Vladimir Voinovich on Kirill Serebrennikov

The classic Russian writer Vladimir Voinovich gave a long interview to Fontanka.ru in St. Petersburg, going into many different topics. Among other things, he spoke about the Kirill Serebrennikov situation. As always, it's worth lending an ear to Voinovich.

"The situation with Kirill Serebrennikov is very bad, it seems to me, an omen. In my opinion, the authorities are committing the same mistake they committed when they arrested Sinyavsky and Daniel. Society - both ours and abroad - is, unfortunately, not sensitive to arrests of ordinary people. But when famous people are arrested, they have a lot of intercessors in Russia. Their arrest affects people's minds, even those who are loyal to the existing regime in Russia. There will be a wave of protests abroad - and they will continue until Kirill Serebrennikov is released ... If, God forbid, he is imprisoned, foreign ministers and heads of state will protest, and Russian authorities will face questions in places they would never expect them. Perhaps even sanctions would be applied. So, in my opinion, the authorities made an extremely erroneous step, and one they did not have to make at all, for to believe that Serebrennikov stole a lot of money is difficult. We all basically trust Serebrennikov somehow trusted, whereas we do not trust our justice system at all."