The Moscow City Court has canceled a five-year prison sentence handed in October to noted protest artist Pavel Krisevich over a so-called suicide performance in which he fired blanks from a pistol in Moscow's Red Square.
The court also ruled on June 15 that Krisevich must stay in pretrial detention for at least two months while his case is sent to prosecutors for a new investigation.
Prosecutors have insisted that the case must be reinvestigated as the original hooliganism charge lacked what they called "an ideological motive."
Krisevich was arrested in June last year on Moscow's Red Square and charged with hooliganism after he fired two blanks into the air while shouting: "There will be shots before the Kremlin's curtain." He then held the gun to his head and fired another blank.
Krisevich's girlfriend, Anastasia Mikhailova, said at the time that the goal of the protest performance was to support political prisoners in Russia.
Declaring that his protest was aimed at "state intimidation," Krisevich described the performance as "a kill shot" -- an expression used by hired assassins in Russia's criminal underworld to describe a gunshot to the head of a victim to ensure they are dead.
"The state labels protests as crimes," Krisevich's statement said. "It forces us to think that we are criminals in our cells and chats. But what is it without state intimidation? Clearly, it is an empty space."
Krisevich, who is originally from Russia's second largest city, St. Petersburg, has been jailed in the past over his protests in the Russian capital.
In November 2021, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail for a protest in front of the Federal Security Service’s headquarters in Moscow in which he was staged a mock crucifixion of himself over burning files. He said that protest symbolized criminal cases against Russian citizens.
In addition to jail time, he also was expelled from the university in Moscow he was attending.
In May 2022, Krisevich was sentenced to 10 days in jail for taking part in an action to support political prisoners in Russia by displaying their paintings in central Moscow.