CARRYING A PROTEST JUST AN ITSY BITSY TOO FAR

The protester wasn’t silenced, but his voice may have been altered

Having nailed his balls to the pavement, I’ll bet he sings alto now.

RUSSIAN PERFORMANCE ARTIST NAILS HIMSELF TO RED SQUARE COBBLESTONE BY HIS TESTICLES IN PROTEST AT KEREMLIN’S CRACKDOWN ON RIGHTS
Passers-by watched as Pyotr Pavlensky sitting naked outside Lenin's Mausoleum nailed his testicle to the pavement

By Tara Brady

Mail Online
November 10, 2013

A Russian performance artist stripped naked and nailed his testicles to a Red Square cobblestone in protest against the Kremlin's crackdown on political rights.

Eye-watering footage shows artist Pyotr Pavlensky sitting naked outside Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow, Russia, before police covered him with a blanket.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said Pavlensky was taken to a police station after being treated in a central Moscow clinic.

The Saint Petersburg-based artist said in a statement posted on the Grani.ru website that he was trying to draw attention to Russian society's development into a 'police state'.

Russia marked its annual Police Day holiday on Sunday.

It is not the first time the 29-year-old has resorted to dramatic methods of protest.

He has previously sewn his lips together to demonstrate against the jailing of two female members of the Pussy Riot punk band who staged an anti-Kremlin performance inside Moscow's main cathedral in 2011.

He was also arrested after wrapping his naked body in barbed wire outside a Saint Petersburg government building in May.