Famous director Kirill Serebrennikov was detained on suspicion of major fraud. Detention of Kirill Serebrennikov: why he was taken and what will happen to him Detention of Kirill Serebrennikov

A new twist in a resonant criminal case. Famous director Kirill Serebrennikov was detained on suspicion of major fraud. After interrogation, he was formally charged. The artistic director of the Gogol Center does not admit his guilt. Until today, he was in the status of a witness. As expected, on August 23, the court will consider the issue of a measure of restraint, but for now he has been placed in a temporary detention center on Petrovka.

In the building of the Investigative Committee, the artistic director of the theater "Gogol Center" Kirill Serebrennikov was taken in the morning from St. Petersburg. There he was on the set of the film. At night, apparently, the arrest took place. Immediately after him, the director was taken to Moscow by car.

The investigators interrogated Kirill Serebrennikov for three hours. It is known that during the interrogation he once again did not admit his guilt. As a result, the director was charged with organizing fraud.

Prior to this, Serebrennikov was involved in the case as a witness and testified several times. The criminal case was opened in May, and since then investigators have received new information.

“He is charged with committing a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, this is fraud on an especially large scale. Serebrennikov is accused of organizing the theft of at least 68 million rubles allocated in 2011-2014 for the implementation of the Platforma project, Svetlana Petrenko, official representative of the RF IC, said.

The Platform program was created to develop and popularize contemporary art. It was hosted by Seventh Studio, Kirill Serebrennikov's independent theater company. Money for new productions and concerts was allocated, among other things, from the state budget through the Ministry of Culture. And at the end of May, investigators became interested in exactly how the Seventh Studio was spending budget funds. Searches then took place at several venues, including the Gogol Center theater.

The first defendants in the case were the ex-director of the Gogol Center, Alexei Malobrodsky, the former general director of the Seventh Studio, Yuri Itin, and the former accountant Nina Maslyaeva. According to the source of the Interfax agency, it was her testimony that became the basis for filing charges against Serebrennikov. The defense side has already stated that it will seek recognition of the complete innocence of the director.

“Kirill Semenovich believes that the accusation is absolutely absurd, that the Platform was a project that took place, that the money allocated by the state was spent on this project,” lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov said.

On August 23, the court will have to choose a measure of restraint for Kirill Serebrennikov. He will spend tonight in custody. Meanwhile, another suspect appeared in the case - producer Ekaterina Voronova. She has been put on the wanted list.

The ICR said that the director will soon be charged

Artistic Director of the Gogol Center Kirill Serebrennikov

Moscow. 22 August. website - Investigators have detained director Kirill Serebrennikov on suspicion of organizing the theft of 68 million rubles allocated for the implementation of the Platforma project, Svetlana Petrenko, official representative of the ICR, said. According to an Interfax source, arrest or house arrest may be chosen as a measure of restraint.

"The Main Directorate for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the TFR on suspicion of organizing the theft of at least 68 million rubles allocated in 2011-2014 for the implementation of the Platform project detained the artistic director of the Gogol Center Theater Kirill Serebrennikov," Petrenko said in a statement. Tuesday Interfax.

She added that the investigation qualifies his actions under Part 4 of Article 159 (fraud on an especially large scale). In the near future, the director will be charged and the issue of choosing a measure of restraint will be resolved.

On August 11, a source close to the director told Interfax that the Investigative Committee, as part of an examination of the foreign passport of the artistic director of the Gogol Center, Kirill Serebrennikov, was appointed, as a result of which he could not travel abroad.

"As we have learned, the investigation is conducting an examination of Serebrennikov's foreign passport, which was confiscated from him during searches at the end of May this year," the agency's source said. According to him, "we can talk about technical and forensic examination, the purpose of which is to establish the authenticity of the document."

Meanwhile, according to the source, "these investigative actions are just an excuse not to let the director go abroad." Serebrennikov actively cooperates with foreign theaters. In early August, the director told reporters that in September he was to stage Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel in Stuttgart.

