The case over the play “Finist the Brave Falcon”

Director Zhenya Berkoviсh and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk are being prosecuted under criminal charges of “public justification of terrorism” because of the play “Finist the Bright Falcon.”

The play, which tells the story of women fleeing to Syria to marry militants, is based on interrogations and verdicts in criminal cases against Varvara Karaulova and other Russian women, recruited online by “Islamic State.” The production won two “Golden Mask” awards for the 2021/2022 season.

In May 2021, the NOD Russia website published a denunciation in which the play was called “a tool of information warfare against Russia’s security.”

On 24 February 2022, Berkoviсh was detained at an anti-war picket in Moscow. After the invasion began, she actively posted anti-war content and poetry on her Facebook page.

In April 2023, a criminal case for “public justification of terrorism” was opened against Berkoviсh and Petriychuk. In May, both were detained and sent to a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO). Since then, their detention has been extended several times—despite Berkoviсh having two adopted daughters with special needs. Meanwhile the Ministry of Justice acknowledged that the “destructology” expert report underpinning the case cannot be used as evidence in court.

You can write to Zhenya Berkoviсh and Svetlana Petriychuk via the F-letter service or by regular post:

109 383, Moscow, Shosseynaya Street, 92, SIZO-6.
Berkoviсh, Yevgeniya Borisovna, b. 1985.
Petriychuk, Svetlana Alexandrovna, b. 1980.

For more details on the case, follow the authors’ support Telegram channels: this is the Petriychuk case and Berkonews.