Yahoo News Theatre raid raises fresh fear over Putin civil society crackdown
Russian police and security have agents detained an award-winning theatre and film director and raided one of Moscow's most prominent theatres over an alleged multi-million pound fraud.
Kirill Serebrennikov, whose controversial high school drama The Student won the Francois Chalais prize at last year's Cannes film festival, was taken in for questioning after a dawn raid on his apartment.
At the same time masked riot police searched the Gogol Centre, the Moscow theatre where Mr Serebrennikov is the artistic director.
An artist of whom Russia should be proud is being humiliated and insulted
Mikhail Baryshnikov
The Investigative Committee, Russia's primary criminal investigation agency, said it had opened an investigation into embezzlement of government art funding by Mr Serebrennikov's theatre company.
Investigators allege a number of individuals embezzled 200 million rubles (£2.7 million) in state funding between 2010 and 2014, the Committee said in a statement on its website on Tuesday afternoon.
The suspects were connected to Studio Seven, a theatre group founded by the director.
Police searched 15 other addresses besides the theatre and Mr Serebrennikov's flat.
Mr Serebrenikov was being questioned by the Investigative committee on Tuesday afternoon. It is not clear whether he has been charged or is formally being treated as a suspect.
The director said he was “in total shock” at the search.
Russia's ministry of culture said it was unaware of the reasons for the search of the theatre.
The police raids drew condemnation from Russia’s cultural elite, with dozens of figures in the performing arts signing a statement describing Mr Serebrennikov as “an honest, fair, and open person.”
Mikhail Baryshnikov, a prominent veteran ballet dancer, called the move “extremely worrying.”
"An artist of whom Russia should be proud is being humiliated and insulted. And since this is a man known for his independence and love of freedom, a man who has repeatedly spoken with bold political statements, these sudden repressions look especially bad,” Mr Baryshnikov wrote on Facebook.
Supporters of the Gogol Centre, which is widely considered Russia's premiere avant-gard theatre, said the raid might be connected with Mr Serebrennikov's uncompromising productions examining contemporary life in Russia.
Mr Serebrennikov's works have frequently been seen as critical of both the Russian government and the increasingly influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in public life.
His award winning film The Student, based on one of his plays, follows a Russian high school boy's turn towards christian fundamentalism.
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