Lucy Shtein | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Lyusya Shtein 1997 (age 26–27) |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Occupation | Political activist |
| Organization | Pussy Riot |
Lucy (Lyusya) Shtein is a Russian activist and member of punk-rock collective Pussy Riot.
Lucy Shtein | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | Lyusya Shtein 1997 (age 26–27) |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Occupation | Political activist |
| Organization | Pussy Riot |
Lucy (Lyusya) Shtein is a Russian activist and member of punk-rock collective Pussy Riot.
In 2021, Shtein was placed in house arrest in Moscow with her girlfriend, Maria Alyokhina, for supporting political prisoners in Russia. [1] [2] A tracking bracelet mounted to her ankle was used to track Shtein while she remained under house arrest. [3] Shtein, and later Alyokhina, used green food courier outfits to escape. [4] Shtein also smuggled her pet rat in the food delivery bag. [5] [6]
Shtein has spoken against laws in Russia that ban "LGBT propaganda", [7] and in 2022 she and other members of Pussy Riot performed at the pride parade in St. Petersburg, Florida. [8] In 2023, she and three other members of Pussy Riot protested the Ukraine war. [9]
In November 2023 a court in Russia charged Shtein with sharing fake news about the Russian military. [10] [11] In 2024, a Russian court sentenced her to six years in prison, in absentia, for posts on X in which she condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [12]
In response to Navalny's death in 2024, Pussy Riot members Shtein and Nadya Tolokonnikova took part in memorial action outside of the Russian Embassy in Berlin, along with Lyubov Sobol and Marina Ovsyannikova. [13]
Shtein has lived in Vilnius, Lithuania since her escape from Russia in 2022. [14] In 2023 the government of Iceland granted Shtein Icelandic citizenship via parliamentary decree. [15]
Yury Yakovlevich Chaika is a Russian lawyer and statesman who currently serves as the Presidential Envoy to the North Caucasian Federal District since 2020. He previously served as Prosecutor General of Russia from 2006 to 2020 and Minister of Justice from 1999 to 2006.
Femen is a Ukrainian radical feminist activist group whose goal is to protect women's rights. The organization became internationally known for organizing controversial topless protests against sex tourism, religious institutions, sexism, homophobia, and other social, national, and international topics. Founded in Ukraine, the group is now based in France. Femen describes its ideology as being "sextremism, atheism and feminism".
Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny was a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and political prisoner. He organised anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia and against President Vladimir Putin and his government. Navalny was founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). He was recognised by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for his work on human rights.
The Voice Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy group focused on promoting freedom of artistic expression as an agent of social change. The project was founded in 2009 as a response to the Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency in Northern Uganda, but has since expanded programs into Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Russia, China, Afghanistan, Cuba, and the United States.
Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist protest and performance art group based in Moscow that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in the fall of 2011 by 22 year old Nadya Tolokonnikova, it has had a membership of approximately 11 women. The group staged unauthorized, provocative guerrilla gigs in public places. These performances were filmed as music videos and posted on the internet. The group's lyrical themes included feminism, LGBT rights, opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies, and Putin's links to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Nadezhda Andreyevna "Nadya" Tolokonnikova is a Russian musician, conceptual artist, and political activist. She is a founding member of the feminist group Pussy Riot, and has a history of political activism with the street art group Voina.
Maria "Masha" Vladimirovna Alyokhina is a Russian political activist. She is a member of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Riot.
Mark Zakharovich Feygin is a Russian human rights activist and former lawyer who represented Pussy Riot, Nadiya Savchenko and Leonid Razvozzhayev in Russian courts. He also served from January 1994 to December 1995 as a deputy of the State Duma and was the vice mayor of Samara. In 2011 and 2012, Feygin was active in opposition to President Vladimir Putin, and announced that he was forming an opposition party.
Opposition to the government of President Vladimir Putin in Russia, commonly referred to as the Russian opposition, can be divided between the parliamentary opposition parties in the State Duma and the various non-systemic opposition organizations. While the former are largely viewed as being more or less loyal to the government and Putin, the latter oppose the government and are mostly unrepresented in government bodies. According to Russian NGO Levada Center, about 15% of the Russian population disapproved of Putin in the beginning of 2023.
Pyotr Yurievich Verzilov is a Russian-Canadian artist and activist who came to prominence as the unofficial spokesperson of the band Pussy Riot when he was arrested and jailed by the Russian state in 2012. Verzilov was married to Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer is a 2013 documentary film by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin. The film follows the court cases on the Russian feminist/anti-Putinist punk-rock protest group Pussy Riot. Directed by Lerner and Pozdorovkin, the film featured publicly available footage of the court proceedings and interviews with the families of the band members, but no interviews with the band members themselves.
PyotrAndreyevich Pavlensky is a Russian contemporary artist. He is known for his controversial political art performances, which he calls "events of Subject-Object Art". His work often involves nudity and self-mutilation. Pavlensky makes the "mechanics of power" visible, forcing authorities to take part in his events by staging them in areas with heavy police surveillance. By doing so, "the criminal case becomes one of the layers of the artwork" and the government is "[drawn] into the process of making art".
Mediazona is a Russian independent media outlet focused on Anti Putinist opposition that was founded by Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who are also co-founders of the protest group and band Pussy Riot. The outlet's editor-in-chief is Russian political journalist Sergey Smirnov.
A zelyonka attack is a form of protest, provocation or violent assault, defined as throwing a solution of brilliant green, a triarylmethane antiseptic dye, on the body of a victim. On top of potential danger of vision loss, it is very hard to remove quickly; the complete natural removal may take up to a week. In the 2010s, zelyonka attacks became widespread in Russia and Ukraine by pro-government activists against anti-government political and other personalities.
Veronika ‘’Nika’’ Nikulshina is a Russian artist and activist known for being a member of Pussy Riot and being arrested while protesting on the field at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. She acted as a spokesperson for Pyotr Verzilov after his reported poisoning months later. She has been subject to arrest by Russian authorities' numerous times, leading to her fleeing Russia to Georgia.
Ruslan Leonidovich Leviev is a Russian opposition activist, military analyst and founder of the investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team.
Timur Vadimovich Ivanov is a Russian politician who served as Deputy Defence Minister of Russia from 2016 to 2024. He previously served as the Deputy Governor of the Moscow Oblast from 2012 to 2016. He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation. In April 2024, Ivanov was arrested by Russian federal authorities, accused of accepting bribes "on a particularly large scale."
Daria Andreyevna Serenko is a Russian feminist activist, poet, curator and public artist.
Marina Vladimirovna Ovsyannikova is a Russian journalist who was employed on the Channel One Russia television channel. She worked for Russia's main evening newscast Vremya on Channel One since the beginning of the 2000s, later describing her role as "producing Kremlin propaganda".
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started in late February 2022, more than 300,000 Russian citizens and residents are estimated to have left Russia by mid-March 2022, at least 500,000 by the end of August 2022, and an additional 400,000 by early October, for a total of approximately 900,000. This number includes economic migrants, conscientious objectors, and some political refugees.