An activist who has spent the past month wandering Moscow in a prison uniform in protest of the Russian penal system was detained after allowing her hair to be publicly shaved off on Red Square, Novaya Gazeta reported Thursday.
Yekaterina Nenasheva was accosted by police after fellow activist Anna Bokler shaved off Nenasheva's hair to mark the culmination of a protest highlighting the difficulties faced by ex-prisoners readjusting to everyday life in society, the report said.
Reporter Natasha Zotova, who works for Novaya Gazeta, posted a photograph of the incident to her Twitter account, writing that nearby security guards "did not know what to do." The photo shows onlookers trying to take photos of a bald-headed Nenasheva.
Both Nenasheva and Bokler, along with two other activists who were filming the protest, were taken to a nearby police station, Novaya Gazeta reported. It was not immediately clear what legal provisions the protesters were suspected of having violated.
The action is the latest of a series of protest performances to have taken place on Red Square — and is by no means the most shocking.
In November 2013, performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky was charged with hooliganism after nailing his scrotum to the floor of Red Square. The action was intended to protest Russia's descent into a "police state."
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