Leonid Nikolayev, a leading member of the Russian dissident art collective Voina, has died at the age of 31, following an accident while cutting timber outside Moscow, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reports. Nicknamed ‘Crazy Lenya’ by his fellow activists, Nikolayev was best known for stunts like painting a giant phallus on a drawbridge facing the St. Petersburg headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), staging an orgy in Moscow’s Darwin Museum, or interrupting a courtroom proceedings to perform a song called ‘All Cops are Bаstards, Remember This’. He is also remembered for his actions during Voina’s 2010 Blue Bucket protests (see video above) against government officials who use flashing blue beacons atop their cars to cut through traffic, and blamed for causing numerous accidents and deaths.
29 September 2015.
