Maria Alyokhina

Pussy Riot participant, co-founder of Mediazona and Zona Prava, an organisation dedicated to the protection of prisoners' rights.

On 4 March 2012, she was detained on suspicion of participation in the action of the punk group Pussy Riot in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. After the detention she went on hunger strike for some time. She was sent to a pre-trial detention centre. During the investigation she was on hunger strike for some time due to the extension of the detention period. She was found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in a general regime colony. During her stay in a colony in Perm Krai, she went on hunger strike for some time due to the harsh conditions of detention. She was denied parole.

On 23 December 2013, Alyokhina was amnestied.

On 27 January 2021, Alyokhina was detained as part of a criminal case for violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, and her flat was searched. On 29 January, the court sent Alyokhina under house arrest. Later she was charged with incitement to violate the rules.

On 10 September, she was sentenced to a year of restricted freedom. On 21 April 2022, due to the fact that Alyokhina cut off the electronic bracelet she was wearing, the court commuted her remaining sentence of 21 days to imprisonment. Alyokhina did not appear at the trial, and on 26 April it became known that she was wanted.

In September 2024, Alyokhina, along with four other members of Pussy Riot, was put on a wanted list in the case of spreading deliberately false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The reason was the clip "Mum, don't watch TV" and an anti-war action in a Munich museum.

On 15 September 2025, the court sentenced her in absentia to 13 years and 15 days in a general regime colony.