According to investigators, from 2011 to 2014, the leadership of the Seventh Studio stole several tens of millions of rubles of budget funds allocated for the development and popularization of art. One of the projects, according to the Investigative Committee, was the allegedly unstaged play "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The amount of damage, according to the investigation, for this episode is more than 2.3 million rubles. The defense of the defendants has repeatedly stated that this performance was staged.

There are currently three defendants in the case: former accountant of the Seventh Studio, Nina Maslyaeva, ex-general director of the studio, Yuri Itin, and former general producer of the enterprise, ex-director of the Gogol Center, Alexei Malobrodsky. The founder of the "Seventh Studio" Serebrennikov is in the status of a witness.

Meanwhile, on August 9, it became known that Maslyaeva testified against Serebrenikov, Malobrodsky and Itin.

"Itin, Serebrennikov, Malobrodsky developed a plan for the theft of funds allocated for the Platform project (...) Itin, Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky, with my help, cashed out the funds allocated for the project. Subsequently, in the financial statements for the years, I, in agreement with they included deliberately false data," follows from the protocol of Maslyayeva's interrogation, made public in the Moscow City Court when considering a complaint about the extension of the measure of restraint for the defendants.

On August 18, the Basmanny Court of Moscow left Malobrodsky and Maslyaeva under arrest until October 19, and Itin under house arrest until the same date. All defendants appealed against the court ruling.

At the end of July, Malobrodsky, Maslyaeva and Itin were charged with fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). At the same time, according to the lawyer of the ex-general director of the Gogol Center, Ksenia Karpinskaya, the damage in the case is currently estimated by the investigation at 68 million rubles, but the essence of the charge remains unknown, since the case materials do not yet contain any specific episodes at all.

Earlier, A. Malobrodsky was only charged with embezzlement of more than 2.3 million rubles when staging the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which, according to the investigation, was not staged in the end. The defendant's lawyers, in turn, declare that the existence of the performance is a well-known fact. Itin and Maslyayeva were charged with embezzlement of 1.286 million rubles when purchasing props for organizing a theater festival.

Malobrodsky and Itin deny their guilt, Maslyaeva admitted her guilt in full and entered into a pre-trial agreement. The deadline for the preliminary investigation of the case has been extended until October 19. In support of the defendants in the "Seventh Studio" case, many cultural figures spoke out.

About the arrest of director Kirill Serebrennikov. The artistic director of the Gogol Center was detained as suspected of organizing the theft of at least 68 million rubles allocated in 2011-2014. for the theatrical project "Platform".

“His actions are qualified by the investigation under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale), ”the TFR website reports. The investigation is going to charge him and ask the court to choose a measure of restraint for him.

“After Serebrennikov is interrogated, the investigation may apply to the court for a preventive measure in the form of arrest or house arrest,” an informed source told TASS. He admitted that this could happen as early as August 22.

Serebrennikov was detained in St. Petersburg, where he is filming the film "Summer" about Viktor Tsoi, and taken to Moscow to the Investigative Committee. This was told to Dozhd by the director's lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov. Journalist Mikhail Idov, who wrote the script for the film "Summer" and is involved in the work on the film, told Dozhd that on Monday there were no prerequisites for detention. Serebrennikov was taken to the TFR in Moscow, confirmed RBC source in the central office of the committee. According to him, the detention will be formalized first, and then the interrogation will begin.

