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Russian Court Sentences Playwright, Jewish Theater Director to Prison for ‘Justifying Terrorism’ in Award-Winning Play
Director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk stand inside an enclosure for defendants during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia on July 8, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Yulia Morozova
A court in Russia on Monday sentenced a playwright and theater director to six years each in prison for “justifying terrorism” with an award-winning play they staged together that focuses on Russian women being lured into marrying Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Syria.
Authorities arrested playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, 44, and theater director Zhenya Berkovich, 39, in May 2023. They had been in jail for over a year awaiting trial over their play “Finist the Bright Falcon,” which was first staged in 2021, shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Berkovich runs an independent theater production in Moscow called Soso’s Daughters. In April, she and Petriychuk were added to Russia’s official list of “terrorists and extremists.”
Berkovich, who is Jewish and has two adopted daughters, wrote a series of poems condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She also participated in an anti-war protest and was jailed for 11 days. Her supporters believe that her arrest and sentencing regarding “Finist the Bright Falcon” has to do more with her opposition to the Russia-Ukraine war and less with the play’s message.
Justifying terrorism is a criminal offense in Russia and is punishable by up to seven years in prison. Berkovich and Petriychuk have repeatedly denied accusations of propagating terrorism since their arrest and throughout their seven-week trial.
At the opening of the trial last month, Berkovich said, “I staged the performance to prevent terrorism,” adding that she had “nothing but condemnation and disgust” towards terrorists, Reuters reported. Petriychuk echoed similar sentiments, saying that she wrote the play in order to prevent incidents such as those depicted in the play, according to The Associated Press.
Their lawyers noted in court that the play was supported by the Russian Culture Ministry and won the Golden Mask award, which is Russia’s most prestigious national theater award. The play was also reportedly read to inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia in 2019 and was praised by Russia’s state penitentiary service.
Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, wrote on X/Twitter that the sentence was based on “utterly absurd” charges and “in an unfair trial that is blatant retaliation against Berkovich for speaking out against Russia’s war on Ukraine.” She added that the verdict is “disgraceful and should be annulled,” and that Berkovich and Petriychuk “should be freed immediately.”
More than 16,000 people signed an open letter in support of Petriychuk and Berkovich that insisted the play “carries an absolutely clear anti-terrorist sentiment.” A number of Russian actors, directors, and journalists also signed affidavits that called on the court to release the pair from custody pending their trial but to no avail, Reuters reported.
Defense lawyer Ksenia Karpinskaya said on Monday she will appeal the court’s verdict, which she called a “cruel sentence.”
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Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s administration will release more than $5 billion in previously approved funding for K-12 school programs that it froze over three weeks ago under a review, which had led to bipartisan condemnation.
“(The White House Office of Management and Budget) has completed its review … and has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Education Department, said in a statement, adding funds will be dispersed to states next week.
Further details on the review and what it found were not shared.
A senior administration official said “guardrails” would be in place for the amount being released, without giving details.
Early in July, the Trump administration said it would not release funding previously appropriated by Congress for schools and that an initial review found signs the money was misused to subsidize what it alleged was “a radical leftwing agenda.”
States say $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze. Last week, $1.3 billion was released.
After the freeze, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued to challenge the move, and 10 Republican US senators wrote to the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The frozen money covered funding for education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment and after-school and summer programs.
The Trump administration has threatened schools and colleges with withholding federal funds over issues like climate initiatives, transgender policies, pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Republican US lawmakers welcomed the move on Friday, while Democratic lawmakers said there was no need to disrupt funding in the first place.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon separately said she was satisfied with what was found in the review and released the money, adding she did not think there would be future freezes.
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Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the military added in a statement.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
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