Russian artist and girlfriend arrested over sex tape showing Macron’s ally performing a sex act

A Russian dissident artist who claimed responsibility for releasing sex videos that forced President Emmanuel Macron’s candidate for Paris mayor to pull out of the race has been arrested.

Pyotr Pavlensky was detained by police in the French capital on Saturday after publishing screenshots of sexual images that brought down the high-profile candidate, Benjamin Griveaux.

French police held the Russian activist and his girlfriend for questioning on Sunday over the sex tape that was released online, the prosecutor’s office said. 

Pavlensky has said he leaked the video that forced the centrist ruling party’s candidate for Paris City Hall, Griveaux, to bow out of the running for mayor in next month’s election.

The artist, who received asylum in France in 2017 after several radical protests in Russia, was arrested on Saturday in connection with a fight at a New Year’s party.

On Sunday, however, police turned their attention to the video posted online this week of a man masturbating, coupled with racy text messages sent to a woman, thought to be Pavlensky’s partner.

Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky (above) speaking during a press interview at his lawyer’s office in Paris last Friday 

French lawyer Juan Branco answering questions as he left the judiciary police's regional headquarters in northwestern Paris after meeting with his client, Pyotr Pavlensky, today

French lawyer Juan Branco answering questions as he left the judiciary police’s regional headquarters in northwestern Paris after meeting with his client, Pyotr Pavlensky, today

Alexandra de Taddeo (far left) and her current boyfriend, Russian performance artist, Pyotr Pavlensky (second left)

Alexandra de Taddeo (far left) and her current boyfriend, Russian performance artist, Pyotr Pavlensky (second left)

The video prompted Griveaux, a married father of three, to abruptly call off his mayoral campaign, a first in France, where politicians have in the past attempted to brush off sex scandals as private matters.

Alexandra de Taddeo, Pavlensky’s French girlfriend, is believed to have been the recipient of the video sent in 2018, has also been arrested on charges of invasion of privacy and publishing images of a sexual nature without consent. 

Pavlensky, 35, and de Taddeo, 29, were both being questioned on Sunday at the headquarters of the criminal police in Paris.

De Taddeo, who is a lawyer, and Pavlensky, contacted WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, last summer over the scandal, according to French media. 

A source close to the case claimed de Taddeo was having an affair with Griveaux at the time the clip was made in 2018.

The source said: ‘She denies doing anything wrong at all, except receiving highly sexual messages from a senior politician she was having an affair with, and who was sexting her.’

On Friday, Pavlensky said that he had posted the footage online in order to expose the ‘hypocrisy’ of 42-year-old Griveaux who campaigned for family values and planned to post more material on a newly created ‘political porn platform’.

Griveaux ‘is someone who constantly brings up family values, who says he wants to be the mayor of families and always cites his wife and children as an example. But he is doing the opposite,’ Pavlensky told France’s Liberation daily.

Griveaux’s lawyer, Richard Malka, hit back on Sunday, accusing ‘pseudo artists’ of giving ‘morality lessons’.

Lawyer Alexandra de Taddeo, Pyotr Pavlensky's French girlfriend, is believed to have been the recipient of the explicit video sent in 2018 when she was said to be having an affair with Griveaux

Lawyer Alexandra de Taddeo, Pyotr Pavlensky’s French girlfriend, is believed to have been the recipient of the explicit video sent in 2018 when she was said to be having an affair with Griveaux

Benjamin Griveaux (pictured in Paris last week) quit the mayoral race in the French capital after an obscene video emerged online

Benjamin Griveaux (pictured in Paris last week) quit the mayoral race in the French capital after an obscene video emerged online  

Pyotr Pavlensky said he leaked the video, that brought down Paris mayoral candidate, Benjamin Griveaux, to expose his 'hypocrisy'

Pyotr Pavlensky said he leaked the video, that brought down Paris mayoral candidate, Benjamin Griveaux, to expose his ‘hypocrisy’

French media and politicians from across the spectrum have portrayed Griveaux, a former government spokesman, as the victim of a hatchet job.

‘Everyone has the right to their secret garden,’ the speaker of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, told the Journal du Dimanche weekly, echoing a sentiment still widely held nine years after politicians’ morals came under scrutiny in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair.

Griveaux’s fall left Macron’s Republic on the Move (LREM) party scrambling to find a replacement candidate for Paris mayor a month before the vote.

Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said on Sunday she would run in Griveaux’s place.

‘I’m going for it with the aim of winning,’ Buzyn, who has been leading France’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, said. 

Griveaux’s campaign had already been in trouble before the sex tape emerged, dragged down by a rebel candidacy from fellow Macron supporter and star mathematician Cedric Villani.

Recent polls had placed the official LREM candidate third, behind incumbent Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist, and conservative candidate Rachida Dati.

Griveaux had blamed the rebel candidacy of fellow Macron supporter and star mathematician Cedric Villani for his poor showing.

The polls showed Villani, who was booted out of LREM for failing to rally behind Griveaux, running in fifth place. 

Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky arriving at the Paris courthouse, as he went on trial for setting fire to the facade of France's central bank in Paris in 2017

Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky arriving at the Paris courthouse, as he went on trial for setting fire to the facade of France’s central bank in Paris in 2017

Pavlensky has a track record of causing outrage.

In 2013, he nailed his scrotum to Red Square to protest against the ‘apathy and political indifference’ of Russian society.

Two years later, he doused the doors of the FSB secret police headquarters with petrol and set them on fire.

In October 2017, he set fire to the offices of the Bank of France on Place Bastille, site of the attack on an infamous prison at the start of the French revolution in 1789.

The activist, who has expressed support for France’s ‘yellow vest’ protest movement, was given a short jail sentence over that incident.

He is also accused of pulling a knife during a brawl at a New Year’s Eve party at a Paris apartment in December.

Two guests at the party suffered minor knife wounds, according to the Mediapart investigative website.

Pavlensky left Russia in 2017 after being told of rape accusations against him.

While in his homeland, he set a fire in front of the Russian federal security agency and nailed his scrotum to Moscow’s Red Square in what he said was a metaphor for Russian political apathy.

The Russian artist is also known for works of performance art including setting fire to the Bank of France and damaging its facade in 2017.

Under French law, so-called ‘revenge porn’, or the publishing of pornographic material without a person’s content, can be punished by up to two years in prison and a €60,000 ($65,000) fine.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk