The PUTIN show: Kirill Serebrennikov and Russia’s conservative revolution. By MARINA DAVYDOVA
Russian theatre
director Kirill Serebrennikov, arrested in August 2017 for alleged fraud, is
the victim of the cultural backlash following Putin’s re-election in 2012,
writes Marina Davydova. His case is a lens through which to understand Russia’s
problems.
The case opened in the
early hours of 23 May 2017, when seventeen different premises were raided,
including the Gogol Centre, a theatre established by Kirill Serebrennikov.
Those who happened to be in the vicinity thought it was a bomb alert: the
centre’s perimeter was cordoned off, masked men with guns ran about inside and
outside the building, all the actors and stage hands were corralled onto the
stage, had their phones taken away and they were not allowed to leave the
building for several hours.
At that point it was already clear that this was no
ordinary case of embezzlement but rather an operation staged in order to put
the frighteners on the entire theatre world. But why just then? Why was Kirill
Serebrennikov cast in the role of principal victim? And why had the criminal
case nothing to do with the Gogol Centre, as one might have expected, but
instead concerned Platform, a project Serebrennikov was involved with from 2011
to 2014, before the centre was even established?
For all these
questions there is a simple answer. For some time now, Aleksei Navalny, a
leading opposition figure in present-day Russia, has led a crusade against the
corruption that is rampant in the higher echelons of Russian power. The case
against Serebrennikov was, among other things, a direct response to Navalny’s
disclosures.
The Kremlin prefers
mirror-like responses whenever possible. If people in Moscow flock to meetings
against rigged parliamentary elections, a large number of ‘Putings’ (public
meetings in support of Putin – ed.) are soon organised in support of the
country’s highest authorities. If an opposition figure sets about exposing
major financial misconduct in the highest echelons of power, similar
revelations about members of the opposition or the liberal intelligentsia are
sure to follow. Of course, these revelations must be accompanied by enormous
publicity focused on a well-known public figure.
The theatre world is a
particularly convenient target. On the one hand, it boasts a high concentration
of famous names. On the other hand, Russian theatre is more dependent on state
funding than any other art form. And third, the country’s financial legislation
is designed in such an absurd fashion that it is virtually impossible to do
anything in the theatre without breaking the law. A theatre director who always
adheres scrupulously to the letter of the law would be unable to pay for toilet
paper, let alone costumes. This makes theatre a very handy target for
exposures: whenever it suits them, the powers-that-be can find instances of
‘embezzlement’ linked to someone who has fallen out of favour.
But this is just the
tip of the iceberg. What lies below the surface is far more interesting... read more:
