Rita Flores, a 29-year-old Russian artist and activist, recently shared her alleged three-year cooperation with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in a video call with her lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov. The video was released after she fled Russia at the end of August. Flores claimed she was recruited by FSB officers following a police search in February 2023, during which she was threatened with a criminal case under wartime censorship laws for an Instagram post criticizing Russian actions in Ukraine. The officers also warned they could harm her mother if she did not sign cooperation papers. Flores said she believed the threats and signed the documents, receiving a one-time payment of 30,000 to 40,000 roubles (£266 to £355) in exchange. Her initial tasks involved gathering information about other opposition-minded artists and reporting back to the FSB. She described her handlers using a classic "good-cop, bad-cop" tactic, with a senior officer known as "the Jacket" for his black suit and a junior officer named Ivan, who often tried to be friendly. The Jacket, she said, was rude and threatening, while Ivan would make promises of a "nice and calm life" and re-education by the FSB. Flores said she was not supposed to tell anyone about her recruitment but informed about 20 people, partly due to her tendency to gossip. She avoided informing on the people she was meant to report on, instead creating conflicts with them to push them away. Her handlers maintained psychological pressure through repeated threats, with Ivan occasionally reminding her of the consequences of crossing him. As protest-minded artists left the country, Flores described life in wartime Moscow as an exercise in cognitive dissonance, with artists avoiding political themes in their work. Last May, her handlers began asking her about Pyotr Verzilov, an activist linked to the feminist punk group Pussy Riot who now lives in Ukraine. They wanted information on his address and suggested she arrange a meeting in Serbia, where he would be kidnapped and killed by an FSB squad. Ivan began paying her 50,000 roubles a month as an incentive. Flores said she plotted her escape, marrying her partner in September to avoid the Serbia task. She contacted Zakhvatov, who helped her find a way to leave Russia. After her escape, Zakhvatov announced a secure line for others in similar situations. Flores declined to give details of her escape, citing the need to protect methods for future cases. She claimed there was at least one person in her circle who had informed on her before she cooperated, as the FSB had a covertly filmed sex tape of her. Earlier this year, Poland jailed an exiled Russian activist for seven years after he passed information about fellow exiles to an FSB handler. Flores’s video confession was met with praise from some parts of the exiled Russian opposition, who commended her bravery, but also skepticism from those who criticized her long-term cooperation. She said she would like to help others and believes recruitments in activist circles are a "mass phenomenon."