MOSCOW, May 30 (RAPSI) - Ex-chief accountant of the Seventh Studio stage company Nina Maslyayeva, who stands charged with embezzling public funds allocated for promotion of art, has filed an appeal against her detention, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.

On May 27, Maslyayeva was placed in detention until July 19 under the decision of Moscow’s Presnensky District Court. Earlier, another defendant in the case, ex-CEO of the Seventh Studio Yury Itin was put under house arrest.

On May 23, police raided the Gogol Center, a popular contemporary theater in Moscow, as part of investigation into the case. Searches have also been conducted in premises of the theater’s artistic director, Kirill Serebrennikov.  Later, he was questioned as a witness in the case.

Maslyayeva and Itin were allegedly involved in embezzlement committed in 2014. The Seventh Studio received 66.5 million rubles ($1.2 million) from budget for staging performances, holding of seminars, creative laboratories and organization of guest performances. Investigators believe that Maslyayeva and Itin conspired to embezzle about 1.3 million rubles (about $23,000) by fabricating documents on rendering services, RIA Novosti reported.

It was reported earlier, that unidentified persons from management of the Seventh Studio, a stage company created by Serebrennikov on the basis of his acting and directing course in the Moscow Art Theatre School, embezzled 200 million rubles (about $3.5 million) allocated by the government for development and popularization of art in Russia from 2011 to 2014.