Russian film stars offer support to director in fraud case

Some of Russia’s most famous actors and directors have rallied around an award-winning film and theatre director who faces up to 10 years in prison on fraud charges that critics allege are Kremlin payback for his outspoken views.

Kirill Serebrennikov, 48, is accused of embezzling 133m roubles (£1.7m) in government funds allocated to his Platforma theatre project. A Moscow court on Tuesday extended his house arrest, which he has been under since August, until 19 April.

“I am absolutely sure that Kirill Serebrennikov is innocent,” Chulpan Khamatova, an actor best known in the west for her role in the 2003 film Good Bye, Lenin!, told the Guardian at court on Tuesday. “A political motive for these charges is the only motive I can see.”

Dozens of other leading Russian actors and directors in Russia have also called for the charges to be dropped. Western actors such as Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss have also signed a petition in support of Serebrennikov.

The director of the Gogol Centre in Moscow, a progressive theatre known for its cutting-edge performances, Serebrennikov has previously criticised Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and spoken out in support of Russia’s beleaguered LGBT community. Three other Gogol Centre figures, Alexei Malobrodsky, Nina Maslyaeva and Yuri Itin have also been charged.

Dozhd, an online opposition channel, in November cited sources close to the FSB security service as saying that Serebrennikov was arrested after Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, a prominent priest reported to be Vladimir Putin’s spiritual advisor, complained to the Russian president about the director’s work. His 2016 film, The Student, was a searing critique of religious extremism and the Russian Orthodox Church. Shevkunov denied the allegations.

Serebrennikov, dressed in black and wearing a baseball cap, appeared in court on Tuesday to dispute his theatre project had embezzled state funds. “This project was very successful and created a good reputation for Russia as a country where new, unusual, and creative things are thought up. I never thought I would hear our project called a criminal group.”