Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk’s trial is the first high-profile case based on the contents of a theatrical production since the Soviet era.
Their supporters argue that the indictment is part of a Kremlin-led cultural cleansing.
“It’s absurd,” Zhenya’s mother, Elena Efros, told News outside a military court in eastern Moscow.
“I am sure [the witnesses] will say everything necessary to prove, as far as possible, the absurdity of this accusation,” she stated.
The play, titled Finist, The Brave Falcon, is about Russian women who became radicalized and traveled to Syria to marry Islamic State terrorists. It.
