Detention of Kirill Serebrennikov: why he was taken and what will happen to him. "Demonstrative terror": reaction to the detention of Kirill Serebrennikov Serebrennikov was taken to the Investigative Committee

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The Basmanny Court of Moscow sent the artistic director of the Gogol Center, Kirill Serebrennikov, accused of major fraud, under house arrest until October 19, a BBC Russian Service correspondent reports from the courtroom.

Thus, the court granted the petition of the investigation and agreed with the arguments that Serebrennikov could put pressure on the witnesses.

The director will serve the house arrest in his apartment on Prechistenka. Serebrennikov will be able to visit the theater with the written permission of the investigator.

The director's defense plans to appeal the court's decision. "We have three days to appeal, we will definitely do it," Serebrennikov's lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov said.

When Judge Elena Lenskaya announced the decision, the people gathered outside the courthouse chanted: "Shame!"

Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky commented on the court's decision more restrained. "There is no political or economic order," he told reporters, citing "his sources."

When asked by the BBC if the minister or his subordinates were summoned for interrogation, Medinsky replied: “I’m not there. They called colleagues from the relevant department. This is Andrei Malyshev’s department, which was engaged in paperwork for Serebrennikov. They asked: is your signature, not yours? But all of this [allocation of grants to Serebrennikov] was under the previous leadership of the department, Sofya Apfelbaum was there. Now the investigating authorities have no questions to the Ministry of Culture."

How was the meeting

At the beginning of the meeting, Kharitonov handed over to the court a list of those who vouched for Serebrennikov. Among them are singer Philip Kirkorov, TV presenter Andrei Malakhov, director of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin, director Fyodor Bondarchuk, director of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova, writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya and others.

There were no close relatives of Serebrennikov in the hall, however, at his request, his acquaintances and actors of the Gogol Center were allowed to attend the meeting: Victoria Isakova, journalist Ksenia Larina, directors Andrei Smirnov and Alexei Mizgirev.

The investigator, speaking in court, said that Serebrennikov's guilt was confirmed by the testimony of the former director of the Seventh Studio, Yuri Itin, and accountant Nina Maslyaeva. In addition, the investigator pointed out, the director expressed his intention to go abroad, he has a residence permit in Latvia.

The prosecutor agreed that the suspicions against Serebrennikov were justified, and the materials of the case showed that a crime had been committed.

The lawyer insisted that the investigation's petition was unfounded. The defense asked the court to consider allowing Serebrennikov to visit the theater and filming. The defense also offered to make a bail, which is equivalent to the amount of damage allegedly caused by Serebrennikov.

Irina Prokhorova, editor-in-chief of the New Literary Review magazine, volunteered to make a deposit.

"I'm 100% sure that Kirill has nothing to do with the crime. I'm ready to bail so that the great man does not sit in jail, so that there is no feeling like in the old dark times, when talented people died instead of working," - she said, speaking in court.

Serebrennikov himself said that he was not guilty and asked the court to release him.

“I would like to be released because I am not guilty. The accusations seem absurd and impossible. I have been honestly working in Russia for many years, doing performances, making films. - I have no motivation to run away. At the investigation stage, I did not run away and did not try to hide. I came for interrogation on any call. I cooperated with the investigation, told the whole truth, which is that the Platform project was, the money allocated by the state were spent on it. I'm proud of it."

Action near the court

The night before, Serebrennikov's friends, including artists and journalists, called on social networks to take part in the action at the Basmanny Court. The press secretary of the Gogol Center, Daria Alenina, also wrote about the need to support the director on her Facebook.

The beginning of the meeting on choosing a preventive measure for Serebrennikov was scheduled for 12:00. Around 11:30, people began to gather at the court. Among them are TV presenter Leonid Parfyonov, journalists Elena Chekalova and Sergey Parkhomenko, director Boris Khlebnikov, editor-in-chief of the Russian version of Hello! Svetlana Bondarchuk.

Parfyonov told the BBC Russian Service that six months ago Serebrennikov's arrest was unimaginable. “Now, it turns out, it is possible. We will live on with this experience,” he said.

Bondarchuk, when asked by a BBC correspondent, replied that she did not delve into the legal details of the case, but the form it took "makes one wonder if it is political."

The police asked the crowd to get off the road. Paddy wagons drove up to the courthouse.

Around the same time, when Serebrennikov's supporters gathered, the director himself was taken to court. The Dozhd TV channel showed how bailiffs in masks led the director into the courtroom, while pushing him.

In the hall, Serebrennikov was placed in a cage for detainees.

