Searches at Gogol Center not related to any irregularities in theater's or Moscow Culture Dept's work - mayor's office
MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) - The situation involving searches in Moscow's Gogol Center is not directly related to any activities of the theater or of the Moscow city government's culture department, Alexander Kibovsky, head of the department, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"We can presume from the comments by the Investigative Committee that this situation has nothing to do with the Moscow Culture Department. The Gogol Moscow Drama Theater, which is currently known more as the Gogol Center, has nothing to do with the situation either," Kibovsky said.
Several theater professionals displayed "an emotional reaction" on Tuesday, when large-scale searches were carried out at the Gogol Center, as well as in the apartment of the theater's artistic director Kirill Serebrennikov and in some other places, Kibovsky added.
"Let us be calm. We have no right to succumb to emotions. As an executive body, which in fact has nothing to do with what the Investigative Committee is talking about, we will wait to hear what competent specialists will tell us," he said.
Kibovsky went on to recall that in Moscow, a total of 82 theaters report to his department. Moscow's Culture Department issued an executive order to appoint Serebrennikov artistic director of the N.V. Gogol Moscow Drama Theater in 2012.