Serebrennikov was sentenced to probation in the case of the Seventh Studio

The ex-director of the Gogol Center Alexei Malobrodsky and the ex-general director of the Seventh Studio Yuri Itin were also found guilty. The state prosecution previously requested that they be sentenced to five years and four years, respectively. They were sentenced to two and three years probation, and also were ordered to pay a fine of 200 thousand.

Sophia Apfelbaum, former director of the Department of State Support for the Arts of the Ministry of Culture, was also found guilty of negligence. The prosecutor asked to sentence her for four years. The court considered that Apfelbaum did not know about the criminal fraud of the director and his accomplices. She was sentenced to a fine of 100 thousand, but was exempted from it after a statute of limitations, writes RBC.

The court found that the persons involved in the case cashed out funds under fictitious agreements with non-existent companies, having stolen from the budget most of the subsidies for the Platforma project in 2011-2014 . The total amount of damage is estimated at 128.9 million rubles. The defendants pleaded not guilty.

Serebrennikov was arrested in August 2017. First, he was placed under house arrest, and in April 2019, the participants in the case were released on his own recognizance. In support of the director, his colleagues, as well as social activists and journalists, joined. Most of them did not believe that the director could get a real term.