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 Pavlensky, 32, fled to Ukraine with his partner last month to
avoid being sent to prison on what he said were trumped-up
allegations of committing a sex crime.
In his first interview since leaving, he said the Russia of
President Vladimir Putin had become increasingly authoritarian
and intolerant of dissenting voices.
"I wouldn't say I was a threat, more a big inconvenience,
because lots of money and resources are spent on propaganda ...
then I carry out some action and it's a strike on the propaganda
machine," he said.
As their two young daughters played quietly in the next room,
Pavlensky and his partner Oksana Shalygina - both dressed all in
black - described how on Dec. 14 they had been detained by
police at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
During a nine-hour cross-examination by state investigators,
they learned that they had been accused of committing a sex
crime by an actress they had both slept with. The crime is
punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The couple, who are in an open relationship, deny the
allegation, likening it to the denunciations that led to mass
imprisonments in the repressive Soviet era.
"Through all of this we were shown that there were two ways for
us to be got rid of, or taken out of the political context,"
Pavlensky said.
"Either (they could send us) to a prison camp for the next 10
years, where we'd describe how we had become victims of state
security scheming, or (they could send us) beyond the border
limits of passport control."
While they do not know if a criminal case has been officially
opened against them, they decided it was too risky to remain in
Russia. By the next day, they had collected their daughters and
flown to Kiev, from where they plan to fly to France, he said.
Russia's Interior Ministry and its Investigative Committee did
not reply to requests for comment from Reuters on Pavlensky's
allegations.
The couple's decision to claim asylum is likely to draw further
attention to Russia's patchy record on protecting freedom of
speech. In 2012, the jailing of members of anti-Kremlin group
Pussy Riot for performing a "punk prayer" in a church provoked
international outrage.
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SEWN LIPS
Pavlensky said the couple would not return to Russia until they
believed they were no longer at risk of being prosecuted, even if
this meant many years in exile.
"Probably it's a good option for them if we disappear (abroad) and
aren't able to be heard at all and are completely dispersed, but
this isn't going to happen," he said.
His works or "actions" have included sewing his lips together to
protest at the treatment of Pussy Riot, and wrapping his naked body
in barbed wire to express his opposition to laws he deemed
repressive.
In 2015 Pavlensky was detained by Russian police after he set ablaze
the wooden door of the Federal Security Service (FSB), one of the
successor organizations to the Soviet-era KGB. He avoided prison,
but was handed a fine of over $15,000 that he did not pay.
The performance, which he titled "The Threat", was meant to draw
attention to what he called FSB terror tactics.
Pavlensky said the sex crime allegations illustrated the security
services' preference for underhand strategies.
"It's clear that the people in the security services aim to work
carefully and quietly, not messily or crudely. Probably they believe
that beating someone and bloodshed is crude. If it's possible to do
it quietly, they aim to do so."
(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; Editing by Mark
Trevelyan/Mark Heinrich)
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