(20 May 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
++PLEASE NOTE: AP IS OPERATING IN RUSSIA ACCORDING TO RUSSIAN RESTRICTIONS ON ALL REPORTING RELATED TO THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Moscow, 20 May 2024
1. Theatre director, Zhenya Berkovich, and playwright, Svetlana Petriychuk, being escorted into courtroom
2. Berkovich and Petriychuk inside glass cage, lawyers sitting at table
3. Close of Petriychuk
4. Close of Berkovichuk
5. Berkovich and Petriychuk inside glass cage, lawyers sitting at table
6. Mid of lawyers
7. Various of Berkovich and Petriychuk inside glass cage
8. Wide of courtroom, journalists filming Berkovich and Petriychuk
9. Mid of court guard asking journalists to leave
10. Wide of Berkovich’s mother, Elena Efros, talking outside court
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Elena Efros, mother of Zhenya Berkovich
"I’m glad to see my daughter, although, unfortunately, I would prefer to see her in another place and in another environment, but the fact that she holds on, and she smiles and shows up cats, it’s nice to look at her."
12. Mid of Efros talking
13. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Elena Efros, mother of Zhenya Berkovich:
"I see friends and family who also act as defence witnesses, so they cannot comment. That’s why I can’t comment about them either, but I’m pleased to see them. They are witnesses for the defence, and I am sure that they will say everything that is necessary to prove the absurdity of this accusation. Because it’s absurd."
14. Wide of Efros
STORYLINE:
A Russian court on Monday opened the trial of a theater director and a playwright accused of advocating terrorism in a play, the latest step in an unrelenting crackdown on dissent in Russia that has reached new heights since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
Zhenya Berkovich, a prominent independent theater director, and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk have been jailed for over a year.
Authorities claim their play “Finist, the Brave Falcon” justifies terrorism, which is a criminal offence in Russia punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Berkovich and Petriychuk have both repeatedly rejected the accusations against them.
Berkovich told the court on Monday that she staged the play in order to prevent terrorism, and Petriychuk echoed this sentiment, saying that she wrote it in order to prevent events like those depicted in the play.
The women’s lawyers have pointed out at court hearings before the trial that the play was supported by the Russian Culture Ministry and won the Golden Mask award, Russia’s most prestigious national theatre award.
In 2019, the play was read to inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia, and Russia’s state penitentiary service praised it on its website, Petriychuk’s lawyer has said.
The case against Berkovich and Petriychuk elicited outrage in Russia.
An open letter in support of the two artists, started by the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, has been signed by more than 16,000 people since their arrest.
The play, the letter argued, “carries an absolutely clear anti-terrorist sentiment.”
Dozens of Russian actors, directors and journalists also signed affidavits urging the court to release the two from custody pending investigation and trial.
Immediately after Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine, the Kremlin unleashed a sweeping campaign of repression, unparalleled since the Soviet era.
Pressure mounted on critical artists in Russia, too.
Actors and directors were fired from state-run theatres, and musicians were blacklisted from performing in the country.
Many have left Russia.
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