MOSCOW, March 3 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – The Moscow City Court has upheld the detention of Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky, who stands charged with vandalism for setting fire to the Moscow headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the FSB, RAPSI learnt in the court on Thursday. 

Pavlensky will stay in jail until March 5. 

He was arrested on November 9 along with several other people who claim to be journalists that were invited to the artist’s performance.

On November 10, Moscow's Tverskoy District Court ordered the detention of Pavlensky. He stands charged with vandalism on grounds of ideological hatred and faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

Pavlensky is known for a number of controversial performances.

In July 2012, he sewed up his mouth and stood at the Kazan Cathedral with a poster in support of Pussy Riot.

In May 2013, Pavlensky lay down on the ground in front of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly naked with barbed wire around his body.

In November 2013, also naked, Pavlensky nailed his scrotum to the Red Square pavement near the Lenin Mausoleum.

In October 2014, he staged an eccentric stunt on the roof of the Serbsky Mental Institution in Moscow by cutting off one of his earlobes.

In February 2015, Pavlensky and his accomplices burned car tyres, waved Ukrainian flags and banged sheet metal with sticks in a show of solidarity with the anti-government protesters in Ukraine. The performance was held near the Church of the Savior on Blood in St. Petersburg.