The court placed under house arrest the ex-director of the Novosibirsk theater “Red Torch” in the case of embezzlement

The Novosibirsk court did not satisfy the petition of the investigation for the detention of the ex-director of the Novosibirsk State Academic Theater “Red Torch” Alexander Kulyabin, accused of embezzlement. The court placed him under house arrest until March 23.

The judge set a number of restrictions for Alexander Kulyabin: among other things, he was forbidden to leave the apartment, communicate with the defendants in the case. The court assigned control over the observance of the conditions of house arrest by the accused to the penitentiary inspectorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service.

Alexandra Kulyabina detained on Tuesday, January 24, employees of the Novosibirsk departments of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The former director of the Red Torch was charged with embezzlement of entrusted funds on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the maximum punishment is ten years in prison).

According to Kommersant’s sources familiar with the case file, Alexander Kulyabin allegedly illegally paid a salary bonus to his son Timofey Kulyabin, who worked at the same theater as the chief director. According to the calculations of the investigation, for several years the amount of “bonus payments” amounted to about 1.8 million rubles. After these facts were revealed by the audit, the director of the theater compensated the damage to the regional Ministry of Culture at the expense of the Red Torch.

Alexander Kulyabin has headed the Red Torch since 1999. He was fired last year. A little earlier, the theater canceled the January and February performances of Onegin and The Wild Duck by the former chief director Timofey Kulyabin. In April 2022, Timofey Kulyabin, who criticized the actions of the Russian authorities in Ukraine, left the post of chief director.

Konstantin Voronov, Novosibirsk