How to Break Out of Russia’s Political Prisons

In a country where people are regularly sentenced to time behind bars for staging a protest, writing a comment on a social-network page, or for nothing at all, how does one manage to set fire to the door of the headquarters of the secret police and avoid a long prison sentence? The artist Petr Pavlensky stood outside a court that had just released him on Wednesday and explained, “The regime holds on to power by means of ceaseless terror. And the threat of terror feeds on fear.” Refusing to be afraid, it follows, is like cutting off the blood supply to a cancerous tumor.