TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — 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 offense 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 her sentiment, saying that she wrote it in order to prevent events like those depicted in the play. |
Xi Orders Curbing Repeated Occurrence of Safety Accidents After Deadly Street Shop FireBeijing calls for restoring dialoguePakistan's PM says Belt and Road comes with benefits4 dead in Ecuador traffic accidentNumber of foreign visitors to China sees significant reboundChina's largest land port handles over 5 mln metric tons of imports and exports in Q1Russia withstands sanctions pressure, Putin saysEgyptian FM urges restraint after Iranian attack on IsraelTehran not seeking to continue "defensive operation" against Israel: FMHezbollah official killed, 3 civilians injured in Israeli strike on Lebanese village