Margarita Konovalova, known as Rita Flores during her time with the Russian punk feminist group and anti-Putin art collective Pussy Riot, has said she was forced by Russia’s national security service, the FSB, to spy on other dissident artists for the past three years after officials threatened her and her family.
Konovalova, who left Russia earlier this month with help from her lawyer, spoke publicly about her experience for the first time in an exclusive interview with Port Media, an independent outlet for dissident Russian journalists. She said the pressure began after an FSB officer raided her apartment in February 2023, when she was detained and intimidated into cooperating.
“It was just like in a movie: they sat me down at the table, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t look away,” Konovalova recounted in her interview. “They started recruiting me: they threatened me in every way, mocked me, said unpleasant things, threatened to kill my family, and said I’d never be able to prove who killed my mother.”
The artist and activist said she was also threatened with criminal charges over social media posts criticizing the deaths during the Battle of Bucha, part of the Russian offensive in Kyiv in 2022. She said she signed a non-disclosure agreement and additional documents outlining her cooperation with the FSB, after which she was reportedly told to research and write profiles on contemporary artists for the security service.
Konovalova also said the FSB confiscated all of her documents except her Russian internal passport.
