Bolshoi Dancer 'Paid £1,000 For Acid Attack'

Police say a leading dancer accused of masterminding an acid attack on the Bolshoi ballet chief paid about 50,000 rubles (£1,062) to two men to carry it out.

But Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko said in court that he did not intend for the troupe's artistic director Sergei Filin to be splashed with acid.

Dmitrichenko said he agreed when his alleged accomplice suggested hitting Mr Filin in the head, but did not tell him to throw acid in Mr Filin's face.

Dmitrichenko, who was arrested on Tuesday, was shown in a police video confessing to planning the attack but "not on the scale" that it turned out.

Mr Filin suffered severe burns to his eyes and face when sulphuric acid was thrown in his face on January 17 as he returned home late at night.

Dmitrichenko as Ivan the Terrible

Dmitrichenko and his two co-defendants, Yuri Zarutsky and  Andrei Lipatov, are appearing in a Moscow court, where a judge is to decide whether they should remain in custody pending trial.

Police said in a statement that Dmitrichenko had paid Zarutsky, the perpetrator, 50,000 rubles to attack Mr Filin.

Lipatov insists he just drove to where he was told and had no idea of what Zarutsky was planning.

Police have said the crime was motivated by Dmitrichenko's hostile personal relationship with Mr Filin.

Russian press reports have suggested the attack was caused by the Bolshoi chief's refusal to give his ballerina girlfriend Anzhelina Vorontsova top roles.

"The main motive was enmity towards Filin, who according to the suspect, had a negative attitude towards his partner," a police source told the Izvestia newspaper.

Mr Filin after leaving hospital, right, and before the acid attack

"Dmitrichenko said that Filin was thwarting Vorontsova's artistic career and did not give her the main roles."

Dmitrichenko is reported to have been particularly riled that Vorontsova was not allowed to dance the main Odette-Odile role in Swan Lake, the dream of any ballerina.

Mr Filin, 42, was left battling to save his eyesight and prevent permanent facial disfigurement from the attack.

He is now undergoing a long rehabilitation in Germany.

Mr Filin's wife Maria told the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily that her husband had suspicions about Dmitrichenko but believed that a "much wider" circle of people were involved.

"Not just the three who they arrested. We hope the security forces unearth those who are implicated in this," she said.

Some staff at the Bolshoi Theatre have suggested that Dmitrichenko's actions are impossible to comprehend given his own career was on the up after he took the title role in the ballet Ivan the Terrible.

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