Russian court frees radical performance artist Petr Pavlensky

The court fined Petr Pavlensky just 500,000 roubles (£5,319) for damaging the cultural site and ordered him to pay a further 481,000 roubles to compensate for the cost of repairs.

As judge Yelena Gudoshnikova finished reading the sentence on Wednesday morning, the courtroom erupted in applause.

Speaking outside the courthouse, the artist thanked his supporters and said: "It does not matter how the trial ended,” he said. "What is important is the fact that we were able to unmask, uncover the truth: the government is founded on the methods of terror.”

Pavlensky’s lawyers had expected the state to seek the harshest possible sentence after the artist doused the massive wooden doors of the FSB security service’s Moscow headquarters with gasoline and set them on fire in November, as part of performance he called Threat.

He then posed in front of the flames for photographs, dressed in a hooded jacket and holding a gas canister. He was detained on site and has been held in a detention ever since.

Pavlensky’s previous performances include a mini reenactment of Kiev’s Euromaidan protests in St Petersburg, complete with burning tires, and a stunt where he nailed his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square to illustrate "the apathy, political indifference, and fatalism of Russian society”.

Many expected the state to imprison Pavlensky, 32, following the example of punk group Pussy Riot, two of whose members were jailed for two years after a performance in a Moscow cathedral in 2012.

Pavlensky’s lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, has previously said the performance artist will likely ignore the fine out of principle, which could eventually see him land in jail anyway.

He said this could mean Pavlensky would have to serve time in a "settlement colony” – an open prison in a remote area.

"So far as I know Petr isn’t going to pay anything. So the struggle continues,” Dinze told reporters.