Russian art activist Pyotr Pavlensky to stay in custody until March

Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky, accused of setting fire to the door of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), will remain in custody until March.

According to a report by news agency RIA Novosti, the Moscow City Court rejected the an appeal by Pavlensky’s lawyer Olga Dinz that he be released on bail or placed under house arrest.

The artist himself did not appear at the court session, as he is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation at The Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry.

Pavlensky was arrested and charged with vandalism after he launched an attack against the headquarters of the FSB on Lubyanka square in central Moscow and was detained by the police on 9 November 2015.

Pavlensky titled this artistic action “Menace” and published a video online. In his description of the video, he dubbed the performance “a glove thrown by society in the face of terrorist threat” and described the FSB as an organisation that “operates through continuous terror and holds power over 146 million people”.

Source: The Moscow Times