The lawyer Kharitonov himself is also hastily returning to Moscow. He told the Moskva news agency that his client would not testify without him. His lawyer found out about the director's detention when at 10.30 an investigator of the Investigative Committee called him and said that Serebrennikov had already been taken to the Investigative Committee for investigative actions. “Since he was in St. Petersburg and filmed a movie – he has been doing it there for almost a month – naturally, it was a complete surprise,” Kharitonov said on the air of Kommersant FM. - Before that, we were twice in the Investigative Committee for investigative actions, we just came by call - there were no problems. Why all this is done now is absolutely incomprehensible. ”

Testimony against director Kirill Serebrennikov, whom the ICR is going to accuse of organizing the theft of 68 million rubles. budgetary funds, gave not only the former chief accountant of the "Seventh Studio" Nina Maslyaeva. According to an informed TASS source, there are testimonies of other persons in the case, and Maslyayeva’s testimony was not key. According to him, the investigation has collected "enough grounds" for Serebrennikov's status to change from a witness to a suspect." Earlier it was reported that the accountant Maslyayeva gave the investigation a confession. She is under arrest. On August 9, her testimony was read out in the Moscow City Court, in which she confessed to cashing.

“According to the case file, testimony about Serebrennikov’s involvement in the embezzlement of budgetary funds was given both by the former chief accountant of the Seventh Studio, Nina Maslyaeva, who pleaded guilty, and by Tatyana Zhirikova, an accounting employee, who is a witness in the case, as well as other persons,” the Interfax source said. ”, who saw the materials of the case. According to him, "this testimony, together with other evidence, became the basis for bringing Serebrennikov to criminal liability."

Commenting on the detention of Serebrennikov, State Secretary - Deputy Minister of Culture Alexander Zhuravsky told TASS that the Ministry of Culture "and at the previous stages" helped law enforcement agencies in the case of embezzlement of budget funds for the Platform project, and provided all available materials. According to him, the ministry has not received new requests from the investigation. He learned about the director's detention from journalists.

The Gogol Center said RBC that they learned about the detention of their artistic director only recently. Alexey Kabeshev, Serebrennikov's first deputy, could not comment on the situation. Yulia Kalinina, Deputy Artistic Director for Finance, will act as the head of the Gogol Center. This was reported to Interfax by the press service of the Moscow Department of Culture, which is in charge of the theatre. According to the interlocutor of the agency, Kalinina has been acting as head since August 1, when Kirill Serebrennikov went on vacation.

Director of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin told TASS that he proposes to wait for the court's verdict first, and then draw conclusions. Including making decisions about the premiere of the ballet Nureyev, which Serebrennikov staged for the Bolshoi Theater. The premiere of the ballet was unexpectedly canceled a few days before the scheduled date, because Urin considered the production unfinished.

Oleg Kazakovtsev, a member of the Federation Council committee on science, education and culture, told RIA Novosti that it was pointless to comment on anything before the trial. The first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Culture, Iosif Kobzon, said that there was nothing to comment on, this could only be done by the Investigative Committee. “When things like this happen, on the one hand, they cause outrage, why are artists [detained]. And on the other hand, it is impossible for creative workers to break the law, ”RIA Novosti quotes him. Another deputy chairman of the committee, communist and director Yuri Bortko, promised RIA to follow the developments and himself complained about censorship, because of which he could not make a film about Donbass for the third year. According to him, if Serebrennikov is “charged with some kind of ideological violations or, God forbid, political crimes”, he will stand here to the death, defending this “wonderful director”, he refused to comment on financial violations.

Animation artist Yuri Norshtein told RIA Novosti that he does not believe that a person who is creative and so talented "will be exchanged for money promises." Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council, considers the detention of Serebrennikov unlawful and demonstrative. He told Interfax that the detention of a world-famous director instead of a systemic fight against corruption makes a strange impression both in the country itself and abroad and "will have very serious consequences for the general atmosphere in our country."

In the case of embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated for the "Platform" project, the director was interrogated as a witness on May 23. Prior to this, searches had been carried out at the Gogol Center, during which actors and other theater employees were kept in the hall, forbidding them to call relatives. Dozhd, citing a source in law enforcement agencies, reported that the investigators wanted to seek the arrest of Serebrennikov, but were instructed from above not to touch him, after high-ranking officials and politicians, including those from the government, stood up for him.

