Russian street-art activist and critic of Putin regime detained in Prague

It was reported first by RFE/RL that the founder of the political street art group Voina, Oleg Vorotnikov, and his wife and fellow activist Natalia Sokol, along with their daughter, had been detained in Prague. Mr Vorotnikov left Russia in 2011 after running awry of the Putin regime for artistic events seen there as acts of hooliganism. It is not known whether Russia will seek his extradition.

Oleg Vorotnikov, photo: archive of Art Wall Gallery

A little earlier I spoke to Zuzana Štefková, one of the curators behind Prague’s Art Wall Gallery which in the past highlighted the dissident’s work. She told me more about the group he helped found.

“Voina began in 2007 and since then it has criticized the abuse of power in Russia under the Putin regime. Probably the most famous piece is one called ‘Dick captured by the FSB’ which was spray-painted on a drawbridge in St. Petersburg across from the FSB headquarters moments before the bridge rose. The FSB are basically their secret service. They got an award for that for innovation in art a year later, which was ironic because they were being persecuted for the same thing.

“Another work they did was called ‘Palace Coup’ in which a number of empty police cars were tipped or overturned on the pretext that the artist’s son had lost his ball which had gone under the cars.”

The show that Art Wall did in 2011: was that a basic show of support for him, for Voina, given developments in present-day Russia?

“Yes, definitely. It was also a commemoration of an event that Voina staged in Moscow. We felt that the issue of what was going on needed to be addressed.”

How do you view the new of the artist’s detainment in Prague as well as the risk that he could be returned to Russia?

Natalia Sokol, photo: Kozkino, CC BY-SA 4.0

“I think it would be a very dangerous precedent to return him to Russia because we all know that dissidents in Putin’s Russia are jailed, that political opponents get assassinated, that laws are passed to deter critics of the regime and the Orthodox Church, that trials are biased. I think it would be very unfortunate if this happened.

“Putin is not very happy with what the activists are doing. Also, there is a history of Vorotnikov being jailed: in 2010 he was jailed for some three months and got out on bail which was paid by the famous British street artist Banksy. It is very, very problematic as an artist and dissident that he would have to face potentially heavy consequences.”