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UPDATE: Pussy Riot activist freed after brief detention at Polish border

08.09.2025 16:45
A member of the Russian feminist punk protest group Pussy Riot was released on Monday after a brief detention at the Polish-Lithuanian border, prosecutors said.
The Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot rose to international prominence amid anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow in 2012.
The Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot rose to international prominence amid anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow in 2012.Photo: Игорь Мухин at Russian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

"She is free," Wojciech Piktel, spokesman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in the northeastern Polish city of Suwałki, said, as cited by the AFP news agency.

"Following questioning, the prosecutor found no grounds to request detention pending extradition and decided to release her," he added.

Polish border guards detained Aysoltan Niyazova, a Russian national of Turkmen origin, on Saturday after she entered the country from Lithuania.

The arrest was made on the basis of a warrant issued by Turkmenistan, officials said.

Pussy Riot activists are outspoken critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin and have campaigned against the war in Ukraine, the AFP reported.

Niyazova had previously been detained and released in Slovenia and Croatia on the same Interpol warrant, it said.

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Source: AFPthemoscowtimes.com