A Russian artist awaiting trial for setting a door at security services’ headquarters alight has been committed to a psychiatric institution in a move that some human rights activists view as the return of an old KGB tactic to punish Soviet dissidents.
Pyotr Pavlensky was transferred to Moscow’s Serbsky Institute, the country’s leading forensic psychiatric centre, on Wednesday for an evaluation that may last up to 21 days, his lawyer Dmitry Dinze said.
Russia has toughened its response towards artistic protest since Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin in 2012. Two members of the all-female punk collective Pussy Riot served two years in prison for an impromptu performance in a church that year.