TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – A Russian court on Friday ordered the pre-trial detention of a theater director and a playwright accused of justifying terrorism, the latest step in a crackdown on dissent in Russia that has been unprecedented since the war began extent has reached in Ukraine.
The Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow sentenced Zhenya Berkovich, a prominent independent theater director, and Svetlana Petriychuk, a playwright, to two months in prison pending investigation and trial. The two were arrested Thursday in the Russian capital over the play “Finist, the Brave Falcon,” written by Petriychuk and directed by Berkovich. Police also searched the homes of Berkovich’s parents and grandmother in St. Petersburg.
The play, named after a Russian fairy tale, features Russian women who face prosecution after being lured into marriage and life in Syria by proponents of radical Islam.
Authorities have claimed that the play justifies terrorism, allegations that both Berkovich and Petriychuk have denied and maintain their innocence.
Berkovich’s lawyer, Yulia Tregubova, pointed out in court on Friday that the play was supported by the Russian Ministry of Culture and awarded the Golden Mask, Russia’s most prestigious national theater award. Petriychuk’s lawyer, Sergei Badamshin, told the court that the play was read to inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia in 2019 and the Russian State Penitentiary Service praised it on its website.
Justifying terrorism in Russia is a criminal offense punishable by up to seven years in prison.
The trial of Berkovich and Petriychuk has sparked outrage in Russia. An open letter in support of the two artists, launched by independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, had been signed by more than 3,400 people as of Friday night. The play, the letter says, “carries an absolutely clear anti-terror mood.”
Dozens of Russian actors, directors and journalists also signed affidavits asking the court to release Berkovich from pre-trial detention.
Immediately after Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin unleashed an all-out campaign of repression unprecedented since Soviet times. It effectively criminalized any criticism of the war, with the authorities targeting not just prominent opposition figures, who ended up receiving draconian prison sentences, but anyone who publicly or otherwise spoke out against it.
In Russia, too, the pressure on critical artists increased. Actors and directors have been fired from state theaters and musicians have been blacklisted from performing in the country. Some have been given the “foreign agent” label, which carries with it additional government control and strong negative connotations. Many left Russia.
Berkovich, who is raising two adopted daughters, has refused to leave Russia and continues to work on her independent theater production called Soso’s Daughters in Moscow. Shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, she organized an anti-war picket and was imprisoned for 11 days.