Yelena Morgunova, wife of performance artist Pavel Krisevich, was due to be released from jail when a Russian court sentenced her to 14 more days over an alleged refusal to take a drug test
A magistrate in Russia’s Ryazan region sentenced Yelena Morgunova, the wife of performance artist Pavel Krisevich, to 14 days of administrative detention on a charge of refusing a drug test, the Slovo Zashchite project said.
Yelena Morgunova, wife of performance artist Pavel Krisevich, was sentenced to an additional 14 days of administrative detention by a Russian court, according to the Slovo Zashchite project. Morgunova was initially due to be released on September 7, following a previous 10-day detention. The court found her guilty of refusing a drug test, claiming she exhibited dilated pupils and refused to take the test without her lawyer present.
Morgunova's lawyer, Leonid Solovyov, criticized the court for bringing her directly from the detention center to a police detective's office for the drug test, asserting that her testimony and the testimony of the detective should have been summoned by the court. Morgunova was initially detained in the Ryazan region on August 28 after returning from France with Krisevich.
Krisevich, a performance artist known for protests against political repression, was sentenced to five years in a penal colony in 2022 for a performance in Moscow's Red Square. He has faced repeated administrative arrests since his release in 2025, and Morgunova accused Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) of recruiting her to gather information on contemporary Russian artists, including Krisevich.
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