MOSCOW— A Russian performance artist known for his radical politically charged performances was convicted Thursday of vandalism for a pro-Ukraine protest and sentenced to 16 months in prison.
A court in Moscow found Pyotr Pavlensky guilty, though he won’t have to serve prison time because the statute of limitations had expired. But he remains in custody while awaiting trial in Moscow in a second case.
Pavlensky was convicted for a performance on Feb. 23, 2014, in which he and other activists had waved Ukrainian flags, burned tires and banged metal sheets with sticks near a St. Petersburg cathedral. The performance, called “Freedom,” was in imitation of the Kiev mass street protests that had ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russia president two days before.
