The two women were arrested in Moscow in early May and charged with "glorifying terrorism" for a play written by Ms Petrichuk and staged by Ms Berkovych in 2020.

The Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld their pre-trial detention until early July.

The play in question, "Finist is a Valiant Falcon", awarded in Russia and performed entirely by women, told the story of Russians recruited online by Islamists in Syria and leaving to join them to marry them.

At the hearing on Tuesday, Yevgenia Berkovich stressed that this work had been supported by the Russian Ministry of Culture. "Do you think the ministry gave rubles to propagandize terrorism?" she said, speaking via video conference from prison and quoted by Mediazona.

The accusation is based on an expert opinion that Berkovych promoted radical Islam and "radical feminism" in her play, said Ksenia Karpinskaya, her lawyer.

In recent months, "radical feminism" has entered the lexicon of the Russian regime to denounce its opponents.

"The expertise says that I am propagandizing radical feminism, which would argue that a woman should not raise children. Now, your honor, I want more than anything to take care of my children at this time," Yevgenia Berkovych said on Tuesday.

Mother of two children adopted after years in orphanages and foster families, she had published in 2022 several poems denouncing the offensive in Ukraine which, for her supporters, would be one of the real reasons for these prosecutions.

Evgenia Berkovych's lawyer, Ksenia Karpinskaya, leaves the court in Moscow, May 30, 2023 © Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

"These horrible methods should not apply. Imprisoning someone with two difficult children already abandoned several times, for a crime that does not exist, it is terrible, "responded to the press his lawyer, after the hearing.

"When a person creates a work of art, they can't be thrown in jail for it after a while. Yevgenia (Berkovych) said it, in this case, Dostoevsky should have been imprisoned because his +Crime and Punishment+ is about a madman who kills an old lady," Ksenia Karpinskaya added.

According to the lawyer, the offending show is about women who joined the Islamic State organization and clearly explains why "it is wrong and useless".

Since the February 24, 2022 offensive, the Russian authorities have accelerated the crackdown on all dissent, with thousands of fines and heavy prison sentences targeting anonymous activists, and intellectuals.

© 2023 AFP