Former Pussy Riot member escapes Russia after 3 years of forced work for FSB

Former Pussy Riot member Rita Flores was forcibly recruited by Russia's Security Service (FSB) as an intelligence asset for three years before she was able to escape Russia, she said in an interview with Port Media on Aug. 24.

According to Flores, whose real name is Margarita Konovalova, the FSB recruited her in 2023 after conducting searches of her apartment.

"They began recruiting me, threatening me in every possible way, humiliating me, saying some very unpleasant things, threatening to kill my family and telling me that I would never in my life be able to prove who killed my mother," Flores said.

"They attacked me personally, telling me how disgusting and horrible I was, that they would turn me into the biggest Satan in all of Russia."

The FSB initially ordered her to provide information on artists and political activists both within and outside of Russia and took her passport so she couldn't leave the country. According to Flores, they reportedly wanted her to help develop some into fellow "assets" and to help line up new targets for criminal cases.

In an Instagram post, Flores described those three years as being defined by "prolonged depression... complete, unrelenting derealization, PTSD from being followed and surveilled... several attempts at suicide, and so, so, so much more."

The pressure from the FSB ramped up when they tried to force her to help lure Mediazona co-founder and activist Pyotr Verzilov to Serbia so they could murder him.

According to Flores, she contacted lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov afterward and managed to stall the FSB's demands until she was finally able to escape Russia.

The Kyiv Independent reached out to Verzilov after the revelation.

"The FSB has been trying to kill me for the last 10 years in various parts of the world," Verzilov said.

"Their repeated attempts in the last several years are a testament of the work we do, first of all of the work focused on the defense of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression."

Without providing details of her escape, Flores thanked Zakhvatov and businessman Leonid Nevzlin for being among those who helped her leave the country.

She did not disclose where she is currently located, only that she went public to offer hope to those in the same situation.