The dismissed director of the Novosibirsk theater «Red Torch» Alexander Kulyabin was charged, the press service of the prosecutor's office of the Novosibirsk region reported in its telegram channel.
Charges of misappropriation and embezzlement on a large scale (part 4 of article 160 Criminal Code) added abuse of official powers causing grave consequences (clause “c” of Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code). Under the first article, Kulyabin faces up to two years in prison, under the second — up to ten.
According to investigators, in December 2014, Kulyabin appointed his son Timofey to the position of chief director of the theater and “illegally included in the employment contract the obligation of the institution to pay him a monthly contract bonus” in the amount of 88.6 thousand rubles. Such an allowance, the Investigative Committee claims, was not given to other employees of the Red Torch, including honored artists.
In total, Kulyabin Jr. received more than 5 million rubles, the investigation emphasizes. The prosecution adds that in 2018, the regional Control Department found unforeseen allowances — then, according to the prosecutor's office, Kulyabin Sr. returned 1.7 million rubles to the budget, but did it at the expense of the Red Torch.
During a search on January 24, security forces found an Apple monoblock at Kulyabin’s home, which, according to the prosecution, the director took from the theater and appropriated. Kulyabin was sent under house arrest. The case against him will be considered by the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Novosibirsk.
As Ksenia Sobchak wrote, the head of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin, the director of RAMT Sofia Apfelbaum and the artistic director of the Theater of Nations Evgeny Mironov vouched for Alexander Kulyabin.
p>Kulyabin Sr. was fired from his post as director of the Red Torch in December 2023 after 23 years of work. According to his deputy Artem Remnev, the local Ministry of Culture made the decision unilaterally.
A few months earlier, Timofey Kulyabin also left the theater, speaking out against the war in Ukraine. The director left Russia. After this, the Red Torch canceled all of his performances, including Three Sisters, Onegin and Children of the Sun, which received the Golden Mask, Russia’s main theater award.