From witness to accused

On the night of August 22, Serebrennikov was detained in St. Petersburg and taken to the Investigative Committee in Moscow, where he was charged with fraud on an especially large scale.

The investigation believes that Serebrennikov organized the theft of 68 million rubles allocated in 2011-2014 by the Ministry of Culture for the implementation of the Platform project. Serebrennikov's non-profit organization Seventh Studio received budget money.

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As stated in the UK, the director was interrogated as an accused, but did not admit guilt. He spent the night in the temporary detention center on Petrovka.

In the detention center, Serebrennikov was visited by human rights activists, to whom the director said that he was amazed at the accusation against him. Earlier, Serebrennikov was a witness in the case of fraud with budget money.

At the end of May, within the framework of this case, the former general director of the Seventh Studio, Yuri Itin, and the former chief accountant of the organization, Nina Maslyaeva, were arrested. In June, the court also arrested the ex-director of the Gogol Center Alexei Malobrodsky.

According to investigators, they “every year in the period from 2011 to 2014 developed action plans within the framework of the Platforma project, containing deliberately unreliable inflated information about their number and cost, after which they submitted these plans to the Russian Ministry of Culture as a justification for the amount of the required budget funding".

On Tuesday, August 22, the UK announced that another defendant appeared in the case - the executive producer of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Ekaterina Voronova. She has been put on the wanted list.

Kirill Serebrennikov is one of the most famous theater directors in Russia, winner of numerous awards, including the Golden Mask for the play "Thugs" staged by Seventh Studio in 2012.

Who vouched for Serebrennikov:

Philip Kirkorov, singer

Andrey Malakhov, TV presenter

Alexander Kalyagin, ChairmanWithunion of theatrical figures

Vladimir Urin, director of the Bolshoi Theater

Evgeny Mironov, head of the Theater of Nations

Fyodor Bondarchuk, director

Konstantin Raikin, theater director" Satyricon"

Danila Kozlovsky, actor

Nyuta Federmesser, President of the Charitable Foundation" Faith"

Avdotya Smirnova, TV presenter

Igor Vernik, actor

Valery Garkalin, actor

Victoria Isakova, actress

Elizaveta Boyarskaya, actress

Chulpan Khamatova, actress

Nikolai Kartozia, president of the TV holding" Profmedia"

Zelfira Tregulova, director of the Tretyakov Gallery

Alexei German, director

Ludmila Ulitskaya, writer

Ksenia Rappoport, actress

Semyon Slepakov, producer

Lev Dodin, director

Ivan Urgant, TV presenter

Ksenia Sobchak, TV presenter

Maxim Vitorgan, actor

Alexey Mizgirev, director

Konstantin Khabensky, actor

Nikolay Svanidze, journalist

Andrey Smirnov, director

The Investigative Committee of Russia detained the capital's director and artistic director of the Moscow theater "Gogol-Center" Kirill Serebrennikov on suspicion of organizing fraud on an especially large scale.

The position of the investigation

"The main department for the investigation of particularly important cases of the Russian Investigative Committee on suspicion of organizing the theft of at least 68 million rubles, allocated in 2011-14 for the implementation of the Platform project, detained the artistic director of the Moscow Gogol Center theater, Kirill Serebrennikov," the statement says. in the official statement of the Investigative Committee, which was announced by the press secretary of the TFR Svetlana Petrenko.

According to the version of the investigation, Serebrennikov's criminal actions were carried out by him in collusion with other officials - the ex-director of the Gogol Center Alexey Maloborodsky, as well as the leaders of the non-profit organization "Seventh Studio" specially created for these purposes: the general director Yuri Itin and accountant Nina Maslyaeva.

This version of the investigation is based on the testimony of Maslyayeva herself, who was arrested back in May 2017, when searches were conducted in the Gogol Center and Serebrennikov’s house in the case of embezzlement of state funds.

In the spring, the artistic director of the Gogol Center and, at the same time, the founder of the Seventh Studio, was involved in the case as a witness, but even then the ICR suspected Serebrennikov of organizing a criminal group in order to embezzle money allocated by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation to support the theater.

Subsequently, Maslyayeva made a confession, which was announced by the judge at a meeting in the Moscow City Court, where a complaint was considered about the extension of Malobrodsky's arrest, taken simultaneously with Maslyayeva. According to this statement, Maslyaeva directly accused the artistic director of organizing a criminal group:

“Kirill Serebrennikov developed a plan to embezzle funds allocated for the Platform project. Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky cashed out with my help,” she claims.

