Former Pussy Riot Member Revealed That the FSB Recruited Her Under Threat of Imprisonment. With Her Help, They Wanted to Kill the Publisher of "Mediazona"

Former Pussy Riot member Rita Flores said that in February 2023, after a search of her apartment, the FSB recruited her under threat of killing her family and criminal prosecution. Since then, she was an agent of the special service under the pseudonym "Harley", and her handler was an employee named Ivan.

Flores says that during the search, FSB officers threatened her, including for posts about the killings in Bucha. They told her that if she refused to cooperate, she could "disappear without a trace". Later, she was taken to a secret FSB office, where she was forced to sign cooperation documents.

Initially, Flores received a list of contemporary artists from Russia and neighboring countries and was supposed to collect dossiers on them: where they live, who they are friends with, their habits, problems, weaknesses, and personal connections. According to her, the FSB was particularly interested in what could be used for blackmail or initiating a criminal case.

For communication, she was given a separate Android phone with a SIM card registered to another person. Later, a surveillance program was installed on her own phone. Flores claims that for the first year she met with her handler almost daily, and later — less frequently.

One of the first targets was the street artist Philippenzo — Philip Kozlov, who now lives in Vilnius. The FSB already had him under surveillance and collected information about him through Flores. She even told her handlers such details as where the artist eats noodles and what beer he drinks.

Павялічыць

To stop the surveillance, Flores deliberately picked a fight with him. Later, she used this tactic with other people whom the FSB required her to monitor.

Then she "worked" with the performance artist Pavel Krisevich, who served about three and a half years for a performance on Red Square. The FSB was interested in his plans, actions, and the people who financed them. Flores again tried to stop the surveillance through conflict — she even wrote nasty things about the artist to his wife. As a result, Krisevich left Russia.

Павялічыць

The most shocking episode began in the summer of 2025. According to Flores, the FSB instructed her to help kill Pyotr Verzilov, a former member of Pussy Riot, publisher of "Mediazona" — a publication that counts Russians killed in the war. Flores had previously been in a relationship with him.

The plan, according to her, was as follows: Flores was supposed to lure Verzilov to Serbia, lead him into a specific cafe where FSB officers and criminals would already be waiting for him. After she left the cafe, Verzilov was planned to be kidnapped and killed.

Павялічыць

For participation in this operation, she was promised from 1 to 3 million Russian rubles (12-36 thousand dollars) and more. Flores says that it was after this that she realized: staying in this game further was dangerous not only for her, but also for the people around her.

«Here was the point of no return. If before I thought I just needed to wait to get a passport, steal it in various ways and leave, then here I realized that... they can do a lot,» Flores said.

According to her, the handlers also asked "about a hundred times" to find "at least a partial photo" of Verzilov's house in Ukraine so that an explosive device could be placed nearby. She claims that the FSB hates Verzilov and is looking for an opportunity to kill him.

To avoid the assignment, Flores told her handlers that after marriage, her husband forbade her from meeting other men. In parallel, she contacted lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov.

She told Zakhvatov about the recruitment in the summer of 2025. Initially, they even considered pretending that Flores had agreed to Verzilov's assassination in order to then arrest FSB officers in Serbia. But this plan was abandoned: it was too dangerous for Flores herself.

As a result, about ten days ago, Zakhvatov managed to get her out of Russia. How exactly — the lawyer does not disclose.

Flores claims that for the first months of cooperation, she was paid only once, 30 thousand rubles (360 dollars). In recent months, she was already receiving a salary — 50 thousand rubles (600 dollars) on the 15th of each month. She received the last payment in June.

Now Flores has decided to publicly tell everything to help other people whom, according to her, the FSB could also have recruited.

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