On May 24, after the state awards ceremony, Yevgeny Mironov, actor and artistic director of the Theater of Nations, told Vladimir Putin about the performance organized by the Investigative Committee. “Yes, fools,” the president said in response to Mironov's question about why these searches were necessary. Later, he explained to reporters that he did not see anything clever in searches in the theater with the help of force.

At the end of May, the TFR reported that searches at the Gogol Center were carried out in connection with the case of embezzlement of budget funds in 2014 allocated by the ANO Seventh Studio. ANO is a theater troupe created by Serebrennikov in 2012 on the basis of his own acting and directing course at the Moscow Art Theater School. So far, the defendants in the case have been the former general producer of the Seventh Studio, Alexei Malobrodsky, its former director, Yuri Itin, and chief accountant, Nina Maslyaeva. Maslyayeva pleads guilty and testifies.

Malobrodsky, Itin and Maslyaeva are accused of embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated for the theatrical project "Platform". On June 21, in court, Malobrodsky was accused of embezzling money allocated for the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which, according to the prosecution, was never staged. The defendant's lawyer, Yulia Lakhova, pointed out that the play had been staged, played many times, and had numerous reviews. To this, the prosecutor noted that “anything can be written,” and the court listened to the prosecution, Dozhd reported.

Serebrennikov through Facebook urged viewers to help him prove "that Project Platform really existed", though "100 posters of original events we've done in three years may not convince those we need to convince". He invited the public to present evidence - memories and impressions of the productions of the "Seventh Studio", especially from the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The performance was again included in the repertoire of the studio.

In early August, the director unexpectedly told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that his passport had been taken away from him, although he was only a witness in the case. He expressed bewilderment at the fact that he had to go to Stuttgart in September to work on a production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hans and Gretel, but expressed the hope that everything would work out. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung then recalled that the premiere of Serebrennikov's Nureyev at the Bolshoi Theater had also recently been cancelled. When asked if Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky was behind all these troubles, the director replied that this was already speculation, “maybe Medinsky, maybe someone else” and he prefers not to think about it yet. He also noted that now in Russia there are “more crazy people who attack culture on behalf of state institutions or religion,” and added that “when Minister of Culture Medinsky speaks in the provinces for the opening of a monument to Stalin, this speaks volumes.” “I can’t say more, unfortunately. If it was only about me, I could speak more frankly,” Serebrennikov said.

At the very beginning of June, the Ministry of Culture confirmed that it had asked the TFR to prosecute those responsible for embezzling money allocated to Seventh Studio under the Platform project. The ministry’s response to Dozhd’s request stated that the letter to the Investigative Committee signed by Deputy Minister Nikolai Malakov, which was leaked to social networks and the media, was signed “already after numerous reports about the actions of the investigating authorities had circulated in the information space.” August 9 RBC said, referring to the materials of the investigation submitted to the Moscow City Court, that the case of embezzlement of state subsidies was initiated back in 2015, follows from the case materials, at the end of June 2017 it was transferred from the Moscow Department of the TFR to the central office of the committee.

An Interfax source explained that Serebrennikov's passport was confiscated during searches at the end of May and sent for examination to verify the authenticity of the document. According to the interlocutor of the agency, "these investigative actions are only an excuse to prevent the director from being released abroad."

According to him, the director had an intention to leave the territory of the Russian Federation in the near future. This was possible thanks to a residence permit in the Republic of Latvia and an apartment in Berlin, the representative of the TFR believes. Witnesses in the case are former subordinates of the director. According to the investigation, he can influence them, "including threatening them." Thus, the daughters of the accountant Maslyayeva have already been subjected to surveillance and pressure from Serebrennikov's subordinates, the investigator claims.

“The amount of theft in the case will increase. At present, we have not yet completed all the examinations, ”said a member of the investigation team.

Lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov at the beginning of the meeting asked the court to attach to the case file personal guarantees for Serebrennikov, signed by the director of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Foundation Natalia Solzhenitsyna, the director of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova, the general director of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin, the head of the Vera Foundation Nyuta Federmesser, the singer Philip Kirkorov and many others. other public and cultural figures.

