MOSCOW, March 29 (RAPSI) – Investigators have reclassified a criminal case against Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky, who is accused of setting fire to the Moscow headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the FSB, Pavlensky’s lawyer Dmitriy Dinze told RAPSI on Tuesday.

According to Dinze, charges against Pavlensky were reclassified from vandalism to intentional destruction of cultural heritage sites. He added that this move by the investigation can’t be viewed as either easing or tightening of charges.Both articles of the Criminal Code provide the same maximum prison sentence of three years.

Pavlensky 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.
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.