When investigator Pavel Yasman was tasked with interrogating performance artist Petr Pavlensky, known for his shocking political protests, he never imagined that their conversations would change his life.
After several months interviewing the St Petersburg-based artist as part of a government case against him, Yasman quit his job at Russia’s Investigative Committee – described as the equivalent of America’s FBI – and decided to join the team supporting the artist, who has become known across Russia for his wince-inducing stunts, including sewing his mouth shut, wrapping himself in barbed wire, and nailing his scrotum to the Red Square.
Yasman even started training as a lawyer, in the hope of defending the performer. “Pavlensky is a very strong person. I think it’s great to believe so fervently in what you are doing,” Yasman said last week.
Pavlensky is being charged with vandalising a historic bridge in the centre of St Petersburg, where he burned stacks of tyres to imitate street scenes from the Ukrainian capital when president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February 2014.
If found guilty, Pavlensky – who has been called “the most controversial artist in Russia” – faces up to three years in prison.
Changing sides
During three interrogation sessions from March to June last year, Pavlensky and Yasman mostly discussed the limits of what is permissible in art, according to transcripts released by Pavlensky and published by Russian website Snob. At the beginning of their exchange, the interrogator’s attitude appears sardonic: he suggests anyone can make the kind of art that Pavlensky creates, and mocks that he too could be an “artist of justice”.
But over time, Yasman’s attitude begins to change, and he reveals that he’s being pressured to pursue this particular case by his superiors. “Petr, I already got thoroughly screwed [by my superiors] because your case is still not in court,” Yasman is reported to have said in one of the final sessions.
“So you agree that you are just a tool. The government simply makes tools out of people,” Pavlensky responds, to which Yasman agrees.
These sessions brought about the end of Yasman’s law enforcement career. Shortly after, he submitted his resignation and trained as a lawyer.
“I think his [Pavlensky’s] work has made many people become more critical and change their worldview,” Yasman said. For the artist, the interrogator’s sudden change of heart was a surprise: “I thought he was just trying to put me at ease and make me trust him during the interrogations.”
At the same time, he added that many government officers hold beliefs that deviate from the leadership’s line. “People in law enforcement agencies are forced to become tools; everything human in them is suppressed. But many of them doubt that what they are doing is right, so the human element can rebel against the functional one,” he explained.
Pavlensky said it’s not unusual for people to change their minds about him: “Many people write me letters of support saying that their worldview has been transformed because of my work.
“Often they apologise for thinking at first that I was crazy.”
Court hearing
According to Pavlensky’s lawyer Dmitry Dinze, who also represents the art protest group Voina, what happened with Yasman reveals a broader trend in Russia’s law enforcement system.
“The system is completely corrupt at present and many people do not want to be a part of it,” said Dinze, himself a former investigator who quit his job after being pressured by his superiors to accuse an innocent man of murder, he claimed. “At the same time, many young people dream of becoming an investigator. There are many perks.” According to Dinze, Pavlensky’s case is being actively pursued by senior members of the St Petersburg branches of the Prosecutor General’s office and Investigative Committee.
At the first hearing for Pavlensky’s trial, held on 15 July, the court rejected the defendant’s request to allow Yasman to represent him as his lawyer, ruling that as a former investigator he is an interested party. The court will resume the hearing in September.
A version of this article originally appeared on The Moscow Times
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