Russian star director Kirill Serebrennikov is scheduled to go to prison in Moscow for six years, according to the prosecutor’s will. The 50-year-old should also pay a fine of 800,000 rubles (around 10,300 euros) for fraud, prosecutor Mikhail Resnichenko told a Moscow court today.
The process is criticized internationally as a political show trial against the liberal art scene in Russia. The director, who won many awards, last staged the play “Decamerone” for the German Theater in Berlin in March. In April 2021, his staging of Richard Wagner’s „Parsifal“ is to be seen at the Vienna State Opera.
The Russian judiciary accuses the head of the Moscow Gogol Center for misappropriating millions of euros in funding. Three other employees are charged with him. According to the prosecution, they should be imprisoned for four or five years. The director always claimed his innocence.
Culture workers call for a termination of the process
The criminal trial is seen by numerous Russian and international cultural workers as a vengeance campaign by ultra-conservative circles against the liberal artist. The politically influential Russian Orthodox Church is also bothered by his sometimes socially critical films.
Thousands of prominent cultural figures in Russia asked Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova to drop the accusations against Serebrennikov and his team.
