“The decision of the Meshchansky court of Moscow regarding the return of the criminal case to the prosecutor was canceled, the case must be returned to the court of first instance for consideration in a different composition of the court,” the statement said.
The Meshchansky court advocated for the return of the case to the prosecutors due to the fact that Maslyaeva’s role in the alleged crime was not specified in the indictment.
In addition, the court considers that the circumstances of the theft of funds were also unknown to the former chief accountant. In this regard, the Meshchansky court expressed doubt about the decision in the case of Maslyaeva in a special manner.
During the meeting of the Moscow City Court, the prosecutor said Maslyaeva entered into a pre-trial agreement on cooperation, the conditions of which she complied with. The fact that Maslyaeva could not give detailed testimonies about the circumstances that were set out in the records of her interrogations during the preliminary investigation is not grounds for returning the case.
According to the prosecutor, the Meshchansky court doubted the possibility of fulfilling the terms of the pre-trial agreement, but did not advocate for the consideration of the case in a general manner.
The case of theft by the management of the "Seventh Studio" was opened in 2017. According to investigators, director Kirill Serebrennikov, producers Alexey Malobrodsky and Yuri Itin stole 133 of the 214 million rubles allocated by the Seventh Studio in 2011-2014 to develop and popularize contemporary Russian art in the framework of the Platform project.
In June 2017, Maslyaeva pleaded guilty to the theft of public funds.