Sophia Apfelbaum was detained

Today, October 26, after interrogation, the director of the Russian Academic Youth Theater (RAMT) Sofya Apfelbaum was detained in the Investigative Committee (SK) in the Seventh Studio case.

According to Izvestia , in the near future the investigation will petition for her arrest.

At the time when the “Seventh Studio” by Kirill Serebrennikov allocated budget funds for the theater project “Platform”, Sofya Apfelbaum headed the Department of State Support of Art and Folk Art at the Ministry of Culture. According to investigators, she participated in the tank of documents, as a result of which a contract was concluded with the “seventh studio” worth more than 214 million rubles, of which 68 million were stolen.

On May 23, they came to the Apfelbaum with a search in connection with the investigation of the “Seventh Studio” case and interrogated in the UK as a witness. On the same day, searches were held by Serebrennikov and the Gogol Center Theater.

Also, in the case of the Seventh Studio, its former producer Alexei Malobrodsky , former general director Yuri Itina and former chief accountant Nina Maslyaeva are held.

Malobrodsky is detained, Serebrennikov, Itin and Maslyaeva are under house arrest. None of the accused pleads guilty, except Maslyaeva, who concluded a deal with the investigation and testified to former colleagues. On October 12, the Moscow Basmanny Court extended the arrest for all defendants until January 19, 2018.

In support of Serebrennikov and other defendants in the case of the Seventh Studio, many cultural figures in Russia and abroad, including the European Film Academy , the European Cultural Parliament , the Operational Conference of Germany , the Association of Theatrical Critics , Gidon Kremer , Ivan Zarypaev , Chulpan Khamatova , Ian Mackellen , Mikhail Baryshnikov , actors, director, director, director, director Musicians, writers, playwrights and heads of theaters from different countries, 1300 signatures gathered an open letter from three hundred young Russian cultural figures who demanded to free the defendants in the “Seventh Studio” case, more than a hundred people entered the Cyril Serebrennikov committee created in France.

PS Information about the detention of Sofia Apfelbaum confirmed to Interfax the official representative of the UK Svetlana Petrenko.

“An involvement in the theft of the former director of the Department of State Support for Art and Folk Art of the Ministry of Culture of Russia Sofia Apfelbaum, which is currently the director of the Russian Academic Youth Theater,” she said. “In the near future, the Apfelbaum will be charged under part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud committed by an organized group on an especially large scale), the investigation intends to petition the court to choose a preventive measure for it.”

According to Petrenko, the guilt of Apfelbaum is confirmed by the testimony of witnesses, conflict protocols, and the results of operational-search activities seized during the investigation with financial documents and other evidence.

PPS website Teatral-online.ru publishes statements by the artistic director of the theater ET Cetera , chairman of the STD of the Russian Federation Alexander Kalyagin, the artistic director of the "theater art studio" Sergey Zhenovach, the artistic director of the theater named after Vakhtangov Rimas Tuminas and other representatives of the theater community in connection with the detention of Sophia Apfelbaum.