Culture Minister comments on Pavelensky’s Red Square protest

Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky weighed into ongoing discussions on Pyotr Pavelensky’s recent protest, telling people to visit the Museum of Medicine and Phychiatry if they are interested in his work.

Responding to a question about the action from a journalist at the opening of the new Faberge Museum in St Petersburg, Medinsky said: “Go to the Museum of Medicine and Phychiatry and ask your question there”.

St Petersburg-based artist Pavelensky nailed his scrotum to paving stones on Red Square on 10 November. He is currently on bail, being investigated for hooliganism, a charge under Russian law for an act motivated by political, ideological, racial, ethnic or religious hatred, or hatred and hostility towards a particular social group. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The same charge of hooliganism — reduced from piracy — has also been brought against the Greenpeace activists currently held in Murmansk after protesting arctic drilling.