[imagesource: Alyokhina and Shtein – Instagram]

It’s becoming increasingly obvious what might befall a “traitor” to President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Regardless, members of the daring art/activist collective Pussy Riot are standing up in opposition to their country’s war on Ukraine.

While under house arrest for an activism stunt for more than a year, complete with an ankle bracelet and round-the-clock police patrolling outside her flat in central Moscow, Lucy Shtein plotted her escape.

(That activism stunt was actually a protest to call for the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Putin’s leading adversary, who is serving a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security penal colony.)

Shtein’s ingenious camouflage: a bright green suit from a food delivery company that has become popular in the country:

 

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A post shared by lucy shtein (@lcshtn)

She ordered the suit online, put it on, and simply left for Lithuania through a series of pre-planned trips, she told The Guardian:

“It was really convenient that delivery couriers have such big bags. I even managed to put my beloved Mr Rat in the bag,” Shtein laughed, referring to her pet rat who has become a prominent character on her social media accounts.

“We have become so used to delivery couriers roaming Moscow, so it was a foolproof way to escape.”

She got away, even after pro-Kremlin activists pasted her door with pictures labelling her a traitor who had “sold out the country”:

Shtein escaped over a month ago but needed to keep the situation secret so that her girlfriend and fellow Pussy Riot activist, Masha Alyokhina, also under “criminal” watch, could manage her escape.

Earlier this month, Alyokhina got out of the country with the same camouflage, recounting her daring move to The New York Times:

“I was happy that I made it, because it was an unpredictable and big” kiss-off to the Russian authorities, Ms. Alyokhina said, using a less polite term.

“I still don’t understand completely what I’ve done,” she admitted, dressed in black except for a fanny pack with a rainbow belt.

…“A lot of magic happened last week,” she said. “It sounds like a spy novel.”

Here’s Alyokhina posing for Shtein in a balaclava, used often in Pussy Riot performances, in Vilnius last week:

Image: Emile Ducke for The New York Times

The Pussy Riot pair are back at it, performing across Europe to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees.

[sources:guardian&nytimes]