Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky says he plans to give the money he'll receive from his Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent to a group of men jailed for a series of attacks against police.
Pavlensky, who is in pretrial detention in Russia, could not attend the award ceremony in Oslo on May 25.
His friend Oksana Shalygina, who received the award on his behalf, read out a statement in which he announced that he will give his prize money to the so-called Primorye Guerrillas.
The group carried out attacks against police in Russia's Far East in 2010 in which two officers were killed. Six members of the group were later sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Pavlensky is facing criminal charges for setting fire to a door of the Federal Security Service's (FSB) headquarters in Moscow in November.
He has staged a series of political protest performances that have included nailing his scrotum to Red Square.
Pavlensky says his performances draw attention to the indifference of many Russians to widespread FSB control.
The other laureates of the 2016 Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent are Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani and Uzbek photojournalist Umida Akhmedova, who is also an RFE/RL contributor.
The prize winners will share 350,000 Norwegian crowns ($42,000).
