Bolshoi Ballet dancer & 2 other men confess to acid attack

Ballet fans in Russia were in shock on Wednesday following the confessions of Bolshoi Ballet lead soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko and two other men for the acid attack on the ballet’s artistic director Sergei Filin.

Dmitrichenko, Andrei Lipatov and Yuri Zarutsky were arrested in the attack on Tuesday, and videotaped confessions of their roles in the crime were released on Wednesday morning by the Russian Ministry of the Interior.

Dmitrichenko admitted to being the crime’s mastermind, while Lipatov confessed to driving Zarutsky to throw acid in Filin’s face.

“During the course of investigation in the criminal case about the attack against the Bolshoi ballet artistic director Sergei Filin, Moscow police established and detained supposed mastermind and accomplices in this crime.

They are Dmitrichenko, Zarutsky, as well as the driver Lipatov who brought the attacker to the scene. All three have written confessions,” said Russian police officer Maxim Kolosvetov.

Filin was badly burned in the attack outside his Moscow apartment as he returned home late on Jan. 17. He is now in Germany having treatment that is expected to save his sight.

In video provided by the Interior Ministry, Dmitichenko introduced himself and explained why he had been arrested.

“On suspicion of carrying an attack against Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the theatre,” Dmitichenko said, but he seemed to shrink from full responsibility for the damage it caused to Filin.

“I masterminded this attack, but not to the extent it eventually happened,” he said.

The theatre has been no stranger to intrigue since it was built under Empress Catherine the Great in 1776 and the ballet troupe has gone through five artistic directors since 1995.

In 2003, Bolshoi bosses were heavily criticized for trying to fire ballerina Anastasia Volochkova for being too heavy. In 2011, deputy ballet director Gennady Yanin — then seen as a candidate for the artistic director post — quit after pornographic images of him appeared on the Internet.

The theatre, near Moscow’s Red Square, reopened to great fanfare in 2011 after a six-year, $700-million renovation that restored its tsarist opulence but was criticized for going far over budget.

It has regularly been under fire over its artistic program since then.

A prominent current affairs television show, Post Scriptum, blamed the management last month for failing to prevent scandals.

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