Barrie Kosky has spoken out strongly in support of Kirill Serebrennikov, the theatre and film director who was taken for questioning by Russian police on Tuesday following a dawn raid on his home. Serebrennikov is the artistic director of the Gogol Centre, the Moscow theatre widely credited with leading a revival of contemporary Russian drama, some of it shining an unwelcome light on aspects of modern Russian society and its relationship to the administration of President Vladimir Putin.

“We at the Komische Oper Berlin are concerned about the action and allegations against the Moscow Gogol Centre and its artistic director Kirill Serebrennikov,” said Kosky, intendant at Berlin’s Komische Oper, whose production of The Magic Flute is currently playing at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. “During our co-operation in Berlin 2012 and last year, we found Kirill Serebrennikov to be an inspired, dedicated and intimate artistic personality, and as a sincere person we arranged further projects with him. Against the backdrop of the narrowing freedoms for critical and independent art and culture in Russia today, we hope to have an up-to-date and fair explanation of the allegations. We wish Kirill to continue his successful work in Moscow and beyond.”

Serebrennikov, whose film drama confronting...