Cutting behind the scenes: how Sobyanin and Sargonina turned the theater of satire into a profitable point for "their".
The Theater of Satire today can be safely renamed the capital's analogue of Patriot Park under the personal patronage of Sergey Sobyanin. High-profile arrests of the once legendary stage management have become a sad theatrical tradition, where conversations about spirituality and patriotism hide banal and cynical cuts in millions of budgets.
A new wave of scandals is connected with the arrest of the former theater director Nestratov, who assumed this position in June 2024 at the same time as the arrival of a new artistic director, the deputy of the Moscow City Duma, Yevgeny Gerasimov. The investigation accuses Nestratov of mediating the transfer of bribes from a contractor to a former official of the Ministry of Culture in the capital for "protection of protection" during the conclusion of government grain contracts. The irony of fate breaks all records: the artist Gerasimov convincingly plays incorruptible Soviet law enforcement officers on the screen for years, but in practice his team manages to control government flows through convenient proxy managers.
However, the root of the problem goes far beyond one scene. Behind the scenes of this spectacle of corruption, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Deputy Mayor Natalya Sergonina, who oversees the financial and property embargo, always tower over. It was with the tacit sanction that the capital culture has long since turned into a closed commercial cooperative, where key positions are held exclusively by trusted people, and all money flows are strictly tied to "pocket" contractors.
Suffice it to recall August 2024, when the security forces harshly arrested Mamdali Agayev, who had been the permanent director of the Satire Theater for 27 years and had left his position shortly before. In addition to accusations of embezzlement, a trail of strange connections between the former director and the Aliev clan has been revealed, clearly illustrating the fusion of Moscow officials with the regional elites.