Ivan Nechepurenko

Kirill Serebrennikov, one of Russia’s leading stage and film directors, had been imprisoned in his apartment since August 2017, after Russian investigators accused him of conspiring with three of his colleagues to embezzle 133 million rubles, about $2 million, of government funds allocated to a theater festival.

Serebrennikov and his three co-defendants have pleaded not guilty. Speaking Monday to reporters outside the court, which released him on bail, Serebrennikov thanked his supporters and added, “This is not over yet.” If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

“We need to continue and prove our complete innocence in court,” he said, adding that he would return as soon as possible to work at the Gogol Center, a state-run theater where he is the artistic director.

“It will be very difficult psychologically, but we have so much work to do,” he said.

For many in Russia’s arts community, the charges were politically motivated and meant to punish Serebrennikov for his provocative work. The director is known for taboo-breaking productions that sit awkwardly with the traditional family values Russia’s government promotes, and which often make thinly veiled criticisms of life under President Vladimir Putin.

Supporters saw the case against him as an attack on freedom of expression that signaled Putin’s determination to bring the arts to heel. Prominent cultural figures around the world, from Australian actress Cate Blanchett to Nobel Prize-winning Austrian novelist Elfriede Jelinek, also expressed support for Serebrennikov.

Despite being under house arrest, Serebrennikov continued to work. A few months after his house arrest started, Serebrennikov’s production of a biographical ballet of Rudolph Nureyev premiered at the Bolshoi Theater.

In November, he directed a production of Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte” in Zurich by swapping USB sticks back and forth with video recordings of his instructions. Last month, he was absent at the premiere of another opera — Verdi’s “Nabucco,” at the Hamburg State Opera — that he directed while confined to his apartment.

The ruling Monday came as a surprise to those in Russia who had been following the rather dry court proceedings that started in November.

Last week, the presiding judge extended Serebrennikov’s house arrest until July, but, on Monday, the higher Moscow city court overturned that ruling, although it barred him from leaving the Russian capital. Two of Serebrennikov’s co-defendants were also released on bail. The third co-defendant was released on bail last year because of poor health.

In the embezzlement case, Serebrennikov was accused of defrauding the Russian culture ministry of funds that were allocated from 2011-13 for an artistic project called the “Platform,” a mix of art forms including theater, dance and music. Serebrennikov created and curated the project, which had the support of then-President Dmitry Medvedev.

Alexander Baunov, a Russian political and cultural commentator, said the court proceedings had shown that the evidence gathered by investigators was thin. But the case against Serebrennikov still appeared to have powerful backers in the Russian government, he added.

“We don’t know who was the real initiator of the case against him,” Baunov said. “It could be that the very fact that Serebrennikov had to spend almost 600 days under house arrest is enough for these people.”

If Serebrennikov had any foes in the government, he also had supporters. Aleksei Kudrin, a former minister who now leads the main state agency overseeing Russia’s finances, wrote on Twitter on Monday: “Serebrennikov has been freed. Finally.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/theater/kirill-serebrennikov-house-arrest.html" id="ce48875a-1d1c-3263-a6ad-ba7f1a8b0df8">The New York Times</a>.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — A renowned Russian director was released Monday by a court in Moscow after nearly 20 months of house arrest, in a financial fraud case that is widely seen by Russia’s intelligentsia as a test for artistic freedom.

Russia Frees Director After Nearly 20 Months of House Arrest

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Ivan Nechepurenko

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Russia Frees Director After Nearly 20 Months of House Arrest