August 26, 2025

The Bolshoi Is Watching You


The Bolshoi Is Watching You
Russia's famous Bolshoi Theater at night. DmitriyGuryanov, Wikimedia Commons.

On August 21, Russian news outlet Sistema revealed that Moscow's Bolshoi Theater signed a contract with a tech firm to spy on its employees. The theater will install spying software on 500 devices.

The Bolshoi Theater recently signed a contract for R21.6 million (approximately $269,000) with InfoWatch Traffic Monitor. According to their website, the company is a Russian cybersecurity and data loss prevention firm. InfoWatch's clientele includes Gazprom, the Russian weaponry firm Rostec, and Russia's Ministry of Defense. The company's CEO, Natalia Kaspersky, has been in the antivirus industry since the 1990s. Kaspersky, along with Bolshoi head Valery Gergiev, is included on Canada's sanctions list for supporting the war in Ukraine.

The historic Moscow opera house will install software that utilizes artificial intelligence to monitor employee behavior. The program creates "shadow copies" of all employee activity in social networks and messengers, including Telegram, WhatsApp, and Viber. The software will also monitor the use of internet browsers. InfoWatch's technology will also intercept any typed text.

The Bolshoi Theater will create special cards for each employee to compile receipts for "anomalies in actions." These "anomalies" include use of obscene language, discussions of superiors, preparations for terminations, as well as "interest in the [war]" and "political views." The theater has not specified which views will be considered transgressive. 

Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, its theaters have surveilled their administrators and artists, leading many actors, directors, and playwrights to flee the country.

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