Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov fired from Gogol Center

Director writes that theatre is more enduring than bureaucrats' as Kremlin continues crackdown on dissent

The celebrated Russian stage and screen director Kirill Serebrennikov, convicted last year in an embezzlement case seen as retribution for his politically charged work, has been forced out of the Moscow theatre he led for eight years.

Serebrennikov transformed Moscow's Gogol Center from a small, overlooked theatre into one of the capital's most vibrant cultural venues with experimental updates of Russian classics and plays that indirectly addressed official corruption.