Pussy Riot member designated as ‘foreign agent’ by Russian authorities

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is a member of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

Russian authorities have designated a member of the Pussy Riot punk group, a satirist and an art collector as “foreign agents” as part of efforts to stifle dissent.

The Justice Ministry applied the label to Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a Pussy Riot member who became widely known for taking part in a 2012 protest inside Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, after which she spent nearly two years in prison.