The remark of the investigation that Serebrennikov refused to testify is not entirely correct, the lawyer said. “He was detained early in the morning in St. Petersburg and was taken to Moscow for eight hours. When at 14:00 I arrived at the Investigative Committee and the interrogation began, Serebrennikov only said that he did not have the moral or physical strength to read and understand the multi-page accusation, ”Kharitonov said and added that, according to Serebrennikov, the accusation it was "incomprehensible" to him. From the new accusation that the central office of the ICR brought against the defendants in the case at the end of July, the mention of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" disappeared, the lawyer said. Earlier, the version of the investigation was that the "Seventh Studio" stole money for the performance and it was not staged. Now, the mechanism of theft is not specified in any way: "It is impossible to defend yourself against such an accusation."

“I would like, of course, to be released, because it’s not my fault. The charges brought against me seem incredible, absurd, impossible,” Serebrennikov told the court. - I have no intention of running away: I came to any call and told the whole truth - that the Platform project was, the budget money was spent only on it, and I am very proud of it. All the people involved in it worked in good faith.” According to the director, he "never suspected or blamed" the employees of the Seventh Studio, who were responsible for the economy.

The accused confirmed that he asked the investigation to return the confiscated passport, since he had to go to Germany to stage an opera in Stuttgart. “It concerned only my contractual obligations. I had no intention of hiding," he added.

Serebrennikov's defense is ready to make a bail for him corresponding to the amount of damage in the case - 68 million rubles, said Kharitonov's lawyer. “It is clear that we personally do not have that kind of money. But I think that if we go outside now, we will quickly collect them, ”the defender specified. At his request, the directors Andrei Smirnov and Alexei Mizgirev, as well as the publisher Irina Prokhorova, were interrogated at the trial, who spoke about Serebrennikov's personality.

Kirill Serebrennikov (Photo: Anton Kardashov / Moscow Agency)

“This case, in my opinion, is absolutely exaggerated. And what the investigator said here does not characterize Serebrennikov, but the work of our Investigative Committee, exclaimed Smirnov. — I have no reason to doubt Serebrennikov's professional honesty. In general, to see him behind bars and the fact that they brought him here in handcuffs is outrageous.” According to him, just a list of cultural figures who vouched for the director is "enough to understand where the truth and goodness are."

“He leads a rather modest life, which is subordinated to one cause - his work. I know Kirill as a very honest person; I myself staged a performance at the Gogol Center and I know that the work there is built on full inclusion - emotional, creative. Apart from work, nothing else exists for people there,” Mizgirev said.

“From my point of view, Serebrennikov is an outstanding director and theater figure. And he is, this is an indisputable fact, the pride of our country. His project made Russia an advanced theatrical power. I can say that this is a crystal-clearly honest person whose goal in life is creativity. Pardon the pun, but he's an absolute disgrace. And I am ready to make any bail so that a really great person does not sit in jail, ”summed up Prokhorova.

The meeting was held to the sound of applause and shouts from Kalanchevskaya Street - hundreds of his supporters came to the courthouse to support the director.

Detention of Serebrennikov

The director early in the morning of August 22 in a St. Petersburg hotel, he was in the city on the set of his film about Viktor Tsoi. Serebrennikov was taken to Moscow, where, following an interrogation in the central office of the Investigative Committee, he was charged with organizing fraud.

According to the investigation, in 2011 Serebrennikov came up with and developed a project for the development and popularization of contemporary art "Platform", for which in 2011-2014 the Ministry of Culture allocated more than 214 million rubles. To implement the project, the director created ANO "Seventh Studio". Employees of the company provided the Ministry of Culture with “action plans within the framework of the Platform project, containing deliberately unreliable, inflated information about their number and cost”, made false reports, as well as fictitious contracts for work that was not actually carried out, according to the TFR. The defendants of the case transferred the budgetary compensations for these works to the accounts of one-day firms and cashed them out, and then Serebrennikov distributed them among the participants in the scheme, the investigators are convinced.

