'Repressionist' artist Pavel Krisevich forced to flee Russia

"He had served three years and six months of a five-year prison sentence for staging a mock suicide on Red Square in 2021 in a performance that he said was meant to bring attention to the plight of political prisoners. Krisevich, who is 25, is the second prominent young cultural figure to leave Russia recently after being threatened by the authorities."

"In an Instagram post on 29 December, paired with a photograph of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and the word 'REPRESSION' in bold, Krisevich described how officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB), had intimidated him. 'I was called out of my cell in the special detention centre and asked to enter a room with the lights off and stand facing the wall,' wrote Krisevich, who is now in Montenegro."

Pavel Krisevich, a 25-year-old political performance artist from St Petersburg, was forced to leave Russia after multiple re-arrests, most recently in December, following his January 2025 prison release. He served three years and six months of a five-year sentence for staging a mock suicide on Red Square in 2021 intended to draw attention to political prisoners. He was added to the government's foreign agents list on 7 November. He reported FSB officers intimidating him in detention, threatening jail for him or his loved ones and ordering him to leave Russia. He left for Montenegro and described euphoria at leaving oppression. Other young cultural figures have similarly fled or been declared terrorists.

Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events