Olga Borisova, a member of Pussy Riot, said that she was not allowed to enter Georgia without explanation, where she was returning after the group's European tour. She wrote on Twitter that she has no other place of residence, she rents an apartment in Tbilisi, her boyfriend stayed there. After the refusal, she was put on a return flight to Istanbul.
The European tour of Pussy Riot was organized in support of Ukrainians affected by the war.
On April 26, another member of the Pussy Riot group, Maria Alyokhina, convicted in the Sanitary Case, was put on the wanted list. On April 21, Alyokhina's probation for "sanitary affairs" was replaced with a real one.
In May Alyokhina left Russia to join the tour. She told The New York Times how she managed to leave the apartment and then the country.
Alyokhina, who was under house arrest and had to wear an electronic bracelet due to her freedom restriction, escaped dressed in a Delivery Club courier uniform. She left her cell phone to avoid being tracked.
As the Pussy Riot member told the publication, a friend took her to the border with Belarus. From there, the activist reached the border with Lithuania with a visa from this country and an internal Russian passport - the security forces took the passport. On her third attempt, and with the help of Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, she was able to cross the border. According to the NYT, the artist obtained a travel document from one of the European countries for the activist.
Olga Borisova explained to The Insider that Alyokhina did not leave Russia forever, but went on tour.
On April 26, Alyokhina, convicted on a "sanitary case", was put on the wanted list. According to Alyokhina, she spent at least 90 days in a special detention center over the past year. In the fall of 2021, Alyokhina was assigned a year of restriction of freedom in the "sanitary" case.
The so-called "sanitary case" was launched after a protest in support of Alexei Navalny on January 23. According to investigators, the oppositionist’s associates and activists called on people on social networks to participate in a rally on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow, thus creating a threat of infection with the coronavirus.
In total, 11 people went through the “sanitary case”, among them, in addition to Alyokhina, Oleg Navalny, FBK lawyer Lyubov Sobol, Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh, and Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Alliance of Doctors.
On February 7, the police detained Alyokhina after visiting the inspector of the Federal Penitentiary Service, the next day the court sentenced her to 15 days for displaying Nazi symbols on Instagram. On February 28, the Khamovniki Court of Moscow arrested Alyokhina for 15 days for "disobedience to a police officer." On March 14, Alyokhina received another 15 days under Art. 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
