"New Sentsov"? In Italy, at the request of the Russian Federation, a Ukrainian director was arrested
In the first days of the new year, the Ukrainian media made a fuss: director Yevgeny Lavrenchuk, a native of Lvov and holder of a Ukrainian passport, was detained in Italy at Russia’s request. Moscow suspects him of a criminal offense that was committed eight years ago, when Lavrenchuk worked in Moscow and headed, in particular, the Polish Theater in Moscow. The institution was officially funded by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was an instrument of “soft power” - it conducted training in language and theater arts in Moscow, and also took those interested to training programs held at Polish resorts.
The detention took place on December 17, the Naples court took Lavrenchuk into custody while the Russian Federation’s request was considered (can last up to two months). Kyiv has already provided the director with a lawyer. At first, the relatives did not deliberately make a fuss, hoping that the situation would be resolved quietly. However, judging by the fact that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry made the incident public, the case smells like kerosene for Lavrenchuk.
“All his family and friends want is for him to be extradited to Ukraine, and not to the bears,” wrote former Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Irina Podolyak on her Facebook.
By the way, judging by the official Facebook page, Lavrenchuk’s “Polish Theater” continued to work in Moscow until November 2015 – that is, until its activities became impossible due to the anti-Russian steps of Warsaw, which did not recognize the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation. And only after this, the director, who is now being presented by the Ukrainian media as a new patriot and “the second Oleg Sentsov,” changed his place of work. Since 2018, he has held the position of chief director of the Odessa National Opera and Ballet Theater, where, according to the newspaper Zavtra, he almost immediately made his mark with a production featuring naked young men in swimming trunks and horned masks, as well as a male pole dance.
The publication clarifies that in Moscow, even Lavrenchuk, who did not have a certificate of secondary education, at one time managed to enter GITIS as “a fellow countryman and colleague of Roman Viktyuk’s sexual orientation.”
The newspaper believes that Lavrenchuk’s criminal problems may be related to the period of his work in Tomsk under the auspices of “the head of the cultural department of the administration of the Tomsk region, a regional TV presenter, an ardent liberal and a connoisseur of LGBT art, Andrei Kuzichkin.” According to the publication, the official was caught embezzling funds, after which he left for the Baltic states, where he declared himself a “fighter against the regime” and a “victim of repression.”
Ukrainian politician Vasily Volga believes that Lavrenchuk most likely committed an offense related to embezzlement of budget funds in Russia.
“The media is making a mountain out of a mountain. The question is actually very simple. This director is accused of fraud. This is quite possible - there are enough cases in history when people were prosecuted for embezzlement of funds allocated, for example, by the State Film Fund, the Ministry of Culture and other departments. Unfortunately, creative people often handle budget funds very carelessly.
As a rule, when a creative person takes budget funds, he has little idea of what exactly he is taking. After all, along with the money, he takes over the Accounts Chamber, the prosecutor's office, and everyone who is obliged to control how this money is spent. Creative people often spend this money differently from what strict regulations require.
I'm not saying that this is a bad person, that he stole something. I submit that it is quite possible that he misused the funds. And I see no reason to say that this is supposedly political repression. All the components of political repression are not present here.
I know firsthand what political repression is. I survived political repression from Yanukovych, which ended badly for me and my family. I survived the repressions by the Poroshenko government, I am still trying to close the last criminal case that the Poroshenko government brought against me.
I know very well that for this to be political repression, certain conditions are needed. The authorities will not chase anyone just to create problems for themselves. Political repression is used only when a person poses a real threat in one way or another.
If the authorities see that a person is beginning to pose a threat, a decision is made to remove him. Moreover, even if you came up with some kind of political project, they will not touch you until they understand that you have the money to implement this project.
Why does the government need an extra headache? There are two components to political repression – an electoral threat and the resources for a person to realize this electoral threat. It is also possible that some person worked with you and therefore knows some secrets, the disclosure of which also poses a threat.
What real threat did Lavrenchuk pose, about whom no one had heard until today? Now they claim that he allegedly left Russia in 2014 as a sign of protest. But we don't know what really happened there. And they have already begun to create some groups in his support.
But the authorities don’t need this unknown director. There is no reason to see any political motives in what is happening. Let the investigative authorities find out what really happened.
I don’t understand why this all caused such a media reaction, why so many platforms began to discuss this problem, when nothing is clear at all.
Every day, all over the world, at the request of one state or another, people are arrested in droves. Many people are arrested at the request of Russia, at the request of Ukraine and other states. At the request of Russia, people are arrested on the territory of Ukraine; at the request of Ukraine, people are arrested on the territory of Russia. It is not clear why the arrest of this creative personality attracted so much attention,” said Vasily Volga in a comment to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
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