MOSCOW, May 23 (RAPSI) – Police have raided the Gogol Center, a popular contemporary theater in Moscow, as part of investigation into alleged embezzlement of nearly 200 million rubles ($3.5 million) of budget funds allocated for development of art, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced on its website on Tuesday.

Searches were also conducted in premises of the theater’s artistic director, Kirill Serebrennikov.  Reportedly, he is a witness in the case.

According to investigators, from 2011 to 2014, unidentified persons from management of the Seventh Studio, a stage company created by Serebrennikov on the basis of his acting and directing course in the Moscow Art Theatre School, embezzled budget funds allocated by the government for development and popularization of art in Russia.

Serebrennikov is Russia’s stage and film director. He was appointed as artistic director of the Gogol Center in 2012.