The Case of the Seventh Studio

The case of fraud with the state subsidy of the Seventh Studio company was initiated back in 2015, but it became known only after, at Serebrennikov’s house and at several other addresses. Earlier, the TFR filed charges against Seventh Studio accountant Nina Maslyayeva, former director of Gogol Center Alexei Malobrodsky, and ex-general director of Seventh Studio Yuri Itin.

Serebrennikov until recently remained in the status of a witness, along with several other employees of the company, as well as with the former head of the state support department of the Ministry of Culture, Sofia Apfelbaum. The country's leadership decided to abandon his criminal prosecution, citing sources close to officials and the director himself. However, after searches and interrogation in May, Serebrennikov's passport was confiscated, he himself told the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

In early August, it became known that Maslyaeva. According to the protocol of her interrogation, Itin, Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky created the ANO "Seventh Studio" "for the implementation of criminal intent." The accountant helped them cash out a subsidy from the state; The defendants in the case disposed of the cash at their own discretion, Maslyaeva told the investigation. Earlier, she stated that since 2014, at least 100 million rubles have been withdrawn from the Seventh Studio account. in favor of one-day firms. Maslyaeva's daughters meanwhile, as they assumed, from Serebrennikov's former colleagues and associates.

Initially, individual defendants in the case were charged with fraud for smaller amounts: they were accused of embezzling 2.3 million rubles allocated for the production of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and that they, together with unidentified persons, prepared false reports on the work for 1, 2 million rubles, which in reality were not carried out.

At the end of June, the investigation of the case was entrusted to the central office of the TFR. On July 25, the defendants were charged with a new charge. In it, the essence of the act that the defendants are charged with is not specified, Ksenia Karpinskaya, Malobrodsky's lawyer, explained to journalists. “It just says that they worked at the Seventh Studio and spent public money. How exactly is not specified, ”said the defender.

In the case of embezzlement of budget money allocated to the Seventh Studio company in 2011–14. According to investigators, the total amount of stolen funds is 200 million rubles. After the search, Serebrennikov was interrogated as a witness and released.

The next day, the security forces detained the former general director of the Seventh Studio, Yuri Itin, and the former chief accountant, Nina Maslyaeva. They were accused of fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code); it was about the amount of 1.2 million rubles. Itin was sent under house arrest, and Maslyaeva was sent to a pre-trial detention center; the latter pleaded guilty and made a deal with the investigation.

On May 24, at the ceremony of presenting state awards in the Kremlin, actor Yevgeny Mironov handed Vladimir Putin a letter in defense of Serebrennikov. Answering the actor's question about the reason for the searches in the theater, Putin pointedly: "Yes, fools." Later, he "ridiculous" participation in the investigative actions of the riot police.

Nevertheless, a month after the first searches, the former director of the Gogol Center, Alexei Malobrodsky, who served as the general producer of the Seventh Studio in 2011–12, was detained. He was also charged with fraud: according to the UK, among the stolen money were funds for the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream - the performance allegedly was never staged (while the Shakespearean play is still being played at the Gogol Center). The amount of damage in this episode was estimated at 2.3 million rubles. Malobrodsky himself, which had nothing to do with the cashing out of money from the Seventh Studio.

In early August, it became known that Maslyaeva gave on Serebrennikov, Itin and Malobrodsky, who allegedly "developed a plan for embezzlement" of the Platform project. At the same time, Itin, Malobrodsky and Maslyaeva were charged with an expanded charge: the amount of damage increased to 68 million rubles. Relatives of the ex-accountant of the Seventh Studio said that they were being followed by unknown people.

Employees of SK Serebrennikov in St. Petersburg, where he worked on the film "Summer" about Viktor Tsoi. According to the director, the security forces took him almost from the set, put him in a minibus and took him to Moscow; At the same time, Kommersant reported that the FSB operatives escorted him to the airport after his arrest.

