After being banned by government officials from travelling to perform at the annual Edinburgh Fringe festival, Pussy Riot member Masha (Maria) Alyokhina rebelled and successfully managed to travel from Russia to the Scottish city. Alyokhina was determined to attend the Edinburgh Fringe festival and promote her book and show, Riot Days.

Alyokhina was stopped by Russian border guards on Wednesday (August 8) at Moscow Domodedovo airport. She was told she could not leave the country after refusing to perform community service for a protest held against Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service. The activist and writer was part of a group that were arrested and detained for demonstrating against the Russia-wide ban on encrypted messaging service Telegram back in April. The group threw paper plans at the FSS headquarters in Moscow. Another previous protest saw her ordered to serve the 40 hours of community service, after she and Olga Borisova hung a banner reading ‘Happy birthday, executioners’ outside the FSS.

”Pussy Riot founder Maria refused to be captive and silenced,” the collective declared in a statement. ”She was absolutely determined to perform the show and will be there in person to join her band mates to share her story.”

Three members of Pussy Riot were recently arrested and detained for invading the football pitch at the World Cup final.