Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky freed from serving sentence

Russian art activist Pyotr Pavlensky has been sentenced to one year and four months in prison for setting fire to tires on St Petersburg’s Malo-Konyushenny bridge in 2014, but will not have to serve out this sentence.

Pavlensky was released from his sentence due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, according to the verdict.

Pavlensky is currently undergoing another criminal trial for setting fire to the entrance of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on 9 November 2015 in an artistic action against the organisation entitled Threat. The criminal charges against him have been changed from “vandalism” to “damaging a cultural heritage site”.

Notorious for his violent artistic actions, in 2012 Pavlensky sewed his mouth shut in protest against the detention of Russian punk group Pussy Riot, while in November 2013 he nailed his scrotum to the ground on Red Square.

Source: Meduza (in Russian)