The ICR reported that the director will soon be charged

Artistic Director of the Gogol Center Kirill Serebrennikov

Moscow. August 22. site - Investigators detained director Kirill Serebrennikov on suspicion of organizing the theft of 68 million rubles allocated for the implementation of the Platform project, said Svetlana Petrenko, an official representative of the ICR. According to a source of "Interfax", arrest or house arrest can be chosen as a preventive measure.

"The Chief Directorate for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the TFR on suspicion of organizing the theft of at least 68 million rubles allocated in 2011-2014 for the implementation of the Platform project, the artistic director of the Gogol Center Theater Kirill Serebrennikov," Petrenko said in Tuesday to Interfax.

She added that the investigation qualifies his actions under Part 4 of Article 159 (fraud on an especially large scale). In the near future, the director will be charged and the issue of choosing a preventive measure will be decided.

On August 11, a source surrounded by the director told Interfax that the Investigative Committee had appointed an examination of the foreign passport of the artistic director of the Gogol Center Kirill Serebrennikov, as a result of which he could not travel abroad.

"As we have learned, the investigation is conducting an examination of Serebrennikov's foreign passport, which was seized from him during searches at the end of May this year," the agency's source said. According to him, "we can talk about a technical and forensic examination, the purpose of which is to establish the authenticity of the document."

Meanwhile, according to the source, "these investigative actions are only an excuse not to let the director go abroad." Serebrennikov actively collaborates with foreign theaters. In early August, the director told reporters that in September he was to stage Engelbert Humperdinck's opera "Hansel and Gretel" in Stuttgart.

According to the investigation, from 2011 to 2014, the leadership of the Seventh Studio stole tens of millions of rubles from budget funds allocated for the development and popularization of art. One of the projects, according to the version of the Investigative Committee, was the allegedly unstaged performance "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The amount of damage, according to the investigation, for this episode is more than 2.3 million rubles. The defendants' defense has repeatedly stated that this performance was staged.

There are currently three defendants in the case: former accountant of the Seventh Studio, Nina Maslyaeva, ex-general director of the studio, Yuri Itin, and former general producer of the enterprise, ex-director of the Gogol Center, Alexei Malobrodsky. The founder of the Seventh Studio, Serebrennikov, is in the status of a witness.

Meanwhile, on August 9, it became known that Maslyaeva had testified against Serebrenikov, Malobrodsky and Itin.

"Itin, Serebrennikov, Malobrodsky developed a plan to steal funds allocated for the Platform project (...) Itin, Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky, with my help, cashed out the funds allocated for the project. they included deliberately false data, "- follows from the protocol of the interrogation of Maslyaeva, published in the Moscow City Court when considering the complaint about the extension of the preventive measure for the defendants.

On August 18, the Basmanny Court of Moscow left Malobrodsky, Maslyaeva under arrest until October 19, and Itin under house arrest until the same date. All the defendants appealed against the court ruling.

At the end of July, Malobrodsky, Maslyaeva and Itin were charged with an extended fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). At the same time, according to the lawyer of the ex-general director of the Gogol Center Ksenia Karpinskaya, the damage in the case is currently estimated by the investigation at 68 million rubles, but the essence of the charge remains unknown, since the case materials do not yet contain any specific episodes.

Earlier, A. Malobrodsky was charged only with the theft of more than 2.3 million rubles when staging the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which, according to the investigation, was not staged in the end. The defendant's lawyers, in turn, claim that the existence of the performance is a well-known fact. Itin and Maslyaeva were accused of embezzling 1.286 million rubles when purchasing props for organizing a theater festival.

Malobrodsky and Itin deny their guilt, Maslyaeva fully admitted her guilt and entered into a pre-trial agreement. The term for the preliminary investigation of the case has been extended until October 19. Many cultural figures spoke out in support of the defendants in the Seventh Studio case.

0 August 22, 2017, 15:30

Kirill Serebrenikov

On the night of August 22, the Investigative Committee of Russia, a 47-year-old director, is suspected of embezzling "at least 68 million rubles." The detention took place in St. Petersburg, where Serebrennikov was on the set of the film "Summer" about Viktor Tsoi. The director of the "Gogol Center" was taken to Moscow. So far, the Investigative Committee has not yet applied to the court with a motion for arrest, but soon Kirill Serebrennikov should be charged. The case against him was initiated under the article on fraud on an especially large scale, which implies up to ten years in prison. As a preventive measure, Serebrennikov can be sent to a pre-trial detention center or put under house arrest.

The detention of Kirill Serebrennikov, one of the leading Russian film and theater directors and artistic director of the Gogol Center (now suspended from work),. Many domestic cultural figures, journalists, politicians and colleagues of Serebrennikov have already spoken out in support of him. The collection of signatures for the release of the director has also begun online.


