MOSCOW – A Moscow judge convicted an acclaimed Russian theater director of embezzling state funds and imposed a three-year suspended sentence Friday in a case widely seen as politically motivated.
Kirill Serebrennikov, 50, arguably Russia’s best-known theater and film director, and his associates were found guilty of fraud and embezzling 129 million rubles (over $1.8 million) of state funding for a theater project.
The judge, saying that “reformation is possible without a real (prison) term," gave Serebrennikov and two other defendants suspended sentences and ordered them to repay the embezzled funds.