On the morning of August 22, Serebrennikov was already at the central office of the Investigative Committee, and in the late afternoon the director was charged with fraud. According to investigators, in 2011 he came up with the Platform project, for the implementation of which in subsequent years he received more than 214 million rubles from the Ministry of Culture. At the direction of Serebrennikov and Itin, the employees of the Seventh Studio allegedly inflated the cost of events, and then made unreliable reports.

In addition, the "Seventh Studio" entered into agreements with one-day firms, the money for which "was cashed and distributed by Serebrennikov among the accomplices." The Investigative Committee named another person involved in the case - this is the executive producer of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Ekaterina Voronova, she was put on the wanted list.

After the searches, well-known actors, directors (including Pavel Lungin, Alexander Sokurov and), journalists and human rights activists spoke in defense of Serebrennikov. Appeal in support of Malobrodsky TV presenter Vladimir Pozner, writers Vladimir Sorokin and Viktor Erofeev, conductor Teodor Currentzis and other cultural figures.

On Wednesday morning it became known that the investigation asked to send the director under house arrest.

The meeting is scheduled for noon. Employees and actors of the Gogol Center gathered near the building of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow.

Moscow 24 on Twitter writes that the director has already been taken to court.

Ekho Moskvy journalist Alena Vershinina writes that actress Victoria Isakova will act as a guarantor in court. TV presenter Leonid Parfenov and directors Vladimir Mirzoev and Boris Khlebnikov also came to support Serebrennikov.

Now there are more than two hundred people near the building of the Basmanny Court. All the sidewalks around are clogged with people, the correspondent of Mediazona reports. Photographers and cameramen crowd at the entrance. The wagons have arrived.

Near the hall, where the issue of the measure of restraint will be considered, there is also a support group of the director and journalists. Kirill Serebrennikov was brought into the hall.

You people run quickly! They have already left me on the roadway! Speed ​​up the process! - the policeman at the court building speaks into the handset. - It's a serious situation.

Due to the large congestion of people with phones near the courthouse, the Internet does not work well.

The journalist Alexander Budberg, the husband of Dmitry Medvedev's press secretary Natalya Timakova, came to court. The wife of businessman Oleg Deripaska, Polina, also came to support Serebrennikov.

The meeting begins after protocol shooting. Some of the journalists managed to get into the hall, the rest of the correspondents are watching the broadcast in the corridor.

The judge explains Serebrennikov his rights.

Serebrennikov's lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov says the defense has a large number of assignments, including from Natalya Solzhenitsyna, head of the Solzhenitsyn Foundation, singer Philip Kirkorov, TV presenter Andrei Malakhov, directors Fyodor Bondarchuk, Avdotya Smirnova, Alexander Popogrebsky and others.

The defender lists the names of the guarantors for a long time: actors Igor Vernik and Valery Garkalin, Evgeny Mironov, Konstantin Khabensky, Konstantin Raikin, Maxim Vitorgan, actresses Chulpan Khamatova, Victoria Isakova and Elizaveta Boyarskaya, director of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin, TV presenter Ivan Urgant, journalists Ksenia Sobchak, Nikolai Kartozia and Nikolai Svanidze, public figure Nyuta Federmesser and director of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova.

He hands the judge a large bundle of bails.

After the judge has attached medical documents, the floor is taken by the investigator. According to the case file, acting as part of an organized group, Serebrennikov committed fraud. “Given that Serebrennikov is being charged with a serious crime, he could abscond from court,” he says.

The microphone in the hall beeps.

Serebrennikov may influence witnesses in a criminal case if he remains at large, the investigator adds. The director can also destroy evidence and avoid liability. He asks the court to place Serebrennikov under house arrest until October 19 with a ban on using the Internet and telephone.

Arguing in favor of house arrest, the IC officer mentions that the director has real estate abroad and a residence permit in Latvia.

