A Moscow court again recognized the famous playwright and director Ivan Viripaev as guilty in a case of fake news about the Russian army and sentenced in absentia to 7.5 years in prison. This was reported by the law enforcement authorities to the TASS agency, reports Sega.
„Viripaev was again found guilty of committing a crime under paragraph “e“ from Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (deliberate dissemination of false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the basis of political hatred). "He was sentenced in absentia to 7 years and six months in prison," the agency's interlocutor said. The reason for the legal battle with the famous artist is mainly his posts on social networks.
The press service of the Basmanny Court of Moscow confirmed this information to TASS, also noting that Viripaev is prohibited from administering Internet resources for four years after serving the main sentence. “The term of serving the punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty is calculated from the moment of Ivan Aleksandrovich Viripaev's extradition to the territory of the Russian Federation or from the moment of his detention in the territory of the Russian Federation,”, the press service also said.< /p>
Ivan Viripaev is one of the most influential and frequently staged European playwrights. He was the artistic director of the "Practice" theater. (2013-2016). In the period 2020-2021, he is the general producer of the Okko Theater online project on the Okko streaming platform. Earlier, the author of “Oxygen“, “Genesis 2“, “Valentine“, “The Drunkards“, “The Delhi Dance“ and nearly 20 more remarkable plays played in more than 250 theaters around the world, openly spoke out against Russian aggression in Ukraine, euphemistically called “special military operation”, and pledged support for the attacked country.
In May 2023, the Basman Court of Moscow issued an international search and arrest warrant in absentia for the film producer Alexander Rodnyansky, recognized as a foreign agent by the Ministry of Antiquities of the Russian Federation, and for the director Viripaev on charges of spreading false information about the actions of the Russian armed forces. Both have since left Russia and are currently living and working in Europe. Viripaev himself has mainly settled in Poland for the past 10 years, as he is married to the Polish actress Karolina Grushka. His plays have been pulled from the stage and now banned in his homeland. In his home, he regularly shelters emigrants fleeing the war in Ukraine, thanks to his international contacts he collects funds to help Ukrainian children, he invests his personal savings in this charity.
Viripaev was also in Bulgaria in June last year at the invitation of the National Theater “Ivan Vazov” to participate together with his friend and like-minded Galin Stoev in a discussion entitled “Theatre and politics– fields of intersection“. In their first public meeting since the start of the war in Ukraine, the two artists and intellectuals talked about how to create theater in the current geopolitical and cultural context, since after the pandemic and in the conditions of military operations in Europe, it is impossible for theater practice to take place only in the sphere of the artistic.
In July 2024, the Basman court found Viripaev guilty in the case of the “fakes” and sentenced him in absentia to eight years in prison. However, the Moscow City Court overturned this decision, which the playwright appealed, and sent the case for a new trial.