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Nadya Tolokonnikova is one of the founding members of Pussy Riot, a Russian activist punk group who gained international notoriety for staging a guerrilla performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012, resulting in two years in prison. Speaking to Simon not long after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the price of speaking the truth has grown higher still, Nadya explains that she is working harder than ever to fight for what she believes in.

Being a radical protest artist has never been easy in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and Nadya discusses with Simon how she sees herself and her fellow activists as part of a long tradition of radical, counterculture rebels in Russia. From the Bolshevik Revolution to now, there has always been a seam of Russian free thinkers who have dared to rebel against the norm in the face of overwhelming state oppression.

Nadya reflects on the key moments in her life and career, from the early days of her guerrilla performance art, to the global notoriety of Pussy Riot, and to her brutal imprisonment and years of trauma and persecution in her homeland. Throughout it all, she has clung on to her agency, her motivation and her belief that art can save people’s lives. At a time when ‘we are facing depression on a global scale’, Nadya wants to show ‘that there is always hope. My name is Hope. My name literally means hope in Russian’.