Theatre students from St. Petersburg protesting in defence of their colleagues at GITIS. Photo: tvc.ru / YouTube. Some rights reserved.On 23 October, Transparency International–Russia published an investigation into the work of state theaters in Moscow and St Petersburg. This is an unprecedented catastrophe for Russia’s civil society, the full scale of which is yet to be determined.
The authors of the report insist that “the financing system for Moscow’s theatres is full of conflicts of interest. At least 14 artistic directors [...] receive state contracts via their theatres, artificially creating additional opportunities for themselves to make money.”
One of the figures discussed in the report is Kirill Serebrennikov, the director of Moscow’s Gogol Center. Indeed, it was published in the midst of a campaign launched against the famous director (known as the “Seventh Studio case”), which alleges embezzlement of state funds by Serebrennikov and others. Those who have fallen victim to it include theatre managers who have worked with Serebrennikov in the past, as well as most recently Sofia Apfelbaum, a former Ministry of Culture official who is the current head of the Russian Academic Youth Theatre — she was arrested on 26 October. Serebrennikov and accountant Nina Maslyaeva are currently under house arrest, while the former director of Gogol Center Alexei Malobrodsky is being held in pre-trial detention.
