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The wife of performance artist Pavel Krisevich, Elena Morgunova, has left Russia and is now safe, reports Novaya Gazeta Europe. The artist wrote that he had not spoken publicly about these events as he was observing a “silence regime.”
“Lena is completely safe together with our dog Selin. <…> Now we are going through a difficult emotional period, but I am confident that we will manage, as for now at least we are free from the threat of further repression. Because of the nature of immigration procedures, we can’t live together yet, and at the moment we are looking for accommodation for Lena and Selin,” wrote Krisevich.
The artist thanked everyone for their support and for spreading the word.
- In August, Elena Morgunova temporarily returned from France to Russia to visit her parents. On 28 August, she and her mother were taken off a bus in Skopin, a town in Ryazan Region in central Russia, after an ID check. At the police station, officers demanded Morgunova unlock her phone, and then a court sentenced her to ten days’ detention on charges of disobeying a police officer (Art. 19.3 of the Administrative Code).
- According to her lawyer Natalia Tikhonova, when Morgunova was detained, law enforcement threatened her, “blackmailed her through her parents” and also mistreated her dog Selin: they pulled on her lead and tried to throw her out into the street. Later, at the special detention centre, as her lawyer described, FSB officers demanded Morgunova give access to her private messages and “cooperate with their work.”
- On 7 September, Morgunova was due to be released after ten days’ detention, but before her release she was taken to speak with an operative. He claimed her pupils were “abnormally dilated” and demanded she undergo a medical examination. Morgunova asked to wait for her lawyer; this was interpreted as refusal to be examined, and the court then imposed a further 14 days’ detention.
- In January 2025, Pavel Krisevich was released following imprisonment over a performance: in June 2021, the artist fired a blank round at his own head on Red Square in Moscow to draw attention to the issue of political prisoners in Russia. After his release, he was repeatedly detained and given administrative arrests. In November 2025, the Ministry of Justice added Krisevich to the register of “foreign agents,” and in December he left Russia following threats from FSB officers. Krisevich later moved to France and applied for political asylum there.