Pussy Riot activist Rita Flores detained immediately upon release from jail

Pussy Riot activist Rita Flores was released from jail on August 12, after serving a 15-day sentence, only for Moscow police officers to detain her at the detention center’s gates. The reason for her arrest remains unknown.

Update. Rita Flores was arrested for posting an Instagram story that allegedly contained a swastika, according to case materials shared with Meduza by the activist’s lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov. According to Zakhvatov, Flores is facing misdemeanor charges under Administrative Code article 20.3 (the promotion or public display of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols).

Flores was sentenced to time in jail on July 22, on misdemeanor charges of disobeying a police officer.

Since early June, a number of Pussy Riot activists in Moscow have been handed 15-day jail terms back-to-back. This includes Maria Alyokhina, Veronika Nikulshina, and Alexander Sofeev, as well as their friends — filmmaker Anna Kuzminykh and photographer Dmitry Vorontsov.

Citing persecution, Nikulshina, Sofeev, and Kuzminykh left Russia after being released from jail for the second time. 

Maria Alyokhina was sentenced to time in jail while already under house arrest as a suspect in the “Sanitary Case.” On July 29, a Moscow court turned down a request from prison officials to transfer her to jail once again.