A naked performance artist who nailed his scrotum to Red Square as a political protest may face up to five years in prison, Russian media report.
A criminal investigation has begun into Pyotr Pavlensky's actions at the Kremlin wall on Sunday, the interior ministry told news agencies in Moscow.
Pavlensky was arrested but released the following day and placed under travel restrictions.
However, the 29-year-old now faces the charge of hooliganism.
The hooliganism charge is used to prosecute perceived breaches of public order. It is the same charge used to jail members of the punk band Pussy Riot, and to prosecute activists from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise.
The St Petersburg performance artist had reportedly sat for an hour and a half on the square on Sunday afternoon, with a nail driven through his genitals into the ground. His "fixation" act, he said, was a metaphor for apathy in Russia.
Critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin accuse the veteran leader of presiding over a crackdown on dissent since his re-election in March last year.
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