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VARIOUS

The artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet, Sergei Filin, yesterday dramatically confronted the former dancer accused of plotting to blind him with acid and rejected allegations of an affair with a top young ballerina.
Filin, who nearly lost his sight in an acid attack early this year, took to the witness stand in the trial of former Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, who is charged with planning the assault.
In a stunningly frank testimony, Filin denied favouring ballerinas based on any "intimate relations" and said he cannot forgive anyone behind the attack.
"I don't forgive anyone for what happened," he said.
In his first appearance at the trial of three people over the January attack, which exposed bitter rivalries at one of Russia's great cultural institutions, Filin did not look towards the courtroom cage where the defendants sat.

	I felt very strong pain. My eyes dimmed. I have never felt such pain in my life

	SERGEI FILIN
"I immediately felt very strong pain," Filin told the Moscow courtroom, describing the attack near his apartment. "My eyes dimmed. I have never felt such pain in my life. I wouldn't like to speak of how I was falling, crawling in the dirt."
He demanded moral damages of three million roubles (HK$716,000) and 508,000 roubles to compensate for material damages.
Dmitrichenko, a dancer at the Bolshoi Theatre, could face up to 12 years in jail if convicted of organising and staging the attack. He only briefly looked at Filin in court and spent much of the time going through papers.
The testimony exposed yet more of the intrigue and plotting behind the scenes of the Bolshoi, whose reputation as one of the world's great ballet theatres was dealt a heavy blow by the attack.
Appearing in a dark suit with a high collar and dark eye glasses, Filin seemed calm and insisted on standing before the judge despite doctors' orders to avoid stress.
He denied that he had any conflicts with Dmitrichenko but admitted he had been warned before the attack that the dancer was seeking information to damage his reputation.
He described Dmitrichenko as an emotional young man and said he had been informed the soloist is trying to gather incriminating information about his love life and money affairs.
"As for intimate relations, I have a wonderful family, three children ... The accusation that dancers passed through my bed is not as offensive to me as it is to the ballerinas that allegedly had affairs with me. It is a lie."
The night he was attacked, Filin had been in the company of leading soloist Olga Smirnova, seen by many critics as the company's biggest new star and who enjoyed huge success on the Bolshoi's tour to London this summer
But Filin said Smirnova rose through the ranks because of her talent. He denied she was romantically involved with him and insisted he treated all ballerinas with equal fairness. "My wife - with whom I have intimate relations for 10 years - does not dance like Olga Smirnova," he explained. Filin's wife Maria Prorvich dances in the corps de ballet.
Dmitrichenko, who was known for dancing dark characters like Ivan the Terrible, is said to have been frustrated by the lack of promotion under Filin for himself and his then girlfriend Anzhelina Vorontsova.
Also on trial are ex-convict Yury Zarutsky who is accused of carrying out the attack, while Andrei Lipatov is accused of driving the assailant to the scene.
Filin, 43, denied knowing the two alleged accomplices in the crime. All three men are held under arrest and appeared in the cage for defendants.
Additional reporting by Reuters


Bolshoi acid attack director Sergei Fillin denies fling with ballerina

Sergei Filin

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Sergei Filin faces dancer accused of plot to blind him and rejects romance with rising young star


The artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet, Sergei Filin, yesterday dramatically confronted the former dancer accused of plotting to blind him with acid and rejected allegations of an affair with a top young ballerina.
