A Russian performance artist stripped naked and nailed his testicles to a Red Square cobblestone in protest against the Kremlin’s crackdown on political rights.

Eye-watering footage shows artist Pyotr Pavlensky sitting naked outside Lenin’s Mausoleum in pain before police covered him with a blanket.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency said Pavlensky was taken to a police station after being treated in a central Moscow clinic.

That’s got to hurt: Pyotr Pavlensky nailed his testicles to the pavement in Russia’s Red Square

The Saint Petersburg-based artist said in a statement posted on the Grani.ru website that he was trying to draw attention to Russian society’s development into a ‘police state’.

Russia marked its annual Police Day holiday on Sunday.

It is not the first time the 29-year-old has resorted to dramatic methods of protest.

He has previously sewn his lips together to demonstrate against the jailing of two female members of the Pussy Riot punk band who staged an anti-Kremlin performance inside Moscow’s main cathedral in 2011.

He was also arrested after wrapping his naked body in barbed wire outside a Saint Petersburg government building in May.

Ouch: Police move crowds away from Pyotr Pavlensky who carried out a protest by nailing his testicles to a cobblestone

Making a point: It is not the first time the 29-year-old has resorted to eye-watering methods of protest

Read more: Daily Mail