MOSCOW, August 9 (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 testified against theater director Kirill Serebrennikov, according to court records.

Maslyayeva said that Serebrennikov, artistic director of a popular contemporary Moscow theater Gogol Center, Alexey Malobrodsky, ex- general producer of Seventh Studio, and former company’s head Yury Itin organized embezzlement of money allocated for a cultural event. Serebrennikov and Malobrodsky cashed the money with the assistance of Maslyayeva. The woman also said that she put falsified data in financial reports.

On May 23, police raided the Gogol Center 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.

According to investigators, 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.

Investigators claim that damage caused by Maslyayeva is estimated at about 1.3 million rubles (about $23,000).Malobrodsky is charged with embezzling 2.3 million rubles (about $38,700) allocated for organization of the “Platforma” festival. The defendant denies his guilt, although he has agreed to cooperate with investigators in the case.