Police have detained an artist, who last fall nailed his scrotum to the cobbles of Red Square, for staging a show of solidarity with protesters in Ukraine, a news report has said.
Pyotr Pavlensky was detained Sunday for re-enacting a scene from the Kiev protests by erecting a mini-barricade of car tires and setting them ablaze in the center of St. Petersburg, head of the Agora human rights group Pavel Chikov said, Interfax reported.
During the action, entitled "Freedom," Pavlensky and two other performers waved Ukrainian flags and banged sticks against sheet metal to symbolize the fight of the Ukrainian protesters.
The performance lasted for about 15 minutes before firefighters and police arrived to put down the flames and detain Pavlensky and two other activists, a man and a woman, Piter.tv reported.
Police said they would bring petty hooliganism charges against Pavlensky, the artist's lawyer Igor Mangilyov said.
The woman has already been charged and released until trial, which is scheduled for Monday, he said.
Last November, Pavlensky nailed his scrotum to the cobbles on Red Square to protest against Russia's descent into a "police state."
Pavensky's other art-protests include lying naked in a roll of barbed wire outside the St. Petersburg legislature to protest against the "repressive legislative system," and sewing his mouth shut to express support for the Pussy Riot punk rock band.