The playwright left Russia following 'carousel arrests' and the threat of a treason case.

Playwright Dmitry Retikh left the country in 2025 after four consecutive administrative arrests, reports “First Department.”

On 20 June, four masked and armed officers detained Retikh in central Moscow. They forced him into a car and took him to the flat where he was staying for a few days. Retikh says few people knew this address. The officers searched the flat and took his electronic devices.

Retikh was then taken to a police station in northern Moscow, where Centre “E” officers interrogated him overnight. They questioned him about his 2023 messages with an account allegedly linked to the “Russian Volunteer Corps”.

“It was literally a few messages. No follow-up, no action,” said 40-year-old Retikh. During the interrogation, he insisted on having a lawyer and refused to answer questions, citing Article 51 of the Constitution.

After this, an administrative offence report was drawn up against the playwright, and the court imposed an administrative arrest. “First Department” does not specify what he was charged with. Retikh was placed in the Sakharovo detention centre.

After serving his sentence, he was immediately re-detained. In total, he served four administrative arrests.

After the third time, he was taken to the Investigative Committee for questioning. By then, they were discussing his direct involvement with the RVC and carrying out “terrorist tasks” inside Russia. Officers also began threatening Retikh with prosecution under the treason article (Article 275 of the Criminal Code).

However, after the fourth arrest, the authorities decided to release the playwright, on condition that he would live at a friend’s under surveillance, according to “First Department.”

“Sometimes this happens: sometimes they want to make a ‘nice’ on-camera detention, and sometimes they want to watch the person’s behaviour after their release—to see where they go, who they contact. Sometimes officers themselves ask the person to message someone or buy a ticket, and then catch them ‘in the act,’” explains Evgeny Smirnov, lawyer with the project.

Retikh agreed. After that, a Centre “E” officer would call the playwright and check his whereabouts whenever he left the house. At that point, Retikh contacted “First Department,” who advised him to leave Russia urgently.

“I left with just a single shopper bag—my documents and a few personal things. Everything else stayed in Russia,” the playwright says.

He is now on the wanted list in Russia. It is unclear what charges have been brought against him.

• Retikh graduated from VGIK’s screenwriting faculty in 2012. Performances based on his plays have been staged in Moscow, St Petersburg, and Kaliningrad, a city on the Baltic Sea in western Russia. He has also been a winner and finalist of several international playwriting contests. He now continues his career abroad.