot. She is touring Europe with her group after fleeing her home country disguised as a meal delivery service in mid-May. The orchestra raises funds for the Kyiv Children’s Hospital. “We want to be there for Ukraine,” Aljochina told NU.nl.

Maria Algochina (33) played in crowded homes in Germany for a week. Pussy Riot arrived Thursday evening in Amsterdam after a ten-hour flight and she and her band members Olga Borisova and Diana Burkut sat at the talk show table. in 1†

On Friday morning, they look pale together, about to fly to Leuven in Belgium for another show. On Saturday, Pussy Riot will return to Amsterdam to play there.

“I’m glad I can sing anywhere with the band,” says Aljochina. “Here we have a platform, we can make our voices heard. We are of course against the dictator Putin and his war. But we also want to tell you here in Western Europe that you have to stop buying Russian gas. I bought the money from you. The weapons that are now used in Ukraine. I looked to the other direction for years. France, Italy, and Germany even sold arms to Russia.”

Do not call her departure from Russia a trip

Aljochina appeared in the international press in mid-May after her stunning escape from the apartment where she was under house arrest. She decided to cut off her anklets, leave her phone at home, and dressed in a green meal-delivery man’s suit, slipped through the back door of the apartment complex where she was under house arrest.

She has openly described her departure from Russia as no trip. “I want to make my voice heard, that’s why I’m here. We’re on tour for 21 days. I want to be with the band, sing our new anti-war song. I don’t know what I’m going to do next.”

Pussy Riot has been warning for years about crimes committed by Putin and his clique in the Kremlin. In 2012, Alyoshina and her fellow band members were sentenced to two years in a penal camp for protesting the absolute power of the Russian leader by singing the song. Mother of God, deliver us from Putin to play in the church.

After their release from the penal camp, they announced that they would stop performing. They have already created an organization that defended human rights activists in Russia.

Since then, Pussy Riot members have continued to protest and have been regularly arrested. Aljochina has been arrested six times since last July alone, each time for no real reason. “We call it the arrest circuit,” says Aljochina. “We get arrested, they take us to a police station, and then it turns out that we ‘resisted’ something and we go to jail for two weeks.”

In February, Alyoshina was arrested over an Instagram post criticizing Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. The judge ruled it was “Nazi propaganda”. Alyochina: “For years I protested against the Nazis and now according to Putin I am one of them? Just like the entire Ukrainian people?”

‘We knew it was going to be a tough time’

Alyoshina was alone in a cell when Putin gave a lengthy speech on February 21, accusing Ukraine of harboring neo-Nazis and preparing for attacks on Russia. She heard the speech on the radio, and, in anger, she was alone in that cell. “Everyone knew we were going to have a hard time, and there’s nothing you can do about it. And what’s worse: reports of rapes and murders come in every day.”

On February 22, a day after Putin’s speech, Alyoshina was released and placed under house arrest. She was then held for another fifteen days, and again placed under house arrest. The situation became more difficult. Especially after a new law was passed that would put Kremlin critics in prison for 15 years if they spread “false news,” according to the authorities.

At the beginning of May, the Pussy Riot singer managed to escape in disguise. With the help of a Western embassy (which you won’t mention) I got the correct papers and was eventually able to cross the Belarus-Lithuania border without any problems.

Money for Ukrainian Children’s Hospital

During this tour, Pussy Riot raises funds for the children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, where the victims of the Russian bombings lie. Also, part of the proceeds from the sale of goods will go to Ukraine.

Alyoshina would like to go to Ukraine herself, but she does not know if she will be welcome there as a Russian at the moment. This war has left deep wounds that may take generations to heal.”