According to investigators, the Ministry of Culture allocated 68 million rubles to the Seventh Studio for organizing theatrical productions, including the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. However, Itin, Malobrodsky and Maslyaeva, in collusion with Serebrennikov, decided to steal part of this money, which was hidden by false financial documents for fictitious expenses for organizing the performance.

In fact, according to the investigation, Seventh Studio did not incur such expenses, which led to the theft of more than two million rubles.

Serebrennikov's excuses and possible verdict

Kirill Serebrennikov has headed the creative work of the Gogol Center since 2012. Officially, he was not the director of the theater, as he is not now, however, it was under his name that the Ministry of Culture carried out targeted support for the Gogol Center within the framework of the system of state grants for the development of culture.

During the tenure of the current person involved in the criminal case as artistic director of the Gogol Center Theater, and personally, Serebrennikov has repeatedly received high Russian and international awards. The last of them, "Europe - a new theatrical reality", was awarded to the director this year and was supposed to be received in December 2017 in Rome.

However, apparently, now it has become impossible - the TFR has direct evidence of Serebrennikov's guilt.

According to the statements of the artistic director himself, an attempt to accuse him of misuse of budget money, and even more so of fraud and the creation of a criminal group, is "absurd and schizophrenic." According to him, the performance "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was played within the framework of the "Platform" project more than 15 times and all the expenses for its implementation were real.

On the other hand, the current leadership of the Gogol Center emphatically does not give any comments on the progress of the Seventh Studio case, preferring to rely on the conclusions of the investigation rather than on past or current merits and regalia of their artistic director.

A new twist in a resonant criminal case. Famous director Kirill Serebrennikov was detained on suspicion of major fraud. After interrogation, he was formally charged. The artistic director of the Gogol Center does not admit his guilt. Until today, he was in the status of a witness. As expected, on August 23, the court will consider the issue of a measure of restraint, but for now he has been placed in a temporary detention center on Petrovka.

In the building of the Investigative Committee, the artistic director of the theater "Gogol Center" Kirill Serebrennikov was taken in the morning from St. Petersburg. There he was on the set of the film. At night, apparently, the arrest took place. Immediately after him, the director was taken to Moscow by car.

The investigators interrogated Kirill Serebrennikov for three hours. It is known that during the interrogation he once again did not admit his guilt. As a result, the director was charged with organizing fraud.

Prior to this, Serebrennikov was involved in the case as a witness and testified several times. The criminal case was opened in May, and since then investigators have received new information.

“He is charged with committing a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, this is fraud on an especially large scale. Serebrennikov is accused of organizing the theft of at least 68 million rubles allocated in 2011-2014 for the implementation of the Platforma project, Svetlana Petrenko, official representative of the RF IC, said.

The Platform program was created to develop and popularize contemporary art. It was hosted by Seventh Studio, Kirill Serebrennikov's independent theater company. Money for new productions and concerts was allocated, among other things, from the state budget through the Ministry of Culture. And at the end of May, investigators became interested in exactly how the Seventh Studio was spending budget funds. Searches then took place at several venues, including the Gogol Center theater.

The first defendants in the case were the ex-director of the Gogol Center, Alexei Malobrodsky, the former general director of the Seventh Studio, Yuri Itin, and the former accountant Nina Maslyaeva. According to the source of the Interfax agency, it was her testimony that became the basis for filing charges against Serebrennikov. The defense side has already stated that it will seek recognition of the complete innocence of the director.

“Kirill Semenovich believes that the accusation is absolutely absurd, that the Platform was a project that took place, that the money allocated by the state was spent on this project,” lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov said.

On August 23, the court will have to choose a measure of restraint for Kirill Serebrennikov. He will spend tonight in custody. Meanwhile, another suspect appeared in the case - producer Ekaterina Voronova. She has been put on the wanted list.

Scandalous news about the embezzlement of budgetary funds in the "Seventh Studio", founded by Serebrennikov, began to arrive in May of this year. First, there were searches at the Gogol Center and the director's apartment. Serebrennikov acted solely as a witness. However, during the investigation, an apartment in Germany worth 300,000 euros was found in his possession. The property was purchased in 2012, during the period when the "Seventh Studio" was financed by the Ministry of Culture. Schemes for the withdrawal of budgetary funds under fictitious contracts were established. 160 shell companies were involved in laundering public money. It also became known that in the theater under the direction of Kirill Serebrennikov, a number of tenders worth about 5 million rubles were won by legal entities, the founder of which is himself.

Thus, being in the budgetary service, the director was engaged in commercial activities, including winning tenders from his own theater through IP Serebrennikov. Obviously, there is no such amount of smoke without fire. It remains to be hoped that the investigating authorities will objectively sort out the Serebrennikov case, ignoring the lamentations of the liberal public.

