Three men, including star dancer, confess to Bolshoi ballet director acid attack

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:47:00 +0000

Three men, Andrei Lipatov, Yuri Zarutsky and star ballet dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko, have confessed to burning Bolshoi ballet director Sergei Filin with sulfuric acid in an alleyway in January. The heinous attack left Filin nearly blind with severe burns and reverberated through the nation and beyond as it exposed deep unrest within one of Russia's most esteemed institutions.

The New York Times reports that the men have confessed to the crime, allegedly organized by Dmitrichenko. According to investigators, Dmitrichenko, the lead soloist at the ballet company, had a long-running professional grudge with the theater and a deep "dislike" for Filin. He compared the dancers' salaries to that of migrant workers, telling Private Correspondent magazine that even “migrant workers would not agree to work on a construction site for this money.”

Salon.com > dance

Three men, including star dancer, confess to Bolshoi ballet director acid attack