Yesterday, May 4, 2023, Moscow director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk were arrested. In relation to their production of »Finist Yasnyy Sokol« – »Finist, the Brave Hawk« – they were accused of »justifying terrorism.«
Berkovich is a central figure in the alternative and resistant literary scene in Moscow and Russia. The Economist published a portrait on her a while back, as well as the Swiss WOZ. Last year she published several poems against the »special military operation« in Ukraine. She has chosen not to go into exile and to fight for a democratic Russia, this is the reason why she is being harassed under unjustified allegations.
We are outraged by the continued repression and elimination of critical voices in Putin’s Russia and stand in solidarity with those Russian intellectuals, artists and citizens who stand up against the injustices in the country and want to build a more just world together with their international colleagues.
PEN Berlin. We stand by our word.