The Tsargrad TV channel found out the opinion of cultural figures on the situation around the case of Kirill Serebrennikov and the Seventh Studio. Here's what the director's associates are saying at the moment.

Anton Dolin, film critic: “I am not a lawyer, I don’t know any details about whether he is really guilty of something and I can’t say anything about it. I can say for sure: so far the court has not ruled on his guilt. This case, to put it mildly, doubtful and unproven, judging by the way it was already unfolding, in particular, by the way they tried to prove the embezzlement of funds for staging a performance that allegedly was not staged, despite the fact that the performance was staged. For example, I personally attended it. I really understand why it was necessary to arrest the director now."

Iosif Reichelgauz, theater director: “The fact that he was arrested is true. And what is happening there can be established by our fairest court in the world, you know. We cannot but trust the Russian court. Therefore, if the Russian court says that Serebrennikov stole, then ", stole. I'm joking. I absolutely do not trust our court, our laws. I know Kirill Serebrennikov well, who has been in the theater for many years. His main occupation: he rehearses and makes performances, composes and directs. He makes films. He travels to major international festivals and glorifies our country. And if he stole something, which I absolutely do not believe in, then I would like a fair and evidence-based court to prove it."

Stanislav Govorukhin, director: "They called me in for an interrogation. So what's so special about it? I personally have been called in for questioning a hundred times in connection with all sorts of such cases during my cinematographic activity."

Karen Shakhnazarov, director: "No, I'm not commenting on all this. It's already impossible. You are not the first to apply. Well, what to comment on here. Nothing is known yet. Time will pass, it will be possible to understand what, what, what."

Vladimir Menshov, director: "I don't understand what to talk about on this topic. Well, they arrested. So, there is some evidence. Well, let them show us this evidence. Then we will talk."

Nikolai Svanidze, journalist, historian: "This is not normal, but this is not a provocation, I think. This is such a very, very excessive action. If you have any rational goals in mind here, this is a story about what can be without any rationalism at all. But if you have in mind something rational, then here, in my opinion, the goal is to intimidate the entire creative community.Because it is impossible to explain it otherwise.Firstly, it can hardly be assumed that Mr. in our country, and stole more than anyone else, that no one is "sawing loot", no one is dividing the state budget, no one is "bringing in", no one is "cutting" money, no one is "making money" on the construction of new stadiums.

Andrey Kholenko, member of the Guild of Film Directors of Russia:“Of course, it’s very sad and very sad when a creative person is “closed” to Matrosskaya Tishina. I am not a big fan of Kirill Serebrennikov’s work. locked up, etc. Of course, it’s bad when any person is accused of something. I’m just returning from Optina Hermitage. There were small shootings, several meetings, including with the spiritual father of Optina Hermitage, Father Zachary. And somehow In a conversation today, he said that if you have any doubts, you should consult your conscience, because God communicates with a Russian person through his conscience, and I think that you can’t buy a conscience even for 68 million rubles. And conscience must be consulted."

Director Kirill Serebrennikov, after interrogation, was taken to the pre-trial detention center "Matrosskaya Tishina". This was reported to TASS by his lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov.

On August 22, 2017, Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov was detained on suspicion of fraud.

According to the Investigative Committee, the department has not yet applied to the court with a request for arrest. He should be charged soon. According to investigators, in 2011-2014 the director organized the theft of "at least 68 million rubles" allocated for his theatrical project "Platform".

At the same time, it is already known that the case against Serebrennikov was initiated under part 4 of article 159 (fraud on an especially large scale), which involves up to ten years in prison. According to press sources, Serebrennikov may be placed in a pre-trial detention center or placed under house arrest.

Today, the Russian press, citing sources in the UK, writes that “in the case, there are, among other things, testimonies not only from Maslyaeva, but also from other persons. The investigation has collected enough grounds for his [Serebrennikov's] status to change from a witness to a suspect.”

Testimony in a criminal case against director Kirill Serebrennikov was given by several employees of the accounting department of his theater company Seventh Studio. This was reported by Interfax with reference to an unnamed source.

The interlocutor of the agency said that not only the arrested former chief accountant of the company Nina Maslyayeva gave testimony, but also an employee of the accounting department Tatyana Zhirikova and "other persons"

Before that, the director gave the law enforcement officers a passport. Recently Serebrennikov's house and the Gogol Center were searched. Serebrennikov then took part in the case as a witness, the investigators released him after interrogation.

