Maria Alyokhina

Maria (Masha) Alyokhina is a Russian conceptual artist and political activist. She is a founding member of the art collective Pussy Riot. In August 2012, she was sentenced to two years' imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance at the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. She was released in December 2013 under an Amnesty International bill.

In March 2014, Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova opened Zona Prava, their prisoners' rights NGO. Alyokhina is a Lennon Ono Grant for Peace recipient and she has also been awarded the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought. Her first book, Riot Days, was published by Penguin in 2018.