Russian artist arrested after starting fire at security HQ
Pavlensky has history of extreme political protest
MOSCOW: One of Russia’s most radical political performance artists was detained in Moscow yesterday after briefly setting fire to the entrance of the headquarters of the FSB security service, the successor to the Soviet KGB. Video footage showed Pyotr Pavlensky standing on Moscow’s storied Lubyanka Square in front of the building where political prisoners were interrogated in the Soviet era as flames licked around its entrance, scorching parts of two heavy wooden doors. Pavlensky, 31, was shown holding a petrol can and staring out onto the darkened square before a policeman grabbed him. His lawyer later told the Interfax news agency that Pavlensky was being held in a Moscow police station and might be charged with arson.
Unnamed law enforcement sources confirmed Pavlensky’s detention, saying he could be charged with petty hooliganism, an offence that usually carries a fine and a jail term of up to 15 days. Two journalists filming his actions said they were briefly detained before being released. In a script accompanying the video of the incident, which was released from one of his own social media accounts despite his detention, Pavlensky said his action was called “Threat” and meant to draw attention to what he called the terror tactics employed by the security agency.
“Fear turns free people into a sticky mass of uncoordinated bodies,” he said. “The threat of inevitable reprisal hangs over everyone who can be tracked with devices, have their conversations listened to, and who faces borders with passport control,” he wrote. Pavlensky has attracted attention before, carrying out extreme acts which he says are designed to poke holes in the Kremlin’s propaganda machine and draw attention to society’s problems.