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The artist who hates Russia's federal police Petr Pavlensky is fined half a million rubles for setting fire to a door

Source: Meduza

On June 8, a Moscow court fined the artist Petr Pavlensky 500,000 rubles (about $7,800), after convicting him of damaging a “cultural heritage site.” This was the punishment imposed for a demonstration called “Threat” (Ugroza), where the artist set fire to the front doors of the Federal Security Service's building in downtown Moscow. Locked up since November 2015, Pavlensky went free today and declared that he has no intention of paying the court's fine. Meduza looks back at how Pavlensky was sentenced.

Before the verdict, there was great excitement outside Moscow's Meshchansky District Court, where dozens of Russian and foreign journalists gathered. You could hear people talking in Spanish, German, and English. Pavlensky's supporters attended the hearing, too, including some of his loved ones and several activists (such as Vladimir Akimenkov, a former defendant in the “Bolotnoe” case against a Moscow demonstration that turned violent, and Petr Verzilov, another actionist and the husband of Pussy Riot frontwoman Nadezhda Tolokonnikova).

Inside the courtroom, the judge's chair was against one wall, and the defendant's cell, where Pavlensky sat, was across the room. Everyone who came to attend the hearing sat between the two.

“Turn and face the judge,” the bailiff said sternly, addressing everyone in the courtroom. 

“And they all turned and faced Petr,” Oksana Shalygina, Pavlensky's wife, remembered with a smile, after the hearing. 

The federal judge, Elena Gudoshnikova, spent 40 minutes reading out her verdict. Everyone in the courtroom stood and listened—everyone except Pavlensky, who sat in his cell with his hands cuffed behind his back, indifferent to Gudoshnikova's monologue. 

“On the night of November 9, 2015, a metal cannister and a lighter were discovered on Pavlensky's person, and Pavlensky was aware that he had set fire to the doors of the FSB [Federal Security Service] building,” the judge began to say. She recounted how the artist was detained: Pavlensky and two journalists reporting on his act were brought to the FSB's reception area, and police processed the journalists as witnesses to the incident.

Prosecutors originally asked the court to fine Pavlensky 500,000 rubles ($7,800). Pavlensky told the court that he was protesting “against the unending terror of the security services,” and said his act was a “reflex of the fight for personal survival.” The judge rephrased this confession, telling the court, “Mr. Pavlensky explains his behavior as the result of his own personal hatred of Russia's FSB.”

Gudoshnikova said the defense witnesses' testimonies were “unfounded,” and she called the prosecution's arguments legitimate. She repeated several times that the “entry doors of Russia's NKVD-KGB-FSB are a part of an architectural complex and a cultural heritage site.” Gudoshnikova also repeated one of the prosecution's basic arguments: the value of the FSB building is based largely on the fact that it's where “prominent figures and representatives of [Russian] culture have been held under arrest.”

Before revealing the final verdict, the judge called a short recess. Ten minutes later, the court was back in session, and Gudoshnikova announced that Pavlensky would be fined 500,000 rubles (three times less than what prosecutors ended up requesting), in light of time already served and his two young children. The judge then freed Pavlensky, effective immediately. 

But this isn't the only penalty Pavlensky currently faces. He was also fined 481,461 rubles and 83 kopecks (more than $7,500) in a civil lawsuit brought parallelly by the FSB itself. 

“Pavlensky, do you understand the verdict?” the judge asked sharply. He didn't answer, looking at her briefly, before turning away. 

Prosecutors refused to comment on the court's decision. After the hearing was done, Pavlensky left the courthouse and walked into the street for the first time since November, telling reporters that he has no plans to pay his fines. Asked if he'll accept money from others who want to help him, the artist said, “There's nothing that has to be done. Otherwise it's like “Ugroza” was carried out on credit, as if I bought it from the FSB.” Asked about his plans for the future, Pavlensky chose not to answer, instead launching into a whole speech (apparently summarizing the process of “Ugroza”): “It's not important how this trial ended; it's important that we could show and pull back the curtain on reality. The authorities are clinging on by means of terror. For more than six months, I've had to deal with police surveillance. We have to be careful. Otherwise a prison of everyday life could become a prison of terrorism. And a terrorist threat feeds on fear.”

Pavlensky then squeezed through the crowd of friends and supporters wanting to ask him more questions, and got into a car, where his wife was waiting for him. They drove away to the sound of applause.

This text was translated from Russian by Kevin Rothrock.