Pyotr Pavlensky was sent to a pre-trial detention center

The Tagansky District Court of Moscow decided to arrest the artist Pyotr Pavlensky for 30 days, until December 8, 2015. He will be in pre-trial detention center No. 2 (“Butyrka”).

A criminal case was initiated against Pavlensky under Part 2 of Article 214 of the Criminal Code (vandalism committed by a group of persons, as well as for reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any social group), he faces up to three years in prison.

Pavlensky's defense petitioned for the release of the artist on bail in the amount of one million rubles.

Pavlensky's lawyer Olga Chavdar during the court session noted that for articles of the Criminal Code with a sentence of no more than three years, a preventive measure in the form of detention is applied only in exceptional cases, for example, if the accused has no place of residence, or his identity has not been established, or he violated the measure of restraint in this very case.

Pavlensky, in turn, demanded to be tried under the article “terrorism” as a sign of solidarity with the Crimean prisoners and defendants in the ABTO case. Until the case is re-qualified, the artist declared a vow of silence.

After the action in the form of arson of the entrance of the FSB building on Lubyanka Square, artist Pyotr Pavlensky explained his action. “The burning door of the Lubyanka is a glove thrown by society in the face of the terrorist threat. The Federal Security Service operates by a method of continuous terror and holds power over 146 million people. Fear turns free people into a sticky mass of disparate bodies. The threat of imminent reprisal hangs over anyone who is within reach of surveillance devices, wiretapping and passport control borders. Military courts eliminate any manifestation of free will,” Pavlensky wrote. The artist called the action “Threat. Burning Doors of the Lubyanka.