Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova put on Russia's Most Wanted List

For many years, Tolokonnikova has been a critic of Vladimir Putin and the Russian regime. In August 2012, she was one of three members of Pussy Riot sentenced to spend two years in prison after protesting Putin's return to presidency.

The most recent report from Mediazona – co-founded by Pussy Riot – states that Tolokonnikova is under investigation for images on her Instagram account that the Russian government deems offensive to Christianity. She is facing criminal charges, but the report does not go into any further detail.

In an Instagram post from earlier today, Tolokonnikova suggests that these charges are because of an NFT of the Ukranian flag titled UkraineDAO, which Pussy Riot made in 2022. The NFT helped to raise more than $7m two days after Russia's first military invasion of the country.

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This news comes, just a week after Pussy Riot are announced to receive the Woody Guthrie Prize. The prize is given annually to an artist who “best exemplifies Guthrie’s spirit and work by speaking for the less fortunate through music, film, literature, dance, or other art forms and serving as a positive force for social change.”

In January, Pussy Riot released footage of their latest protest video called “Putin’s Ashes". The piece was created last summer when Pussy Riot burned a massive painting of the Russian president and then stabbed the earth where its ashes fell.