The Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow sent Svetlana Petriychuk, the author of the play Finist the Clear Falcon, to a pre-trial detention center for two months, until July 4, 2023. She became accused in the case of "justifying terrorism" together with the director of the play, Zhenya Berkovich. The meeting was broadcast by Mediazona.
On May 4, Berkovich and Petriychuk were detained in Moscow. A denunciation of their play Finist Yasny Sokol was written by members of the National Liberation Movement of Russia (NOD). The play tells about women from Russia who decided to marry Islamists and leave for Syria, as a result of which they were recruited by militants. The authors of the denunciation complained, among other things, that during the performance the actors did not remind about the ban on ISIS in the Russian Federation. The premiere of the production took place in 2020. Initially, both Berkovich and Petriychuk were released after interrogation, but almost immediately they were detained again, already in the status of suspects.
Meduza studied the “comprehensive destructive forensics” in the case of Berkovich and Petriychuk, including the document saying that “radical feminism” is as dangerous as the Islamic State. Roman Silantyev, the founder of the pseudoscience of “destructology”, took part in the examination (listed in the case as “historian, religious expert-destructologist”), as well as “linguist-destructologist” Galina Khizrieva and “destructologist, clinical psychologist, sociologist” Elena Zamyshevskaya. They concluded that the play and performance contained "signs of a justification of terrorism". According to experts, the participation of heroines in ISIS "is justified by the girlish naivety of the heroine and the desire to have a family," as well as "irresistible passion / love." The excerpts from the examination published by the publication also state that the materials of the play "may have an ideological or psychological impact on the audience and induce them to take actions aimed at destabilizing the activities of the authorities of the Russian Federation."