Recall that on May 24, Putin clearly said that the searches at Serebrennikov's were carried out by "fools." Later, on June 15, on the Direct Line, Putin once again stated that it was “absurd” to conduct searches with force support in the theater.

Recall that in early August, the former accountant of the Seventh Studio, Nina Maslyaeva, who was detained earlier, said that Serebrennikov, together with Alexei Malobrodsky and Yuri Itin, created this theater company to “implement criminal intent” to embezzle allocated budget funds.

As a result of this investigation, the prosecution against the defendants in the criminal case, according to a new assessment, the damage amounted to 68 million rubles. Earlier it was about the amount of 3.5 million rubles. One of them concerned the fact that the Seventh Studio allegedly received money for the performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but did not stage it. At the same time, the production was on the "Platform" and in the "Gogol Center" headed by Serebrennikov.

The investigation intends to charge Kirill Serebrennikov with committing the specified crime, as well as to resolve the issue of choosing a measure of restraint.

In addition, the media said that the companies of the infamous artistic director received state contracts in his own theater for 4.8 million rubles.

"The investigation found Kirill Serebrennikov's apartment in Germany. According to the telegram channel Mash, the real estate in Berlin cost the Russian director 300 thousand euros. The apartment was bought on May 9, 2012, when the Ministry of Culture was financing the Seventh Studio," the journalists said.

“We also managed to establish schemes for withdrawing budget money under fictitious contracts for the provision of services. Judging by the documents, Seventh Studio purchased paper, gift sets, alcohol, but the contracts turned out to be leftist, no services were received. "garbage heaps". Now the investigation finds out what exactly the withdrawn money went for, "they added.

As Nina Maslyaeva, an accountant at the Gogol Center, who is suspected of fraud, explained that she, on the orders of Itin, Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky, “entered false data into the financial statements.”

Recall that the case itself regarding the embezzlement of public funds in the Gogol Center started in May 2017. The searches in the theater attracted the attention of the public and the media, and for the liberal cultural intelligentsia was truly a shock, followed by loud protests and accusations of harassment.

In fact, there is a qualitatively new scheme. It is necessary to create some kind of organization that nominally should be engaged in cultural education and for this purpose to draw funds from the state. But adjust the corresponding reporting for this.

Serebrennikov and company did not. It is worth recalling that claims against him arose before 2014. The police came to him about the play "Thugs" and the compliance of this performance with the legislation of the Russian Federation in terms of public morality and morality in 2013.

Later, the director was indignant about the "censorship", the fact that "there is not enough air" and agitated everyone to leave the implacable opposition. Now they write in the telegram that "we are expecting a new wave, even a tsunami of excuses, explanations, hand-wringing, open letters," to break ", as well as giggles of propaganda "this one cuts his wife, that one wrings out the phones, the third daughter takes off her naked, and these steal." However, we have already seen all this from Belykh. But he is sitting, a tramp.

The authors of the Mash channel write that "Kirill Serebrennikov is not doing well. In 2014, our artistic director with his ANO" Seventh Studio "signed an agreement with the Ministry of Culture and received subsidies from them for 66 and a half million rubles. With this money, it was only necessary to promote culture to the masses, namely to the regions of Russia.Seventh Studio in the same year signed several contracts for almost 2 million.

Guess the culture was eventually promoted to the masses? We can give a hint: we still eat pancakes from a shovel, and Serebrennikov is threatened with a written undertaking not to leave the country or even worse.

According to the channel, "the company of ANO Seventh Studio, whose leadership is suspected of embezzling money from the Ministry of Culture, is registered in the apartment of Kirill Serebrennikov himself."

Of course, not without reason. There have already been facts that tenders at the Serebrennikov cinema were won by ... companies whose founder was Serebrennikov. Such data can be obtained from the Spark-Interfax database. The same ANO "Seventh Studio" and the fund "Territory", the founder of which is Kirill Semenovich, as well as IP Serebrennikov K.S. (OGRNIP 307770000588280), created by the full namesake of our hero over the past five years, won tenders worth almost five million rubles from the theater, which he himself manages.

And then to say, little things. Thus, in the theater under the direction of Kirill Serebrennikov, a number of tenders in the amount of 4.8 million rubles. won by legal entities (including IP Serebrennikov K.S.), whose founder is Kirill Serebrennikov.

Being in the public service, Kirill Serebrennikov continued to engage in commercial activities (including winning tenders from his own theater through the IP Serebrennikov K.S.).

At the same time, a lot of good and right things are happening in the Gogol Center, for example, a toothbrush is bought for 1399 rubles for the play "Martyr". Comments, as they say, are superfluous.