Russian theatre and film director pleads not guilty at fraud trial
84 views · Published 13 November 2018 · 1:56 · Indexed 16 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(7 Nov 2018) Russia's arguably best-known contemporary theatre and film director pleaded not guilty on Wednesday as his fraud trial opened in Moscow. Kirill Serebrennikov's midnight arrest during a movie shoot in August last year sent shockwaves through Russia's art circles and was seen by some as a chilling omen of a return to Soviet-style censorship. Serebrennikov's work both on stage and on the screen challenged the establishment, its values and lifestyle. But despite that, his productions have enjoyed lavish state funding and his plays are still frequented by top Russian officials. A Moscow court on Wednesday opened the trial against Serebrennikov, three of his associates and an accountant who has pleaded guilty in the case and testified against him. Serebrennikov, 49, is accused of embezzling 133 million rubles (about 2 million US dollars) of state funding. Investigators initially claimed that the director and his associates stole the funds allocated for staging several productions, claiming that one of these plays never saw the light of day — when in fact it was staged to critical acclaim. The investigators later withdrew that claim, and have not clarified where they believe money was stolen from. Serebrennikov and the three people who worked for his projects pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, all of them saying that the indictment is too vague and does not explain how the money was embezzled. He called on the Culture Ministry which is the injured party in the case to explain why it believes that he swindled them. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/cadb8774d00d12fe01633c76eb600896
