Rita Flores, a 29-year-old Russian artist and former member of the Pussy Riot collective, has publicly detailed her recruitment and three-year involvement with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), revealing a coercive and dangerous process that included blackmail, threats, and increasingly severe tasks. Flores, who fled Russia last month, described how she was compelled to inform on fellow activists, extract personal information from protest-minded artists, and was eventually pressured to assist in a plan to kidnap and kill a Kremlin critic.
Flores, also known by her birth name, Margarita Konovalova, spoke about her experience in a video conversation with her lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov shortly after leaving Russia. She later gave her first media interview since fleeing, stating she felt relief in being able to speak openly about her ordeal. While the details of her account could not be independently verified, her story aligns with reports of FSB infiltration into opposition groups in recent years.
Flores’ association with Pussy Riot began in 2020, when she was briefly detained following a performance near the Kremlin. Since then, she faced repeated police surveillance, house searches, and multiple short prison terms, all intensifying as the Russian government tightened its crackdown after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Her recruitment occurred after a police search in February 2023, when two men identifying themselves as FSB officers threatened to open a criminal case against her under wartime censorship laws for her social media posts criticizing Russian military actions. Flores said the officers also threatened harm to her mother if she refused to cooperate. Overwhelmed by fear, she signed cooperation documents and received a one-time payment of approximately £300.
Flores described a pattern of meetings with two handlers, who employed a “good cop, bad cop” approach. A senior officer, nicknamed “the Jacket,” was consistently abusive and threatening, while his junior, Ivan, alternated between friendly and menacing. Flores was instructed to report on other opposition artists, while maintaining secrecy about her situation. Despite confiding in about 20 people, she avoided informing those she was assigned to monitor, instead fabricating conflicts to alienate them.
Over time, her reporting tasks diminished as many activists left Russia or ceased producing politically sensitive work. In May, her handlers tasked her with gathering information on Pyotr Verzilov, a former Pussy Riot affiliate and outspoken Kremlin critic who now fights with the Ukrainian army. They sought details of his whereabouts in Ukraine and persuaded her to arrange a meeting in Serbia, where Verzilov was to be abducted and killed by an FSB team.
To avoid carrying out this mission, Flores married her partner in September 2023, offering a plausible reason to decline the trip. Previously barred from leaving Russia, she eventually worked with her lawyer to plan an escape, which she successfully undertook last month. Both refused to disclose specific details of her departure, citing security considerations for others in similar situations.
Following her escape, Zakhvatov established a secure communication channel to assist others coerced into cooperation with the FSB. Flores expressed a desire to support other activists caught in comparable circumstances, emphasizing that recruitment in opposition circles appears widespread. She also revealed that she had been betrayed from within her own circle—before her own involvement, a close acquaintance had informed on her and secretly filmed a compromising video.
Flores’ disclosure has elicited mixed reactions. While some members of the exiled Russian opposition praised her courage, others criticized her prolonged cooperation with the intelligence service. Flores has since reached out to those she reported on to explain her actions, receiving understanding and support. Activist Maria Alekhina, a fellow Pussy Riot member, acknowledged the complex pressures involved and underscored the importance of Flores’s openness and safety, noting that no one was harmed due to her cooperation.