Nikolai Kolyada, a well-known Yekaterinburg-based playwright might get a theater building he needs only under certain conditions: the structure, which will presumably be put up with Sverdlovsk Region’s budget money, will either have to become a state unitary enterprise (still retaining its name of Kolyada Theater) or will have to be rented by the troupe, lawyer Ivan Kadochnikov claims.

‘There are two options to choose from, all the other ones being the derivatives of the first two. The first option is to set up a state unitary enterprise called Kolyada Theater that will be given a land allotment and later a building belonging to the region’s Culture Ministry. Then, a board will be appointed, with all the red tape Nikolai Kolyada hates so much. The playwright would only have some token authority there. What is more, he would actually have to hand all the non-property rights over the name Kolyada Theater over to the region’s authorities,’ Kadochnikov hypothesizes.

‘The second option is to make Kolyada and his troupe pay the rent, which means he’ll have to face great expenses. What he does next is nobody’s concern. There is no such thing as a rent discount; the rent rates are strictly fixed. Theoretically speaking, some discount coefficients could be introduced here, but in reality this would look like a two-dollar discount on a Mercedes,’ the lawyer says.

‘As a matter of fact, even if this building does get constructed, this might take five years or so given all the stages like finding the land allotment, designing, and building. This is why the situation seems to have no way out. Everything that is related to the government has rules and norms. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and the problem is essentially irresolvable.

Kolyada will either have to give away his name (which I personally think is unimaginable) or get a new building and pay the commercial rent. All the other choices would be based on bribe-taking/offering practices, which means they are illegal,’ Ivan Kadochnikov observed.