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Performance artist faces vandalism charges for setting fire to Russian security service HQ

Video footage released earlier on Monday showed Russian political performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky standing against the burning FSB doors and holding a petrol can

People pass by Federal Security Service building entrance hidden behind metal panels in Lubyanka square in Moscow EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

People pass by Federal Security Service building entrance hidden behind metal panels in Lubyanka square in Moscow

© EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/. Police in Moscow have brought criminal charges against Russian political performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky for setting fire to the entrance of the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB), a police spokesman said on Monday.

Video footage released earlier on Monday showed Pavlensky standing against the burning FSB doors and holding a petrol can.

Pavlensky has been charged with vandalism, the spokesman said. He may face a fine, corrective labour up to one year or three-months under arrest if convicted.

The activist has attracted public attention before by nailing himself to Moscow's Red Square in November 2013 and sewing his lips to support Pussy Riot punk band in 2012.

In October 2014, he cut off his earlobe standing naked on the roof of the Serbsky psychiatry clinic in Moscow.

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