The prosecutor supports the motion.

Serebrennikov objects to house arrest. “I would like to be released because I am not guilty. All the accusations seem to me incredibly absurd and impossible,” he says.

The director calmly explains that he always went to interrogations and cooperated with the investigation, answered all questions. All public money was spent on the project, he concludes.

Serebrennikov says that the Platform project was important for art.

“So I'm asking you to let me go, really. I won't run away anywhere, I can't hide anywhere,” he says. In early August, the director said that after the searches, the investigators took away his passport, although at that time he was a witness in the case.

Serebrennikov continues: “House arrest is an unreasonably harsh measure that will prevent me from working.”

Lawyer Kharitonov speaks: “House arrest is an unfounded petition. There is no reason to believe that he will abscond from the court. All that the investigation has is a document on the sale of an apartment and data that he was going to go abroad to stage a performance.

Meanwhile, the crowd on the street is chanting: “Kirill! Kirill! Kirill!"

“My client was not going to run anywhere. All his thoughts were directed to work,” continues the defender.

He recalls that the investigators interrupted the filming process several times. The lawyer insists that the investigation did not provide any evidence that Serebrennikov could escape somewhere.

On the street again they shout loudly: “Kirill! Bravo!" and loud applause. Hearing the street noise from the broadcast, the people in the corridor also screamed and clapped.

The lawyer says that yesterday Serebrennikov did not refuse to testify: after the arrest, the director was driven from St. Petersburg to Moscow for nine hours, by the evening he "did not have the strength to understand the charge." He assures that Serebrennikov will answer all the investigators' questions later.

Kharitonov says that the judge should give the director the opportunity to continue working.

The crowd at the entrance to the court began to chant "Freedom!" and "Kirill, come out!"

Defender Kharitonov continues his speech. He asks the court to release Serebrennikov on bail of 68 million rubles - this is the amount of damage that, according to the investigation, he caused.

“Now, of course, we don’t have that kind of money, but I think we will collect it as soon as possible,” he says.

Now the investigator has taken the floor, the correspondent of Mediazona reports, but he cannot be heard because of the incessant screams from the street.

Dear citizens! Let me turn to you! Your behavior is interfering with the work of the court! - says the policeman into a bullhorn.

Your work interferes with creativity! - they answer him from the crowd, applause is heard.

Please clear the roadway and do not interfere with the work of the court.

The applause fell silent due to the fact that someone asked to be quieter, otherwise the words of the lawyer could not be heard.

Now the judge lists the papers attached to the case - the statement of the investigators, the petitions of the lawyer, more than 30 guarantees. The term of the preliminary investigation was extended until October 19. She says who and when was interrogated.

Serebrennikov repeats again that he is an honest man and did not steal anything. The director believes that he was slandered.

Lawyer Kharitonov says that Irina Prokhorova is ready to give as a pledge any amount that the court will appoint.

Director Andrei Smirnov (Belorussky Station, Once Upon a Time There Was a Woman, played in the film Elena) enters the hall. He says that he has known Kirill for 20 years and knows him only from the good side.

The lawyer asks to tell why Smirnov acted as a guarantor. He replies that he knew Serebrennikov when he was still a "young talent." Now he has become a famous talented director. The case against him is exaggerated, Smirnov believes.

“I have no reason to doubt Kirill's civil honesty,” he adds.

There are no questions for him.

Now the director and screenwriter Alexei Mizgirev is performing. He speaks of Serebrennikov's innocence.

Lawyer Kharitonov again talks about bail and asks to hear the editor-in-chief of the New Literary Review and literary critic Irina Prokhorova.

Prokhorova enters the hall. She says that she has known the director for the past 15 years.

The lawyer asks the guarantor to tell about the relationship with Serebrennikov.

From my point of view, he is an outstanding director, and I would say that he brought our country to the forefront of the theatrical movement, says Prokhorova. According to her, his whole life is creativity.