Kirill Serebrennikov

A few hours after Serebrennikov's arrest, a petition was created on the Change.org website in support of the director. Its authors believe that Serebrennikov is being persecuted for political reasons:

We demand an end to the criminal prosecution of Kirill Serebrennikov and his team for political reasons. Artists should have the right to express their opinions freely. It is guaranteed to them by the Constitution of our country. Law enforcement agencies and investigators should not turn into a truncheon to intimidate those who disagree with the policy of the authorities. Stop the political persecution of Kirill Serebrennikov!

- written in the petition. At the moment, the petition has already been signed by 1,500 people.

Alexey Kudrin, former Russian finance minister (Twitter)

The arrest of the director is clearly an excessive measure before the trial, especially after the president's words about the excessive arrest of entrepreneurs (hereinafter, the spelling and punctuation of the authors have been preserved, - ed.)

Liya Akhedzhakova, actress (for RIA Novosti)

Awful news. This thread is a hello from Meyerhold. I don’t understand what will happen next? Probably, we will crawl on our knees to the tsar-father. After the search, his foreign passport was taken away, they are so cunning that the world has never seen, they have colossal experience: remember Meyerhold or Mandelstam, even Yesenin - died in torture.


Evgeny Stychkin, actor (for Kommersant)

This defies any explanation. Everyone knows that there were performances. Why, to whom did Kirill cross the road, why was he chosen as such a demonstrative action? The man of art is subjected to almost unprecedented persecution in our modern history. Why can't the state protect him? We have the presumption of innocence, so let them first prove that there is something, let all opinions be heard, and then something will happen. You cannot take a person, tear him out of his life and force him to go through all this. This is very scary. If there is a task to impress us, they have certainly achieved this goal, this task has been solved.

Yuri Grymov, director (for Kommersant)

Theater is a very complex mechanism. This is a big responsibility - salaries, production, storage, a lot of complicated things. And, to be honest, I have never felt on myself, and, I think, very few people felt, in reality the facts of some kind of political or creative pressure. If there are financial violations, it means that the investigation will deal with this. Why was Malobrodsky suddenly dismissed? They knew that there were some violations. Therefore, there is a difficult situation here, which should be clarified by an absolutely honest investigation, moreover a public one. Of course, a very large sum is presented - for the theater it is a lot of money. Therefore, I think that time will tell, and the investigation, I hope, with such publicity will be as open and honest as possible.


Nikolay Svanidze, TV journalist, historian, chairman of the commission on civil rights of the Human Rights Council (for Interfax)

It is not clear why they treat him so brutally. Is he, a rapist, a serial killer, dangerous to society? Why does it need to be delayed? He is an absolutely law-abiding citizen, not prone to escape or violence. Why is it necessary to restrict the personal freedom of a citizen?

Pavel Lungin, director (for Echo of Moscow)

It seems to me that we see once again that our law enforcement agencies do not back up, cannot show flexibility. Of course, there is no need for arrest. Cyril does not go anywhere, he works. He's here, he goes to all interrogations, writes explanations. It seems to me that this is excessive cruelty, some kind of vengeful cruelty.

Nikolay Kartozia, general director of the TV channel "Friday" (Facebook)

You can consider me a naive fool, but I do not believe that my friend Kirill Serebrennikov is a swindler. I forbid myself to even think so. And you, if you are my friends and friends of Cyril, please do not make assumptions. After all, everything that we have been told so far has not been proven, half-proven. Where are the facts? Cyril is an amazing person and a huge talented soul. Whatever it is in the denouement ... Uncle Kirill, I am your friend and will not renounce. There will probably be a big cleaning of the friend tape today. Well, for the best. People love to "assume" it is part of the human in us. But there are assumptions that blacken the soul and turn you into a toxic b ****. I won't have this in my feed.

Pavel Bardin, director (Facebook)

Serebrennikov was detained - another victory of the culture of violence over culture.

Nikita Kukushkin, actor of the "Gogol Center"

Friends! Stupid and unhappy people really work there, mostly untalented people, or people who have lost their talent. They are weak, there is no truth behind them. We need to help such people. So there is a point in worrying for them. They are like bees with a sting in the ass. And for us - enough to grieve! Flip the game.


Mikhail Idov, screenwriter, journalist (for the Dozhd channel)

I know exactly the same as you do. I found out about what was happening 20 minutes ago. All I can say is that two days ago my wife Lilya and I, as co-authors of the script for the film "Summer", were on the set of this film with Kirill Semenovich in St. Petersburg. Kirill was in a great mood, work was going on, work will continue, I'm sure. That's all. And so we are in a huge shock, of course.

