An activist from the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot says she has been banned from leaving the country for an event in the UK.

Maria Alekhina said she was heading to Britain to attend a theatre performance based on her book when border police turned her back on Wednesday.

Russian authorities explained the move by claiming that Ms Alekhina had failed to perform her community service.

She was sentenced to 140 hours of community service for protests outside the Moscow headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the successor organisation to the KGB.

In December, she unfurled a banner reading: β€œHappy Birthday, Hangmen!” and in April she threw paper planes in protest over the agency’s demand to shut the messaging service Telegram.

Ms Alekhina and Pussy Riot bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova spent nearly two years in prison for a 2012 protest inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.