Former Pussy Riot Member Reveals FSB Forced Her to Spy and Plot Assassination
Former Pussy Riot member Rita Flores revealed she was recruited by Russia's FSB as a spy under duress, tasked with tracking dissidents and plotting an assassination.
Rita Flores, a 29-year-old Russian artist and former member of the punk rock band Pussy Riot who fled Russia last month, revealed in an interview with The Guardian that she was recruited by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) as a spy to help capture anti-Kremlin activists and was even asked to assist in the assassination of an opponent of the regime.
Flores, also known as Margarita Konovalova, became associated with the protest band in 2020 after being arrested following a performance near the Kremlin. She subsequently served short detention periods and was subjected to surveillance and searches, which intensified amid Russia's domestic crackdown following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In 2023, she was recruited after police searched her apartment. Two men who remained behind identified themselves as FSB officers and threatened her with criminal charges over an Instagram post that violated wartime censorship laws. Flores recounted that the two also threatened to murder her mother if she did not cooperate.
"I believed them," Flores said, continuing: "I believed they could do whatever they said they would do. My fear was too great, I worried so much for my family and also for myself." She added that for signing a cooperation agreement, she received a one-time cash payment of 30,000 to 40,000 rubles.
Initially, Flores gathered information on opposition-leaning artists holding views similar to hers, reporting back to the FSB. Her two recruiters became her regular handlers, organizing frequent meetings and adhering to a "good cop, bad cop" routine.
She saw the senior officer among them only occasionally, describing him as a "coarse man in his late forties who introduced himself under a different name every time." Flores dubbed him "the Coat" based on the shiny black suit he liked to wear.
Conversely, the junior officer, Ivan, became her primary handler and frequently tried to be friendly and helpful while undermining the senior officer. Flores recalled: "Whenever I met with Ivan and the Coat together, Ivan was silent. The Coat was rude and threatening. He would insult me as a woman. He was the devil incarnate. So then only Ivan and I would meet, and he would be nice and friendly."
According to Flores, Ivan used to tell her that "the FSB will re-educate you. I will re-educate you. You will have a beautiful, peaceful life and love Russia, have children, and be an obedient wife."
Escape and Revelations
Last May, Ivan and the Coat began asking questions about her ties to Pyotr Verzilov, an activist and former unofficial member of Pussy Riot who is currently fighting in Russia alongside the Ukrainian army. Flores said her handlers wanted her to obtain information from Verzilov, including his address in Ukraine. They later suggested she use her acquaintance with him to arrange a meeting in Serbia so an FSB unit could kidnap and murder him. As an added incentive, Ivan began paying her 50,000 rubles a month.
At that time, Flores began planning her escape route. Her marriage to her partner last September was part of her way to evade the mission in Serbia so she could claim to Ivan that her husband would never let her travel to meet another man. Flores declined to detail how she escaped in order not to jeopardize similar attempts in the future.
According to Flores, the recruitment of activists as spies by the Russian regime is a widespread phenomenon. She also revealed that at least one person in her circle had informed on her before she agreed to cooperate, after it was exposed to her that the FSB possessed a sex tape featuring her.
The Russian opposition praised Flores's courage, though some criticized her decision to cooperate for so long. Since fleeing Russia, Flores has spoken with the people she reported on and other old friends to explain herself.
Maria Alyokhina, one of the founders of the band, commented on the interview: "It's no big secret that it's no fun working for the FSB, but fear can change a person. Now she is out of the country and she has told what happened to her out loud. No one was killed because of her and no one went to jail, so that is good news."