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The Main Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) detained the artistic director of the Gogol Center, Kirill Serebrennikov. The director is suspected of organizing the theft of at least 68 million rubles allocated in 2011-2014 for the implementation of the Platform project. “His actions are qualified by the investigation under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - fraud on an especially large scale. The investigation intends to charge Kirill Serebrennikov with this crime, and also decide on the choice of a preventive measure, ”the ICR said in a statement.

Under this article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the maximum punishment is 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 1 million rubles.

The director's lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov said that Mr. Serebrennikov was detained in St. Petersburg.

Dmitry Kharitonov on the air of Kommersant FM:

“At half past ten in the morning, the investigator of the Investigative Committee called me and said that Kirill had been taken to the Investigative Committee for investigative actions. Since he was in St. Petersburg filming a movie - he has been doing it there for almost a month - naturally, it was a complete surprise. I am now urgently returning to Moscow, going straight to the Investigative Committee. That's all I know for now. Before that, we were twice in the Investigative Committee for investigative actions, we just came on a call - no problems arose. Why all this has been done now is absolutely incomprehensible. But I have already seen that the UK has disseminated information that they are going to bring charges. Let's figure out what's going on. "

Recall that on August 9, the Moscow City Court published the materials of the investigation into the embezzlement of budget funds allocated by the Ministry of Culture for the popularization and development of contemporary art of the Seventh Studio autonomous non-profit organization (ANO), in which Mr. Serebrennikov was first named as a possible accomplice in the crime. Testimony against the founder and former artistic director of the studio was given by the former chief accountant Nina Maslyaeva. According to her, it was Kirill Serebrennikov and ex-producer of ANO Alexei Malobrodsky who allegedly developed a plan to steal 68 million rubles. and forced Ms. Maslyaeva to falsify accounting records. Earlier, Mr. Serebrennikov, who was in the status of a witness, said that law enforcement agencies had taken his passport away from him, and therefore he could not go abroad.

On Tuesday, August 22, director Kirill Serebrennikov was detained in St. Petersburg, where he was filming the film "Summer", and was taken to the investigative committee in Moscow. The director is suspected of fraud in the amount of 68 million rubles. (The maximum sentence under this article is 10 years in prison). The rain gathered the reaction of Serebrennikov's colleagues, cultural figures and human rights activists to the "night" detention of the director.

The head of the Center for Strategic Research (CSR) Alexei Kudrin called the detention of the director "excessive measure":

The Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Social Issues Leonid Pechatnikov told Interfax that the director could have chosen a preventive measure not related to imprisonment, for example, a recognizance not to leave, while emphasizing that the case does not include funds from the Moscow budget, but it is about federal money.

The head of the Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov also expressed the hope that Serebrennikov would not be arrested. “I hope our investigating authorities will be wise enough not to bring matters to the point of taking the director into custody. It will not cause anything but a scandal. Moreover, as far as it is known from media reports, the essence of the accusation comes down exclusively to cashing in budget funds, and this is far from the same as embezzlement, "Interfax quotes him as saying.

Writer and screenwriter Mikhail Idov, who together with Serebrennikov is working on the film "Summer", called the situation around the director "persecution of a talented person", which "is clearly not beneficial to Russia and Russian culture."

Nikolai Svanidze, chairman of the civil rights commission of the Presidential Human Rights Council, called Serebrennikov's detention "demonstrative." “It is unclear why they treat him so brutally. Is he, a rapist, a serial killer, dangerous to society? Why does it need to be delayed? He is an absolutely law-abiding citizen, not prone to escape or violence. Why is it necessary to restrict the personal freedom of a citizen? ", - quotes his words" Interfax ".

According to Svanidze, the detention of a world-renowned director "instead of a systemic fight against corruption" makes a strange impression both in the country itself and abroad, and "will have very grave consequences for the general atmosphere in our country."

“From a moral point of view, this is absolutely wrong, in my opinion. Kirill Serebrennikov is a talented artist, director of world renown, one of the people who make up the glory of Russia at the moment, ”Svanidze said.

Director Pavel Lungin commented on the detention of Serebrennikov on the air of "Echo of Moscow". “It seems to me that we see once again that our law enforcement agencies do not back up, cannot show flexibility.<...>Of course, there is no need for arrest. Kirill does not leave anywhere, he works. He is here, he goes to all interrogations, writes explanations. It seems to me that this is excessive cruelty, some kind of vengeful cruelty, ”said Lungin.

Human rights activist Olga Romanova called the detention inevitable and linked it to an attempt by the investigative committee to prove “that they are not stupid”:

Human rights activist Zoya Svetova suggested that if Serebrennikov is not placed under house arrest, the number of proxies may be reduced:

General Director of the TV channel "Friday" Nikolay Kartozia:

Journalist Leonid Ragozin called the persecution of Serebrennikov an example of "the Kremlin's pinpoint terror." The purpose of the arrest, according to the journalist, is to maximize the effect and instill fear: