Putin killed the most bright and famous and brave politician and person in our country,

Alexei Navalny, after three years of slowly torturing him. Since then, anyone can be killed

any moment inside the country. Hello and welcome to Ways to Change the country.

Hello and welcome to Ways to Change the World.

I'm Christian Giri Murthy, and this is the podcast where we talk to extraordinary people about the big ideas in their lives and the events that have helped shape them.

My guest this week is Masha Al Yukina, artist, activist, and founding member of the Russian

feminist punk collective Pussy Riot.

She became internationally known after the group's protest performance in Moscow's Cathedral of

Christ the Saviour in 2012, which led to her arrest and two years in prison.

Now living in exile, Masha continues to challenge Putin's regime and fight for freedom of expression

through her art,

writing and activism. And her new book, Political Girl, is an account, a diary of protests,

of prison, and of her thoughts about Russia today. Mascha, thank you very much indeed for joining us.

Thank you.

You're living in exile now.

When you look at Russia today, do you see it differently to how you saw it when you

were there?

I don't like the word exile, actually, because that was hard, but my decision to, like, dress myself as a courier to make three attempts

to cross the border without documents.

That's all I did.

So basically there was no kind of, you know, someone with a stick like running to me and go

away, go away.

...