New Culture Wars?

Early morning police raids without warning have become so common in Russia that a new name has been assigned to them: maski-show (маски-шоу), meaning a disproportionate show of force by masked police.

Maski-shows typically hit businessmen, members of the opposition, and subjects of corruption probes.

But this spring a raid was launched against Gogol Center, a trendy Moscow theater run by one of Russia’s most innovative directors, Kirill Serebrennikov (who, some readers will remember, was one of Russian Life magazine’s “100 Young Russians to Watch” back in 2000). Police confiscated his home computers, and at his theater they blocked actors who were rehearsing from leaving the premises during the search.

Amid confusion over what prompted the raid, Muscovites, including well-known cultural figures who do not normally voice oppositional views, spoke out. Filmmaker Fyodor Bondarchuk, who endorsed Vladimir Putin in the 2012 election, called the search “an outrage,” while filmmaker and lawmaker Stanislav Govorukhin said he does not believe that Serebrennikov could be implicated in any fraud.

The allegations, it turned out, were not against Serebrennikov himself, but against his former colleagues from the theater project Platforma, which existed long before the Gogol Center took its present form. Investigators have named Serebrennikov as a witness in the case, which alleges that some R200 million (about $3.5 million) allocated for popularization of the arts between 2011 and 2014 was embezzled from Platforma.

Serebrennikov surfaced several days after the search, writing on Facebook that he will now have to prove that Platforma, which “involved the participation of many of the best young composers, musicians, actors, directors, artists, choreographers and dancers,” really happened. “It’s easy to tell the truth,” Serebrennikov said. “Even when the circumstances in which you tell it are the result of monstrous injustice.”

State television echoed the Kremlin’s assertions that the investigators’ actions are not being guided by political motives, but some observers were quick to characterize the raid as punishment for Serebrennikov’s critical films and edgy plays.

“Kirill Serebrennikov is inconvenient,” Afisha wrote on its website.

“This is the first time that they have come for the artistic intelligentsia,” wrote Ksenia Larina, a presenter at Echo of Moscow radio station. “Kirill Serebrennikov is the front man of ‘liberal culture,’ which is what irritates and infuriates the nouveaux Russian imperialists.”

Serebrennikov, aside from his work at Gogol Center, has staged a ballet for the Bolshoi Theater based on Mikhail Lermontov’s novel, A Hero of Our Time. He is also an established filmmaker, and his film The Student, about a young religious fanatic trying to manipulate those around him, did well at last year’s film festivals. It was even nominated for an award at Cannes.

“The questioning of Kirill Serebrennikov once again reminds us that authoritarian states take a dim view of people who have independently built a good reputation for themselves,” Vedomosti wrote. “Any scholar, artist or philanthropist who is respected for his own accomplishments does not fit into the vertical of power and poses a threat to it.”