Event: Artist-actionist Pyotr Pavlensky set fire to the FSB building on Lubyanka Square in Moscow on the night of November 9, 2015, after which he was detained by the police – along with two journalists covering the action. The journalists were later released, they are in the status of witnesses; Pavlensky is charged with petty hooliganism. The artist considers his action “The Burning Door of the Lubyanka” a protest “against the continuous terror” of the special services and “the reflex of the struggle for one’s own life”.

The purpose of the action: to organize a provocation against the special services of Russia, to discredit its actions. The symbolic arson of the door means struggle for life and freedom.

Direction: Security, discredit of law enforcers

Tool: Creativity, artist

Method: Actionism

Media coverage:

https://www.svoboda.org/a/29135500.html

The reaction of society: society in Russia opposed the actions of the artist and only a small group of liberals supported. Social networks discussed the fact of the arson of the door, not of the artist, but this was what the interventionists needed.

International resonance: Actionism is a form of artistic expression that is protected by Article 10 of the Convention on Human Rights (guarantees freedom of speech), the lawyer of Memorial, Kirill Koroteev, argues. In this sense, he notes, the Pavlensky case has much in common with the case of Pussy Riot, which has already undergone a process of communication with the ECHR. But they just danced, and in this case there is already property damage, and this is a factor that will work against the applicant. Therefore, the ECHR will look more at how the court justified the need for sanctions, and the subject of the ECHR assessment will be not so much the qualification of the artist’s actions as the overall adequacy of the court’s assessment.

What they achieved: the next window Overton was opened in confrontation with the siloviki, and the fact of the arson of the FSS and the soft court verdict only contribute to the further promotion of the spiral are aggressive against law enforcement. The interventionists carried out a vivid action against one of the symbols of the state, and the support of the liberal media and the social media ensured the dissemination of this fact. At the subconscious level it was laid in the society that one can act soft power methods against the FSS and the punishment is minimal.