<br>Care2.com April 9, 2012 By Sarah Vrba
There have been regular protests in Moscow in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s re-election to the presidential seat in March. Early last month, thousands of protesters gathered in downtown Moscow in response to what they felt were rigged elections in favor of Putin. Over the last month, organizers have faced an uphill battle as they have attempted to keep protesters motivated.
MOSCOW (AP) — Put your paws in the air.
Moscow police have arrested 10 environmental activists, including four dressed in polar bear costumes, who were protesting outside the main office of Gazprom, the Russian oil and natural gas giant.
Voina conducted a wake for absurdist poet and Soviet-era dissident Dmitry Prigov, featuring a table with food and vodka, in a Moscow Metro car. Originally, they had planned an action involving Prigov but he died before they were able to implement it. They later carried out a similar action on the Kiev Metro. As an art collective, Voina is testing the boundaries of performance art. As activists, they are testing the patience of Russian authorities.
Voina art collective members covertly brought a large laser projector into the attic room of a hotel located across the street from the Russian White house (also called the Russian Parliament Building). From there they projected a large image of a skull and bross bones across the front of the white house building. Other group members on the ground then stormed the building gates and successfully entered the secure zone in front of the building.
Petr Pavlensky, a Russian performance artist, sent a nail through his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square in Moscow (on a holiday in celebration of law enforcement). He was later charged with hooliganism.
Pavlensky, as quoted in the Guardian: "The performance can be seen as a metaphor for the apathy, political indifference and fatalism of contemporary Russian society."