Director Alexander Molochnikov, who spoke out against the war in Ukraine, was suspended from participating in the operas Francesca da Rimini and The Florentine Tragedy at the Bolshoi Theater. News.ru writes about this with reference to a letter from theater director Vladimir Urin to Dmitry Kuznetsov, secretary of the Group for the Investigation of Anti-Russian Actions (GRAD) in the field of culture.
“We inform you that the previously planned participation of A. A. Molochnikov in the production of two one-act operas at the Bolshoi Theater in the 2022-2023 season has been canceled,” Urin said in a response. Urin also emphasized that Molochnikov "is not and has never been in an employment relationship with the Bolshoi Theater of Russia."
The creation of GRAD was announced in early August. Its initiator was the writer Zakhar Prilepin. The GRAD includes deputies, senators and public figures – they compiled a list of "agents of foreign influence", which included TV presenter Ivan Urgant, the Bi-2 group and Molochnikov. GRAD also sent a letter to Channel One demanding that Urgant be fired for his anti-war remarks.
The group’s website says that “the humanism of the project lies in the possibility of the defendants to leave the register through active support” of the population and the “people’s militia” of the “LDNR” and the Russian army.
After the creation of the group was announced, Urgant commented on its meeting, proposing to rename the "GRAD" into the "Group for Detecting the Enemies of Our Society" ("SHIT"):
“The abbreviation GRAD does not fully reflect the gigantic amount of work that will have to be faced, I propose to rename the “Anti-Russian Activities Investigation Group” into the “Our Society Enemies Detection Group”.”