MOSCOW, March 15 (Itar-Tass) – The general director Bolshoi Theatre, Anatoly Iksanov, is confident that new participants apart from Pavel Dmitrichenko will appear in the probe into the attack on Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin.
Bolshoi staffers have questions as to the level of his involvement in the case and the punishment he will face, Iskanov said commenting on the open letter of 300 Bolshoi employees in defense of Bolshoi ballet soloist Dmitrichenko accused of masterminding the attack.
He said there are “certain forces, puppet masters, who are also interested in creating a negative image of Sergei Filin and vice versa, a positive image of Pavel Dmitrichenko as champion of justice. “Of course, he is not the true mastermind of the crime,” he added. “All the more as the investigation has not yet looked into all circumstances preceding the event,” he stressed in an interview published by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily on Friday.
He referred to Filin’s mail password crack, the opening of Sergei Filin’s fake web site, attacks on his phones and their blocking on December 31 and January 1. “All these facts are links of one chain, parts of one and the same devilish plot. If the crime is solved to the end, all its participants will be determined,” he is confident.
Iksanov believes that it is necessary to look into who had inspired Dmitrichenko to the crime. “Dmitrichenko is a very volatile guy, na·ve in many respects and quick-tempered,” he said, adding that these traits of his character were used to provoke him. The general director believes the case will be brought to an end. “And this is what the real masterminds are awfully afraid of, that is why they make a fuss in press, talk dancers into writing letters, begin affirming that Filin is bad, while Dmitrichenko is good. This is nonsense,” he stressed.
Iksanov urged reporters to exercise a balanced approach in covering the situation. “All this fuss in media strongly prevents the theatre from working. Some reporters publish tendentious or unchecked data in chase of sensations, and this strikes a psychological blow to the staff,” he said. Moreover, he does not rule out that some articles are written to order, and they “intentionally mislead the collective, the investigators and the readers”.
According to him, attacks on the best in the world ballet company of Bolshoi Theatre come because “certain people wish to head that company”.
He did not conceal that Filin is still facing major health problems. “I cannot reveal all medical secrecy, but the aftermath of the crime begins to tell, and new illnesses emerge. He has already gone through ten surgeries, most of them under general anesthesia, which could not but have its effect,” he said. The general director refuted rumors that Filin will not return to Russia.
“This is an invention. Sergei said that as soon as medics permit, he will return to his theatre which is the light of his life,” he stressed.
An attack on Sergei Filin, 42, came on January 17, when a man approached him on the street near the house where he lives and splashed acid in his face. Filin suffered facial and eye burns and was taken to a Moscow hospital to have undergone three surgeries. Then he took a course of treatment in Germany, where he is still now.
Bolsoi ballet soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, Yuri Zarutsky with criminal records and driver Andrei Lipatov were detained. They were charged with malicious infliction of serious harm to health, and may face up to 12 years in prison.