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Russian court puts theatre director under house arrest Angry protests as Russian court puts theatre director under house arrest
(about 4 hours later)
A court in Moscow has put a widely revered Russian theatre director under house arrest on charges of embezzling £900,000, in a case that his supporters fear is part of a crackdown on dissenting voices. Hundreds of people gathered in central Moscow to protest outside a courtroom as a prominent Russian theatre director was placed under house arrest before a fraud trial that his supporters say is politically motivated.
Kirill Serebrennikov, 47, was detained on Tuesday in St Petersburg where he was shooting a film and put in jail after interrogation. He is accused of embezzling 68m roubles of government funds earmarked for an art project. He denies the charges. Kirill Serebrennikov’s lawyer argued on Wednesday that his client should be released on bail, but the judge ruled there was a risk he would seek to influence other witnesses or destroy evidence.
Serebrennikov has won international acclaim for his productions spanning drama, opera and movies. He is the director of the Gogol Centre, a progressive, experimental theatre frequented by liberal Muscovites. The theatre is known for contemporary productions that often deal directly with political or sexual themes rarely seen on stage in Moscow. “I am an honest man,” Serebrennikov, who denies the charges, told the court. “I have nothing apart from Russia and work in Russian culture.”
His detention has been seen widely as part of a crackdown on dissent. The arrest of the avant garde director on Tuesday, amid accusations he embezzled 68m roubles (£900,000), sent shockwaves through Russia’s artistic community and has raised fears of a crackdown on cultural freedoms.
Moscow’s Basmanny court heeded investigators’ request to put Serebrennikov under house arrest. Serebrennikov rejected the charges and pleaded to be set free. He faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty. “I am upset, angry and depressed,” Irina Prokhorova, a prominent editor and publisher, told reporters after the judge’s decision. “This is reminiscent of the sad examples from our past. It’s an obvious message to creative people and intellectual society: this is what will happen to everyone who does not submit.”
Several hundred of his supporters rallied outside, shouting his name and chanting: “Freedom”. There were chaotic scenes earlier on Wednesday at Moscow’s Basmanny court as journalists and Serebrennikov supporters tried to gain access to the hearing. Shouts of “freedom” and “shame” by protesters outside the building floated into the courtroom, making much of the proceedings inaudible.
The director has previously described the case against him and his former colleagues as “absurd and schizophrenic”, and insisted that all the government money had been spent on theatre productions. In one Facebook post, he referred to a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was performed more than 15 times and nominated for awards. “Now the investigators tell us that it doesn’t exist and never did,” he wrote. Police arrested several demonstrators, including Margarita Solomonitsa, who was holding a sign outside the courtroom that read: “Give us our director back.” She was led away by police officers as she was speaking to journalists. “I have great respect for Kirill Serebrennikov and am sure he is a very honest person,” Solomonitsa said before she was detained. “What is happening to him is outside the law.”
Sources in the Moscow theatre world said the allocation of state funds for theatres was a notoriously murky process, but they found it hard to believe the director could be guilty. Serebrennikov said he should be granted bail because he had cooperated fully with the police investigation, which has been under way for months. A total of 34 prominent Russian directors, artists and singers, including the director of Russia’s Bolshoi theatre, pledged they would guarantee Serebrennikov’s bail payment.
The conditions of his house arrest, which the court said would last until 19 October, mean he will be banned from using the phone or communicating with anyone without investigators’ permission. But the judge sided with the prosecutors, ruling Serebrennikov should stay under house arrest until 19 October. The director will only be able to attend rehearsals with the permission of investigators.
The court rejected an appeal to release Serebrennikov on bail despite several character witness statements in his favour from high-profile figures in the arts world and an offer from one to pay any amount of bail. The charges in the case relate to a period between 2011 and 2014 when a theatre studio led by Serebrennikov received significant government funding. Investigators have alleged he was part of a criminal group that stole the money.
On learning of his house arrest, his supporters chanted: “Disgrace”. Serebrennikov dismissed the allegations on Wednesday. “We did a big and bright project for the country, for the motherland, that was famous all over the world and became a starting platform for many young artists,” he said.
Leading figures in Russia’s cultural world have said the charges are politically motivated, fuelled by conservative anger at the Gogol Centre, Serebrennikov’s progressive theatre in Moscow, which attracts a devoted liberal audience. Since its foundation, the Gogol Centre has tackled themes including the role of religion, high-level corruption and sexuality in a series of critically acclaimed productions.
The Russian culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, described Serebrennikov’s situation on Wednesday as “sad” and “deeply regrettable”, according to the news agency Interfax.
The criminal investigation in which Serebrennikov has become entangled shows no sign of ending. Several former colleagues of the director have also been detained. Police said late on Tuesday they had issued an arrest warrant for Ekaterina Voronova, a producer who worked with Serebrennikov on a staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Voronova’s current whereabouts is unknown.
Russian media reported on Wednesday that the shooting of Summer, a film directed by Serebrennikov about the Soviet rock star Viktor Tsoi, had been indefinitely suspended. It is not clear whether Small Tragedies, a Serebrennikov play due to premiere at the Gogol Centre next month, will go ahead.
Nikita Kukushkin, an actor at the Gogol Centre who attended the hearing, said the theatre would try to work as normal. “If Kirill Serebrennikov was here he would tell us to rehearse,” he said.