Evgenia Berkovich

A director, a poet. The case against Berkovich was initiated because of the play she staged in 2020. The play titled Finist, the Brave Falcon was written by Svetlana Petriychuk and focuses on women involved with radical Islamists. In 2022, the play won two Golden Mask awards. On 4 May 2023, Berkovich's home in Moscow was searched, along with those of her parents and grandmother in Saint Petersburg. Alexander Andrievich, who is the director of the SOSO Daughters Theatre where the play was staged, was questioned as a witness. Berkovich was placed in custody the next day. During the first court session on the merits of the case, it became known that complaints regarding a poem written by Berkovich had been attached to the case. The poem includes the following line: "Conscripts are flying in the sky..." After the prosecutor read the poem, Berkovich said it was compiled from her various works. On 13 July 2024, the court closed the trial in favour of the prosecution, following statemens from the prosecutor about a witness receiving threats. On 8 July, Berkovich was sentenced to 6 years in a general regime colony. On 25 December 2024, the appeal court reduced the sentence by 5 months.