Freedom of creativity under the subscription

Today, the Moscow City Court replaced house arrest for a non -place of bankruptcy tributary for the defendants of the theft in the Seventh Studio. Last week, the arrest was extended until July 4 to Kirill Serebrennikov, Sofya Apfelbaum and Yuri Itin, but the defense challenged this decision. The judge did not explain the reasons for the mitigation of a preventive measure. The director, who has been under house arrest since August 2017, promised to return to work in the near future.

“The court ruled Serebrennikov, Yuri Itin and Sofya Apfelbaum to change the preventive measure from home arrest for a recognizance not to leave,” the court’s decision said . Earlier, on April 1, the prosecutor's office asked the court to extend Serebrennikov with the term of house arrest. On March 21, the court repeatedly interrogated the defendants about the amounts spent on the Platforms in 2011, which was unexpected for the defendants.

Recall, according to the Investigative Committee, from 2011 to 2014, the accused: Director of Ramta Sofya Apfelbaum, former general director of the Seventh Studio Yuri Itin, former chief accountant of the Seventh Studio Nina Maslyaeva, producer of the play “Sleep on the Summer Night” Ekaterina Voronova and the former director of Gogol-Center Alexei Malobrodsky. More than 133 million rubles allocated from the budget for the development of a cultural project for the development and popularization of contemporary art “platform”, developed by Kirill Serebrennikov. The criminal case was instituted in May last year. In November 2018, Serebrennikov and other accused refused to admit guilt.

At the beginning of the year, the case of the fraud of the former chief accountant of the Seventh Studio Nina Maslyaeva was allocated for separate production. She is the only person who admitted the guilt during the investigation, concluded a pre -trial agreement and testified to former colleagues. Her business will be considered in a special order, which guarantees her a milder punishment. Materials have already entered the court, the process will begin on April 11. The producer and general producer of the Seventh Studio Ekaterina Voronova, the materials in respect of which are also highlighted in separate production, is put on the international wanted list.

In January, the accountant of the Seventh Studio Larisa Voikina stated in court that the decision to destroy the financial statements was made by the project of the project Kirill Serebrennikov, when a shortage of five million rubles opened. But already in February, the philistine court of Moscow decided to conduct a new comprehensive examination in the case that representatives of the defense were already called a turning point. “This is not a victory, but almost, we are close!”, The director freed under subscription said today.

The former general director of Gogol-Center, Malobrodsky admitted that he was waiting for today's decision. “There was a subjective feeling that the absurd threshold has already been reached,” he said . The public gladly met the news. “I really hope for a positive outcome of the lawsuit, because I am absolutely convinced: with the violations found in the theater, this is not the article that is incriminated to them [involved],” said the director of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin.

“This decision is undoubtedly, it is in the legal field: in order to extend house arrest, there must be exceptional circumstances, this requires the law. Apparently, the investigation was not presented in the Serebrennikov case, so the preventive measure was changed to a recognizance not to leave, ” comments Mikhail Joffe, Vice-President of the International Association of Russian-Sound Lawyers

The members of the State Duma Committee on Culture also welcomed the court decision and said that they were continuing to follow the fate of Serebrennikov. The Kremlin refused to comment.

The director himself plans to return to work in the theater as soon as possible. “Immediately, I'll be back soon. This is not very easy psychologically, but a lot of things. We have performances, rehearsals, ”Serebrennikov shared . Under house arrest, the director stayed for more than 1.5 years, but did not interrupt the work, although the preventive measure made it difficult. Already being a defendant in a criminal case, he put the Nureyv ballet highly appreciated by criticism at the Bolshoi Theater, and also released the film “Summer” about the young Victor Tsoi.