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\n\tPussy Riot<\/a>\u00a0co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova is in seriously hot water with Russian authorities, not for the first time.<\/p>\n \n\tFollowing an investigation, Russia\u2019s Investigative Committee this week indicted the punk artist and activist for violating the so-called \u201cforeign agent law\u201d and added her to the federal wanted list, reps for Pussy Riot explain.<\/p>\n \n\tTolokonnikova had been accused of flouting Part 2 of Article 330.1 of the national criminal code, which carries punishment of up to 2 years\u2019 prison for \u201cforeign agents\u201d on a range of offenses, including those who failed to register or didn\u2019t label social media posts.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Krasnoyarsk Krai Court twice found her guilty in 2024 of administrative offenses for violating foreign agent regulations, and later, while outside Russia, she is said to have distributed materials in a messaging platform without labeling them as being produced by a foreign agent.<\/p>\n \n\tRussia\u2019s Ministry of Justice designated Tolokonnikova a \u201cforeign agent\u201d on Dec. 30, 2021.<\/p>\n \n\tAttention turns to Tolokonnikova after Pussy Riot<\/a>,\u00a0the masked Russian punk feminist collective, staged a\u00a0protest<\/a>\u00a0at the Manhattan offices of tech company Ubiquiti on Friday, March 27 over their claims that the company\u2019s Wi-Fi equipment is being used by Russian soldiers in their ongoing war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n \n\tTolokonnikova later posted a video statement in which she said that the Russian military is allegedly using Ubiquiti to communicate with front line troops. In the clip, she talks in voice-over about the company she claims \u201cpowers Russian war crimes\u201d over footage of three PR members in all black wearing pink balaclavas with x\u2019d out eyes holding a sign that features that same provocative phrase.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen \u201cStarlink was turned off,\u00a0Russian guys went crazy<\/a>,\u201d she said in reference to ex-DOGE boss Elon Musk\u2019s move in February to\u00a0cut Russian forces\u2019 access to his Starlink satellite service<\/a>\u00a0in order to give Ukrainian fighters an edge in the grinding four-year war. She quipped that the Russian fighters scrambled for an alternative, suggesting they were considering using doves to carry their messages.<\/p>\n \n\tAs previously reported, members of Pussy Riot gathered outside Ubiquiti\u2019s Manhattan offices to protest and deliver their list of demands. Hours after their action, they wrote that the company appeared to respond in the form of a message from payment processing partner Square, which informed PR that its\u00a0Square account had been deactivated<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tPussy Riot have long been vocal critics of Russia\u2019s leadership. Their 2012 \u201cA Punk Prayer\u201d protest made global headlines and resulted in members Tolokonnikova \u2014\u00a0who was\u00a0added to Russia\u2019s most wanted list<\/a>\u00a0in 2023 \u2014\u00a0and Maria Alyokhina being briefly imprisoned. <\/p>\n \n\tThey\u2019ve since staged a number of other protests, including at the\u00a02014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia<\/a>, as well as a\u00a0field invasion<\/a>\u00a0during the 2018 World Cup Finals and a \u201ccelebration\u201d of Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s 68th birthday in October 2020 in which they\u00a0hoisted rainbow LGBTQ pride flags<\/a>\u00a0outside government buildings in Moscow in protest of the Russian government\u2019s continued denial of LGBTQ rights. In 2023, the collective\u00a0received the Woody Guthrie prize<\/a>\u00a0for their fight for freedom and justice.<\/p>\n \n\tMore recently, Nadya has spoken up about Russia\u2019s return to the Venice Biennale, one of the oldest, largest, and most prestigious cultural institutions in Europe, and has created an online\u00a0petition with thousands of other artists<\/a>. In an\u00a0open letter<\/a>\u00a0to Biennale President Pietroangelo Buttafuoco, she writes: \u201cAccommodating official state representation while curating \u2018dissent\u2019 risks turning the latter into a performative gesture and virtue-signaling rather than a position\u2026You claim to care about censorship, Pussy Riot is so censored in Russia that we were deemed \u2018an extremist organization\u2019 \u2013 simply visiting our website or liking images of our art is criminalized.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSeveral countries, including the United States, have criticized the inclusion of Russia in the prestigious exhibition, while the European Commission has warned organizers it will suspend \u20ac2 million in support if the festival goes ahead with Russia among its exhibitors. Russia withdrew from Venice Biennale ahead of its 59th edition in 2022, just ahead of its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n