Maria Alyokhina

A member of Pussy Riot, co-founder of Mediazona and the organisation "Zona Prava", which focuses on defending 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 a time. She was sent to a pre-trial detention centre. During the investigation, she again went on hunger strike in protest against the extension of her detention. She was found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in a general regime colony. While in the colony in Perm Krai, she again went on hunger strike over the harsh conditions of detention. She was denied parole.

On 23 December 2013, Alyokhina was granted amnesty.

On 27 January 2021, Alyokhina was detained in connection with a criminal case on violating sanitary and epidemiological rules; her flat was searched. On 29 January, the court placed her under house arrest. She was later charged with incitement to violate regulations.

On 10 September, she was sentenced to a year of restriction of liberty. 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 had been declared wanted.

In September 2024, Alyokhina, along with four other Pussy Riot members, was put on a wanted list in the case of spreading deliberately false information about the Russian Armed Forces. 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.