A Russian court on Friday took into custody the well-known theater director Yevgenia Berkovichi, who is accused of apologizing for terrorism in one of her plays, of full repression against dissidents in Russia after the start of the military offensive on Ukraine, inform AFP and Agerpres.

The 38-year-old artist, who faces up to seven years in prison, was remanded in custody until July 4, the Zamoskvoretskyi Court of Moscow reported, citing Russian press agencies.

The director’s lawyers said they would appeal her arrest. They asked to place Yevgenia Berkovitsa under house arrest at her place of residence in St. Petersburg or to release her on bail, TASS reports.

Evgenia Berkovichi rejects all the accusations brought against her.

The official reason for Yevgenia Berkovitsa’s arrest is her performance called “Finist – Yasny Sokil”. The play in question was staged by Berkovich in 2020 and is performed entirely by women. It tells the story of Russian women recruited online by Islamists in Syria and who travel to them to marry, AFP noted.

Applauded by critics, the play received the Golden Mask in 2022, Russia’s main theater award.

The court’s decision caused a shock in the Russian theater world

According to the official Russian news agency TASS, Evgenia Berkovitsa’s show will be about “women who decided to virtually marry representatives of radical Islam.”

In the same case, 43-year-old playwright Svitlana Petriychuk, who wrote the script for this play, has been charged. According to AFP, Svitlana Petrichuk will be summoned to the same court on Friday evening, according to images released by Russian opposition media.

The prosecution of two artists caused a shock in the Russian theater world.

A petition demanding their release and acquittal, launched by the independent daily newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has already collected more than 3,000 signatures.

Last year, Evgenia Berkovichi published poems against the Russian offensive on Ukraine, which were “widely circulated”, the text of this petition emphasizes.

Evgenia Berkovichi also performed in Romania

In 2017, Yevgenia Berkovici staged a play called “Love for People” in Romania, at the Nottara Theater, the result of the DENS Theater Laboratory of the Nottara Theater held a year earlier.

Yevgenia Berkovichi is a former student and co-author of Kirill Serebrennikov, a film and theater director now in exile in Germany, known for his work criticizing the Russian government and intertwining politics, religion and sexuality.

After launching the offensive against Ukraine, the Russian authorities accelerated the suppression of any form of dissent, fining thousands of people and sentencing them to harsh prison terms.

In the cultural environment, artists who criticized Vladimir Putin were persecuted, fired or forced to leave the country.

(Photo: Oleksandr Shcherbak / TASS / Profimedia)