[3] On August 17, 2012, she was arrested for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after a performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and was ultimately sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

On December 23, 2013, she was released early alongside fellow Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina under a newly passed amnesty bill dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution.

[8] Tolokonnikova was born on November 7, 1989, in the industrial city of Norilsk, Russia, to parents Andrey Stepanovich Tolokonnikov and Yekaterina Voronina.

[10] In her late school years, she was active in amateur modern literature and art projects, organized by the Novoye Literaturnoye Obozreniye.

[citation needed] On March 3, Tolokonnikova and Pussy Riot co-member Maria Alyokhina were identified by the Russian authorities.

On August 17, 2012, Tolokonnikova, together with co-members Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two year imprisonment.

[26] Tolokonnikova was serving the remainder of her two-year sentence in the IK-14 women's penal colony near the settlement of Partsa (Russian: Парца, Явасское городское поселение), Republic of Mordovia.

[44][45] On November 5, 2013, it was reported that Tolokonnikova had been transferred to IK-50, a prison located near Nizhny Ingash, approximately 300 kilometres from Krasnoyarsk, Siberia.

[49] According to Yelena Pimonenko, senior prosecutor assistant of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tolokonnikova was released because the article "hooliganism" of the Russian Criminal Code falls under the newly introduced amnesty bill.

[4] Putin's amnesty was seen by the freed prisoners and numerous critics as a propaganda stunt,[50][51][52] as Russia prepared to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in February.

[58] In 2021, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova announced that she had started an account on OnlyFans, a paid membership site that was known for allowing women to create and sell pornography with their own image.

[60] On February 19, footage surfaced showing Tolokonnikova and the other Pussy Riot members being attacked with nagaikas by Cossacks, who were helping in patrolling Sochi during the Winter Olympics.

[61] Tolokonnikova met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss freedom of press worldwide, and in particular the future of independent media in Russia, such as Mediazona.

[62] Maria Zakharova, Spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, reacted to this meeting on her official Telegram channel.

[71][72] In late March 2023, the Russian Interior Ministry put Tolokonnikova on their wanted list and opened an investigation against her for allegedly having insulted religious feelings of believers.

[101] In 2015, Tolokonnikova and her Pussy Riot bandmates Maria Alyokhina and Pyotr Verzilov appeared as themselves in Chapter 29 of House of Cards, a popular American television drama series that airs on Netflix.

In the show, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina heavily criticized a fictionalized version of Vladimir Putin (the character, Russian president Viktor Petrov, played by Lars Mikkelsen) for corruption, while dining in the White House.