Director Zhenya Berkovic and playwright Svetlana Petrychuk have been added to an official list of “terrorists and extremists” ahead of their trial on charges of “apologising for terrorism”.
They were arrested last May, on the occasion of an award-winning theater performance telling the story of Russian women who married fighters of the Islamic State jihadist group.
The list of “terrorists and extremists” is published online by the Federal Financial Supervisory Service (Rosfinmonitoring), which has the power to freeze the assets of persons and entities included there, even if they have not been convicted of a crime. The list has been growing amid a crackdown on dissent since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The award-winning theater performance “Finist, the brave falcon” adapted by Petrychuk and directed by Berkovich premiered in 2020. The detention of the two women has been condemned by many artists and representatives of culture in Russia.
At a court appearance in January, Berkowitz, 38, addressed the judge in verse, satirizing the slow pace at which the process is proceeding and describing her and her family’s pain.
A clip of that speech was released in a rap music video on YouTube. Among other things he is heard saying:
“I’m in Russia, under investigation, nowhere to escape, nothing to gain.
I have two sick children, don’t forget, whose childhoods were stolen, once once more.”
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