On March 3, 2013, employees of the Federal Migration Service came to the Sakharov Center in Moscow, where the production of the play “Moscow Trials” continued for the third day - a re-enactment of court hearings on the exhibitions “Beware of Religion!”, “Forbidden Art” and the Pussy Riot case. Representatives of the Federal Migration Service arrived under the pretext of checking the documents of director Milo Rau, a Swiss citizen, and other participants in the project. The FMS was accompanied by an NTV film crew and Orthodox activists, including Dmitry Tsorionov (Enteo) and Kirill Frolov. The performance was interrupted for two hours.

Members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, lawyer Anita Soboleva and journalist Maxim Shevchenko, who participated in the production, contacted the head of the Council, Mikhail Fedotov, and the Commissioner for Human Rights, Vladimir Lukin. FMS employees stated that they had no complaints against the center and left.

After some time, the performance was interrupted again, now due to the intervention of Cossacks and Orthodox activists who wanted to “prevent lawlessness” against Orthodoxy. Five Cossacks and D. Enteo were allowed in so that they could personally verify that there was nothing anti-church in the production. Without waiting for the end of the performance, the Cossacks left.

Director of the Sakharov Center Sergei Lukashevsky is confident that the visits of the Cossacks and the FMS are interconnected.

Sources

Baidakova A. Cossacks went to see “Pussy Riot” // Moscow News. 2013. March 3.
Cossacks stormed the Sakharov Center // PublicPost. 2013. March 3.

The FMS and Cossacks interrupted a performance dedicated to the Pussy Riot trial at the Sakharov Center