Moscow adds awarded theater producer and play writer to list of ‘extremists and terrorists’

Only about two years after their theater play Finist yasny sokol won several prizes in Russia’s prestigious Golden Mask Awards, Berkovich and Petreychuk are declared ‘extremists and terrorists’ by the regime in Moscow, the Russian version of the Barents Observer reports.

The play tells the story about Russian women that went to Syria to accompany radicalized Islamic men. The script is based on information recorded in actual interviews and court verdicts.

The play soon attracted the attention of Russian censorship authorities, and in April 2023 the Investigative Committee filed charges against them. They have been behind bars since early May that same year.

According to a representative of the FSB, the two women in the theater play deliberately painted  a “romantic picture of a terrorist” in order to made him “interesting and attractive to girls and women,” newspaper Kommersant reported,

The prosecution of the two women has in Russia been called “The Theater Case.” 

On the 16th of April this year, the Russian Federal Service on Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring) added weight to the charges by placing the two women on a federal list of ‘extremists and terrorists.’

Yevgenia Berkovich has also actively spoken out against the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

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The two women face up to seven years in jail.