Moscow court releases Kirill Serebrennikov, one of Russia’s most celebrated theater directors, from house arrest—a major change in a case that has drawn comparisons with Soviet-era persecution of artists.
Prosecutors accused Serebrennikov of embezzling funds from a state grant allocated for a theater project he led between 2011 and 2014. They allege that he worked with a group colleagues at his Seventh Studio company to steal 133 million rubles from the funds provided by the Ministry of Culture. Serebrennikov has denied the charges, calling them absurd.
But while skepticism about the case is widespread, speculation over why Serebrennikov might have been targeted by authorities has been less unanimous. Many Russian arts circles believe Serebrennikov fell afoul of a more reactionary atmosphere and the political clampdown that followed Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Some see his arrest as a classic authoritarian message telling artists to remain within bounds.
Serebrennikov’s proximity to power, even as he often provided an unflattering mirror to the powerful, has led to the comparisons with the treatment of virtuoso artists under Joseph Stalin, who would take a personal interest in favored creators as he often banned them. It has also led toKonstantin Gaaze, a well-known journalist, said he believed the trial had been a message to artists who receive state-funding that they must produce the conservative work desired by the state.
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