Art director of the Mayakovsky Moscow Theater Mindaugas Karbauskis lately denied entry into Russia can now come back to this country.

      The Federal Migration Service happened to forbid him the country “for violation of laws”.

      The art director finally got admission to Russia after the theater administration had guaranteed that Mr. Karbauskis would comply with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The Moscow Department of Culture also provided support.

      The art director was detained at the Vnukovo Airport in Moscow in the night of February 2. The frontier guards referred to his five unpaid traffic fines in Russia and the fact that he did not show up at the Directorate of the Federal Migration Service annually. In the morning Mindaugas Karbauskis took flight back for Vilnius.

      The art director was denied entry into Russia on the basis of Article 26 On Procedure for Exiting and Entering the Russian Federation - for repeated imposition of administrative sanctions in the last three years.

      “We are facing work of the bureaucratic computer here rather than a malevolent attack”- the head of Moscow Department of Culture Sergey Kapkov commented to Gazeta.Ru.

      “Cultural activity and a cultural exchange need to have a special legal and visa status; after all we have easier rides for the Olympic Games and big sport events - for instance, it is possible to enter without visa, just with the ticket”- Mr. Kapkov pointed out.

      He also added that foreigners work in many theaters, for example in the Bolshoi Theatre and the Vakhtangov Theatre. The RF Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky also mentioned the need of introducing “cultural visas” at recent interviews with journalists.

      Mindaugas Karbauskis is a citizen of Lithuania but has being living in Russia for a long time. In 2001 he graduated from the Directors’ Faculty of the GITIS Academy, where he studied in Pyotr Fomenko Studio. He has been the art director of the Mayakovsky Moscow Academic Theater since May, 2011.

      Mindaugas Karbauskis was going to be present at the premiere of his stage production Kant on February 3. Now he is going to return to Moscow next week.