Russian protest artist flees to France
Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, famous for radical performances denouncing state power that have landed him in jail in the past, has fled to France, where he will seek asylum, he told AFP on Monday. In an interview in Paris, the artist who memorably once nailed his scrotum to Red Square, said he fled Russia after he and his partner Oksana Shalygina were accused of sexual assault -- allegations he denies. The couple arrived in the French capital on Saturday with their two children. "We intend to seek asylum in France," said the 32-year-old performer, who was detained and questioned for nine hours last month over the assault claims. "If we had stayed in Russia, Oksana and I would have been sent to a prison camp for up to 10 years," he said. Pavlensky has gained a reputation for challenging Russian restrictions on political freedoms in radical, often painful performances that have won international acclaim. "My art is political," the gaunt-looking artist said, denouncing "individuals being treated by the state like cattle". - Striking performances - While best known for his 2013 Red Square performance entitled "Fixation", he also sewed his lips together to protest against the jailing of members of the punk group Pussy Riot. He has also wrapped himself in barbed wire and chopped off part of his ear. In November 2015, he doused the doors of the FSB -- the successor to the Cold War-era KGB, or secret police -- in petrol and set them on fire, in a performance called "Threat". He spent seven months in jail awaiting trial for damaging the door of the infamous Lubyanka building before being eventually freed in June. Russian media reported that the allegation of sexual assault was made by a young Moscow actress at a theatre known for its politically-themed plays, Teatr.doc. Pavlensky did not say whether there had been a sexual encounter. In a statement published by Ukraine's Hromadske channel, he insisted "there was no violence" against the woman, whom he accused of being an "informer". "I do not know the motivations of the person who made this false statement but it is very useful to the authorities who can use this case to exclude us from our sphere of action," he told AFP, referring to himself and his 37-year-old partner, who works at a publishing company. "A system of informing and reporting on others is re-emerging in Russia, showing that totalitarianism is setting in again," he told AFP. Russian authorities, he said, sought to control "all spheres of public and private life". - Prison or exile - Pavlensky said he and Shalygin were detained at Moscow airport on December 14 on their return from a trip to Warsaw and questioned under article 132 of the penal code dealing with sexual violence. "It's one of the worst in the Russian penal code because you can convict someone on the basis of a single statement," he said in the interview at a Russian bookstore in Paris. The pair were released after the questioning and told they had "more or less two possibilities: either go to a prison camp for 10 years... or leave Russia", he said. They left the country the following day, travelling west through Belarus and Ukraine on their way to France. Pavlensky, who spent a month last year in a notorious psychiatric hospital undergoing state-ordered tests of his sanity that found him sound of mind, said he had encountered no difficulty leaving Russia. "We left because I have no intention of being the regime's sacrificial lamb," he said.
