Moscow: A Russian performance artist has been hospitalised after stripping naked and nailing his testicles to a Red Square cobblestone in protest against the Kremlin's crackdown on political rights.
A video of the graphic action, available on Russian websites, shows artist Pyotr Pavlensky sitting naked outside Lenin's Mausoleum being covered with a blanket by police officers while horrified passers by look on.
The state-run RIA Novosti news agency says Mr 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 inaction in the face of the development of a police state.
it could be a promotion by the red square traders association . its similar to the one used by the rundle mall traders in Adelaide years ago centred around the chrome sculpture 'i'll meet you all the balls' in red square it goes more along the lines of 'i'll meet you where that bloke skewered his'
