Russian court frees artist with fine for fire protest

AFP, MOSCOW: A Moscow court on Wednesday released radical performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky with a hefty fine for torching the door of the security services headquarters in a rare show of leniency by the authorities.
A judge ordered the artist to pay a fine of 500,000 rubles ($7800, 6800 euros) after finding him guilty, saying that the punishment was reduced due to the seven months Pavlensky has already spent behind bars.
Pavlensky had faced to three years in jail on charges of damaging a cultural site for dousing the doors of the agency’s Moscow headquarters with gasoline and setting it on fire in a November performance he called “Threat”.

Russian court frees artist with fine for fire protest

AFP, MOSCOW: A Moscow court on Wednesday released radical performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky with a hefty fine for torching the door of the security services headquarters in a rare show of leniency by the authorities. A judge ordered the artist to pay a fine of 500,000 rubles ($7800, 6800 euros) after finding him guilty, saying that the punishment was reduced due to the seven months Pavlensky has already spent behind bars. Pavlensky had faced to three years in jail on charges of damaging a cultural site for dousing the doors of the agencys Moscow headquarters with gasoline and setting it on fire in a November performance he called Threat.