The most engaging political activity in the music world in recent years, the conflict between Pussy Riot and the Russian government, has taken a seemingly dire turn. Band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has gone missing amid a recent prison transfer.
Tolokonnikova had been gaining the most headlines of the two remaining imprisoned members, due to her hunger strikes at labor colony FGU IK-14, located in Mordovia. The musician had complained against poor conditions at the colony, which had already had a number of human rights complaints lodged against it, and she alleged receiving death threats from the prison's leader, Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Kupriyanov.
Russian authorities did not move to investigate any of the charges, but rather transferred Tolokonnikova to another prison. Individuals have confirmed that they saw the performer moved by train, but no one has heard any word from her since October 22, according to her family.
"No one knows anything," said her father, Andrei Tolokonnikova, in a rare interview to escape Russian censorship. "There's no proof she's alive, we don't know the state of her health. Is she sick? Has she been beaten?"
Tolokonnikova's husband is a little more optimistic, saying that he assumed officials were punishing the musician further for speaking out against the conditions of her imprisonment.
Pussy Riot were initially arrested for performing a live music video for its song "Mother of God, Drive Putin Away" inside a cathedral in Moscow during 2012. Five days later, the three members were arrested for "hooliganism," with two eventually being convicted and sent to penal colonies.
