Russian
investigators have arrested one of the country’s most prominent theatre
directors for fraud, in a case that many in the arts world fear is part of a
crackdown on
dissenting voices.
Kirill
Serebrennikov stands accused of embezzling 68m roubles (£900,000) of government
funds. He was questioned by investigators on Tuesday and denied the
allegations, Russian agencies reported. The director will spend the night in
prison and a court will decide on Wednesday whether he should be remanded in
custody or put under house arrest.
Serebrennikov,
known for his work on stage and screen, 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.
Serebrennikov
was first detained by investigators in May and questioned as a witness in the
fraud case. That led to an outpouring of support for him from the Moscow
theatre world and protestations that the pressure was political.
However, the
investigators did not stop there. A number of Serebrennikov’s former colleagues
were detained and, according to Russian media outlets, some have given evidence
against him.
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.
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.
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Serebrennikov
revealed in an interview this month that his passport had been confiscated
while the investigation continued. A statement on the website of the Russian
investigative committee on Tuesday morning announced that the director had been
arrested for fraud. He was detained in St Petersburg overnight and brought to
Moscow to be charged.
Serebrennikov
has had a difficult year, with an eagerly awaited premiere of a ballet about
the dancer Rudolf Nureyev pulled from the Bolshoi theatre’s stage at the last
minute in July. Officially, the reason was because the performance was not
ready, but there were rumours that the theatre had come under pressure to
shelve the ballet owing to Serebrennikov’s reputation and the open portrayal of
homosexual relationships in his production.
As well as
opera, theatre and ballet, Serebrennikov has also directed films, and his 2016
movie The Student won accolades at the Cannes film festival. Before the arrest
he had been shooting a film about the 1980s Soviet singer Viktor Tsoi. “I was
on set with him on Saturday in St Petersburg and he was in high spirits and
enjoying himself,” said Michael Idov, who co-wrote the screenplay.
It is
unclear whether the director will be able to finish work on the film or fulfil
other artistic commitments. He was due to direct an opera in Stuttgart,
Germany, next month.
There was a
fresh outpouring of support for Serebrennikov on Tuesday, as members of the art
world reacted with horror to the arrest. Vladimir Urin, the director of the
Bolshoi theatre, said Serebrennikov was a “gifted and talented man” and a
“great artist”.
Shortly
after the initial questioning of Serebrennikov in May, the Russian president,
Vladimir Putin, was asked about the incident by an actor at a Kremlin
reception. He responded: “Fools”, apparently referring to the investigators.
This was seen by some as a sign from the Kremlin to stop the campaign against
the director; instead, Russian authorities have intensified it.
“There was
an implicit understanding that there are certain elite safe spaces where you
can do the kind of things that Gogol Centre was doing,” said Idov. “However,
this agreement seems to be fraying recently.”
The writer
Boris Akunin wrote on Facebook that the arrest could not have happened without
Putin’s approval, and said it signalled a “new stage of existence with new
rules” in the country.
Guardian*
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