Former Pussy Riot member says FSB recruited her to spy on Russian activists

Rita Flores, a Russian activist, artist, and former member of Pussy Riot, told The Guardian that she was forced to work with Russia’s FSB to spy on others in her left-wing circle

Flores, whose real name is Margarita Konovalova, said the FSB recruited and handled her for at least three years. In a recent video with her lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, she admitted to providing the Russian security service with personal information about her fellow artists and activists. She said the wanted to go public with her story so others in a similar predicament would feel bold enough to break their ties with the FSB.

“For the first time in years, I feel calm. All this time I was dreaming about getting out and being able to talk about it all,” she told The Guardian.

The Guardian noted that its reporters could not corroborate her claims, but that there have been numerous cases over the years in which the FSB has recruited activists and artists to spy on opposition groups.

Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk artist collective that protests against the Kremlin with guerrilla art performances in public spaces. Many of its members have been exiled from Russia or imprisoned.

How did the FSB recruit a Pussy Riot member?

Flores was recruited in 2023 when police searched her house, which had become a semi-routine occurrence, after she made an Instagram post criticizing the war in Ukraine.

Two police officers introduced themselves as FSB agents, threatened to open a criminal case against her for the Instagram post, and insinuated that they would kill her mother if she did not agree to work with them.

“I believed them. I believed they could do everything they said they would … My fear was too great. I was so worried for my family and also for myself,” she told The Guardian.

She claimed that, as a reward for signing cooperation papers, she received a cash payment of around 40,000 roubles.

Her first task was to collect information on other opposition activists in the same circles as her.

She was not supposed to tell anyone about her arrangement, but she told “about 20 people” anyways, claiming that it was because she enjoyed gossiping. However, she neglected to inform many of the people she was meant to report on. She claimed she established contact with them using pre-planned pretexts designed to keep them away from her and from sharing personal information.

She noted that because of the war in Ukraine, many opposition-minded artists had fled the country, and those who remained understood the threats they faced for speaking out.

“Moscow is booming; restaurants, bars and clubs are opening, and there are a huge number of events. But those people who understand things have empty eyes and speak empty words.

“People who have stayed in Russia have accepted the rules of a game. You go to a gallery, and every artwork may as well come with a sign saying ‘we were forbidden from saying anything’ … there are artists who used to make strong statements, and in 2026 they are drawing flowers in a vase.”

The officers who recruited her in the 2023 raid became her regular handlers. Flores said that they tended to play up a good-cop, bad-cop act, and identified one as “the Jacket” and the other as Ivan. She told The Guardian that Ivan seemed friendlier and more helpful on the surface, and that he would let the Jacket make any direct threats.

“Whenever I met with Ivan and the Jacket together, Ivan was silent. The Jacket would be rude, threatening; he’d insult me as a woman. He was the devil incarnate. Then just me and Ivan would meet, and Ivan would be nice, friendly,” she told The Guardian.

“He liked to say, ‘The FSB will re-educate you, I will re-educate you, you’ll have a nice and calm life, and you’ll love Russia, have children and be an obedient wife.’”

In late Spring, Ivan and the Jacket began asking her questions about Pyotr Verzilov, an artist and activist associated with Pussy Riot who later moved to Ukraine to serve in the Ukrainian Army. He had been considered an enemy of the Kremlin for a long while, and reportedly faced an assassination attempt in 2018.

FSB's plot to kill Russian artist Verzilov

Flores’s handlers asked her to get more information from Verzilov, including his address in Ukraine, and then to arrange a meeting with him in Serbia. FSB operatives would then travel there to kidnap and kill Verzilov. Her handlers promised her an additional 50,000 roubles a month to help with the case.

In the meantime, Flores married her partner later that summer, and told the FSB agents that he would never allow her to take a trip to go to a private meeting with another man.

She noted that before that, her handlers had banned her from leaving the country. When she met her lawyer, Zakhvatov, she realized escape would be easier than she had realized.

She claims that, to her knowledge, no one was killed or arrested because of the work she did with the FSB.

Flores left Russia last month to live in exile.

Notably, her escape was not as dramatic as some other Pussy Riot members who were forced to leave Russia in disguise or in the back of a delivery truck, but she and Zakhvatov did not disclose the details.

Since Flores’s escape, Zakhvatov has opened a secure line to others in a similar predicament. Flores said she wants to work to help others in similar situations to hers, and added that she is certain FSB's recruitment of activists and artists is a “mass phenomenon.”

Flores claimed in a video last month that she called those whom she informed on to explain herself, as well as other old friends in Russia.

She claimed that everyone has been supportive of these conversations.