The Investigative Committee detained director Kirill Serebrennikov

Kirill Serebrennikov, director and artistic director of the Gogol Center, has been detained in Moscow. This was reported on the website of the Investigative Committee.

Serebrennikov's arrest statement reads:

Kirill Serebrennikov, the artistic director of the Moscow Gogol Center Theater, was detained on suspicion of organizing the theft of at least 68 million rubles allocated in 2011-2014 for the implementation of the Platforma project by the Main Directorate for Investigating Particularly Important Cases of the Russian Investigative Committee. His actions are qualified by the investigation under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - fraud on an especially large scale. 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 May, Serebrennikov's house and the Gogol Center itself, as well as the apartment of Sofya Apfelbaum, director of the Russian Academic Youth Theater (RAMT), were searched. Then Serebrennikov was involved in the case of embezzlement of budgetary funds as a witness.

In August, at a court hearing, during the preventive measure against Nina Maslyaeva, the ex-accountant of the Seventh Studio founded by Serebrennikov, Maslyaeva’s testimony was read out, in which she stated that Serebrennikov had instructed her to enter incorrect data in financial reports.

UPD. It is reported that employees of the Investigative Committee Serebrennikov were detained in St. Petersburg and taken to Moscow.

UPD. Serebrennikov was officially charged with fraud, writes Interfax. The director does not admit his guilt.