The Russian protest artist that made headlines after nailing his scrotum to the cobbles of Red Square has announced he plans to seek asylum in France.  

Petr Pavlensky and his family fled Moscow for Ukraine last month to avoid prison for what he claims are trumped up allegations of a sexual assault.

In his first interview since leaving, Pavlensky said that Vladimir Putin was becoming increasingly authoritarian, likening the situation to the mass denunciations of Soviet-era Russia. 

“I wouldn't say I was a threat, more a big inconvenience, because lots of money and resources are spent on propaganda,” he told Reuters. “Then I carry out some action and it's a strike on the propaganda machine.”

The artist and his partner Oksana Shalygina claim that they were cross-examined for nine hours in response to allegations that they had committed a sex crime with an actress they had both slept with.

While they are still unaware if a criminal case has been officially opened against them, they believed they were at risk of prosecution and flew to Ukraine with their two daughters. From there, Pavlensky says that they plan to fly to France and seek asylum.

Pavlensky said that he and his family would not return to Russia until they were no longer at risk of prosecution. He says that the allegations illustrate Russian security services’ preference for underhand tactics.

“Probably they believe that beating someone and bloodshed is crude.  If it's possible to do it quietly, they aim to do so,” he said.

Previous examples of the artist’s work include sewing his lips together in response to the incarceration of Pussy Riot and wrapping his naked body in barbed wire during a protest action in St Petersburg.

In a 2014 interview with the Guardian, Pavlensky revealed that it was during the Pussy Riot trial that he first realised the need for radical protest art. “Their trial affected me more than many things in my own life,” he claimed.

“I started looking at other people and wondering why they were not doing anything. And that is when I had the important realisation that you should not wait for things from other people. You need to do things yourself.”