First came the blackmail and death threats to secure cooperation, then came a series of tasks, each more sinister than the last: to inform on fellow activists, to elicit personal information from protest-minded artists and – eventually – to help with a plot to kidnap and murder a Kremlin enemy.
asserted
each → come → enemy
That is how Rita Flores, a 29-year-old Russian artist, activist and former member of the Pussy Riot collective, described her recruitment and three-year handling by officers from Russia’s FSB security service, a cooperation she only broke when she fled the country last month.
asserted
she → describe → country
Flores made details of her collaboration public in a video discussion with her lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, published just days after she left Russia at the end of August.
asserted
she → make → August
She explained she was coming clean in the hope that others in a similar situation might feel emboldened to break their ties with the FSB.
uncertain
others → explain → FSB
Now, in her first media interview since leaving Russia, she gave further detail on how she was recruited and run by the FSB.
asserted
she → leave → FSB
“For the first time in years, I feel calm.
asserted
I → feel → years
All this time I was dreaming about getting out and being able to talk about it all,” she said.
asserted
she → dream → it
The Guardian could not corroborate the details of Flores’s account, but there have been numerous cases of the FSB infiltrating opposition groups over the past few years.
uncertain
FSB → corroborate → years
Flores, also known as Margarita Konovalova, has been associated with Pussy Riot since 2020, when she was detained after a performance near the Kremlin.
asserted
she → know → Kremlin
She had served several short stints in jail and been subjected to surveillance and house searches on numerous occasions, which intensified after the domestic crackdown that followed the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
asserted
that → serve → February
She was recruited after one of these police searches in February 2023, when two men stayed behind and introduced themselves as FSB officers, she said.
asserted
she → recruit → officers
They threatened to open a criminal case, under wartime censorship laws, over an Instagram post she had made criticising Russian killings in Ukraine.
asserted
she → threaten → Ukraine
They also suggested they could arrange for her mother to be killed if she did not sign cooperation papers.
uncertain
she → suggest → papers
“I believed them.
asserted
I → believe → them
I believed they could do everything they said they would …
uncertain
they → believe → everything
I was so worried for my family and also for myself,” she said.
asserted
she → say → myself
As a reward for signing, she was given a one-off cash payment of 30,000 or 40,000 roubles (£266 or £355), she said.
asserted
she → give → roubles
Her first tasks were to gather information about other opposition-minded artists in the same circles as her and report back to the FSB.
asserted
tasks → gather → FSB
The two FSB officers who recruited her became her regular handlers, she said, organising frequent meetings and largely sticking to a classic good-cop, bad-cop routine.
asserted
she → recruit → routine
She saw the senior officer only occasionally, a crude man in his late forties who introduced himself by a series of different names.
asserted
who → see → names
In the end, Flores began calling him “the Jacket”, based on the shiny black suit he liked to wear.
asserted
he → begin → suit
The junior officer, named Ivan, became her primary handler, and he often tried to be friendly and helpful, leaving direct threats to the Jacket.
asserted
he → name → Jacket
“Whenever I met with Ivan and the Jacket together, Ivan was silent.
asserted
Ivan → meet → Ivan
The Jacket would be rude, threatening; he’d insult me as a woman.
asserted
he → insult → woman
Then just me and Ivan would meet, and Ivan would be nice, friendly,” she recalled.
asserted
she → meet → ?
“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,’” she said.
asserted
she → like → children
Flores said she was not supposed to tell anyone about her recruitment, but immediately told “about 20 people”, putting it down to the fact she is a “massive gossip”.
asserted
she → say → fact
Still, she stopped short of telling the people from the art world she was meant to report on, instead claiming that she initiated conflicts with them on pretexts, designed to push them away from her and prevent them sharing sensitive information.
asserted
she → stop → information
Her two handlers kept up the psychological pressure by repeating their threats, and even the friendlier Ivan on occasion made it clear that the consequences for crossing him would be severe, she claimed.
asserted
she → keep → him
“He tried to befriend me, but he could also be threatening.
uncertain
he → try → me
He’d calmly say, ‘they’ll kill your mother and you won’t be able to prove anything’ or ‘if you go abroad they’ll find you immediately and kill you,’ and then he would giggle, like it was all a joke.
asserted
it → say → you
The Jacket, on the other hand, never joked.
asserted
Jacket → joke → hand
In time, there were fewer targets to inform on, as most of the protest-minded artists left the country.
asserted
most → be → country
She described life in wartime Moscow as an exercise in cognitive dissonance.
asserted
She → describe → dissonance
“Moscow is booming; restaurants, bars and clubs are opening and there are a huge number of events.
asserted
restaurants → boom → events
But those people who understand things have empty eyes and speak empty words,” she said.
asserted
she → understand → words
Artists who stayed are careful not to produce any work that could be considered even tangentially political, she said.
uncertain
she → stay → work
“People who have stayed in Russia have accepted the rules of a game.
asserted
who → stay → 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.”
uncertain
they → go → vase
Last May, Ivan and the Jacket first started asking her questions about Pyotr Verzilov, an activist previously linked to Pussy Riot who now lives in Ukraine and fights with the Ukrainian army against Russia.
uncertain
who → start → Russia
…and 21 more, not listed.
The Aporia
