Lucy Shtein

Lucy (Lyusya) Shtein is a Russian activist and member of punk-rock collective Pussy Riot.

Activism and criminal charges
In 2021, Shtein was placed in house arrest in Moscow with her girlfriend, Maria Alyokhina, for supporting political prisoners in Russia. A tracking bracelet mounted to her ankle was used to track Shtein while she remained under house arrest. Shtein, and later Alyokhina, used green food courier outfits to escape. Shtein also smuggled her pet rat in the food delivery bag.

Shtein has spoken against laws in Russia that ban "LGBT propaganda", and in 2022 she and other members of Pussy Riot performed at the pride parade in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 2023, she and three other members of Pussy Riot protested the Ukraine war.

In November 2023 a court in Russia charged Shtein with sharing fake news about the Russian military. In 2024, a Russian court sentenced her to six years in prison, in absentia, for posts on X in which she condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In response to Navalny's death in 2024, Pussy Riot members Shtein and Nadya Tolokonnikova took part in memorial action outside of the Russian Embassy in Berlin, along with Lyubov Sobol and Marina Ovsyannikova.

Personal life
Shtein has lived in Vilnius, Lithuania since her escape from Russia in 2022. In 2023 the government of Iceland granted Shtein Icelandic citizenship via parliamentary decree.