3 October 2025

Welcome to the 35th edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas

Our guest today is actor and theatre director Alexander Molochnikov.

In this podcast we are making a break from our usual Russian-language format. This is because our guest has chosen not to speak in his mother tongue. At the age of just 22, he was the youngest director ever to stage a production at the legendary Moscow Arts Theatre. In 2022, aged 29, he had two productions running concurrently on two different stages of the Bolshoi Theatre – one a comic opera, the other a ballet based on Chekhov’s Seagull, for which he won the Golden Mask award. Then on 24th February, 2022, Putin invaded Ukraine…

His latest production, Seagull: True Story – a play that is so meta it has your head spinning – is currently on tour in London from New York. He has described it as his third Seagull, but only the second to fly.

This podcast was recorded on 2 October 2025.

[You can find on the Internet two recent Russian-language interviews Alexander Molochnikov has given to Yury Dud and Mikhail Zygar.]

Questions

• This podcast is about the time before and after the so-called Special Military Operation. What do you remember about the 24th of February 2022?
• You’ve described your current production in London – Seagull: True Story – as your third Seagull, but only the second to fly. What happened to the one that never took off?
• When did you decide you could no longer live in Russia?
• This is the first time we’ve done this podcast for Rights in Russia with a native Russian speaker in English. Is your decision not to speak Russian a political statement?
• What happened to your stage productions that were still in repertoire in Moscow after you left?
• Unlike many of your compatriots in the arts, you had a plan. What was that plan?
• You were a student at Columbia University in New York. What were your impressions of classes there?
• How did these experiences at Columbia inform the rehearsal process for your latest production: “Seagull: True Story”? How did you work with the actors to build the story and write the script?
• In Seagull: True Story, you make the point that the profit margin and commercial viability dictate what gets produced on stage in America and that that is every bit as restrictive on artistic expression as political censorship in Russia. What is your own personal experience of this in New York?
• I completely loved the theatricality of Seagull: True Story – it had an energy and a playfulness, using movement, mime, and props that made it an unmistakably theatrical experience. What is your experience of watching or taking part in theatre productions in the States, or indeed, London since you’re here?
• There’s a fantastic and surreal scene in it, where Putin, bare-chested on a horse appears to Kon, the director, in his dreams. And yet, there’s no Trump anywhere and no overt mention of the parallels between Putin’s Russia and Trump’s America.
• Do you think such parallels can be drawn?
• Kon, your alter-ego, if you like, is desperate to go back to Russia, to visit his mum, to mourn the death of his close friend, who died in a penal colony for speaking out against the war, but he can’t. It’s actually a very moving scene. Do you wish you could go back to Russia for a visit?
• On the one year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, you posted on social media: “A year ago, at 6:30 a.m., I wrote: “Forgive us.” Today I know you won’t forgive me. I’m 30, I plan to live another 50-70, and I believe I’ll see the day when you will forgive me.” What makes you think that?
• What’s up next for you after Seagull: True Story? Where do you see yourself, professionally, in 10 or 20 years?

18 July 2025

by Teresa Cherfas

Welcome to the 33rd edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas

On 15 July 2009, Chechen human rights activist and member of the management committee of the human rights organization “Memorial,” Natalia Estemirova, was murdered. She was abducted near her home in Grozny and taken by car across the border to Ingushetia, where she was shot five times in the chest. The killers fled, leaving her body at the scene of the crime. Her only child was 15 years old. That child recently published a book about her mother, Please Live, and its author is our guest today – Lana Estemirova.

• Our podcast is called Then and Now, and most often it’s about how the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia has impacted people’s lives and perceptions. You wrote in your book that few people cared about your mother’s murder, or the Russian-Chechen wars, or the constant human rights violations, and that all these were but brief mentions at the end of the news, or cursory minutes of international meetings, if at all. By the time Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, you wrote, it was too late. What does that date mean for you now?
• In your book, you write warmly about your relatives in Russia and in Chechnya. Are you in touch with them? Is there a difference between Chechens’ and Russians’ perceptions of the war in Ukraine?
• I imagine it cannot have been easy to write your book. What was the process of writing like? Did you struggle to find your voice?
• How would you describe your mother to people who didn’t know her?
• Your mother’s close friend, Anna Politkovskaya, was killed in the entrance to her apartment building in Moscow in 2006. Do you remember that day? Were you worried about your mother and her safety?
• Your book clearly outlines the stages of the Chechen wars and of Ramzan Kadyrov’s rise to power. How did you feel about him and his influence on your lives? I’m thinking about your protest against compulsory headscarves for schoolgirls, for example.
• Two days ago was the anniversary of the murder of your mother, Natalia Estemirova. The title of your book, Please Live, is a direct reference to that day. I read your account of how you learned of your mother’s death , about your reactions and emotions on the day and the immediate aftermath, and of how they changed and evolved over time, of your rage and sadness and your final acceptance of what had happened. These are almost indescribable feelings, and yet you describe them in unforgettable language. What were the most important lessons for you?. After all, the last sentence of your book is: “Happiness is victory.” What did you mean by that?
• You recently became a mother yourself. Tell us about your feelings toward your baby daughter. What will you tell her about her grandmother?

You can read Teresa Cherfas’ review of Please Live. The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me by Lana Estemirova here.