“Russian theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov called the embezzlement allegations against him and his colleagues ‘absurd’ as a Moscow court ordered him to remain under house arrest until August 22.” This is the fourth time his pretrial detention has been extended. “Initially treated as a witness in an investigation targeting Moscow’s Gogol Center theater, Serebrennikov was charged in August 2017 with organizing the embezzlement of 68 million rubles ($1.1 million) in state funds.”