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Wednesday, Jan 30, 2013 2:15 PM UTC

Bolshoi ballerina says she fears for her safety

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Topics: From the Wires,

MOSCOW (AP) — A leading ballerina of the Bolshoi theater says she wants to stay in Canada because of the threats she has received.

Svetlana Lunkina has told the Russian daily Izvestia that she asked the Bolshoi to extend her leave as she fears returning to Russia. The move by Lunkina, one of the Bolshoi’s top dancers, follows an attack earlier this month on the theater’s artistic director, Sergei Filin, who was badly burned when an unidentified masked assailant threw sulphuric acid in his face.

Lunkina said the threats she received were linked to a conflict between her husband and a business partner over a movie about Mathilde Kschessinskaya, a Russian prima ballerina famous for her talent as a dancer and for her liaison with Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II.

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