Bolshoi dancer questioned in acid attack

MOSCOW — The Bolshoi Theatre’s principal ballet dancer has been interviewed as a witness over an acid attack on the troupe’s artistic director.

Moscow police said Friday they had spoken to Nikolai Tsiskaridze over the assault on Sergei Filin, who had sulphuric acid flung in his face by an assailant near his home in the city last week.

Officers also questioned employees at the theatre, as well as friends and relations of Filin.

“I was questioned as a witness, although a witness to what I don’t understand,” Tsiskaridze told a Moscow radio station. The dancer admits that he and Filin, 42, had differences of opinion over the theatre’s artistic direction but he denies any involvement with the assault and has condemned it as “a terrible crime which must be harshly punished.”

The Bolshoi’s general director, Anatoly Iksanov, denied suggestions this week that the management had hinted at Tsiskaridze’s involvement although he blamed the dancer for creating a tense atmosphere at the theatre.

Tsiskaridze, 39, irked the management after the theatre reopened in 2011 following a six-year refurbishment.

The dancer said the sumptuous restoration made the then 186-year-old Bolshoi look like “a hotel in Turkey.”

Filin has had a series of operations on his face and eyes since the attack on Jan. 17.

He is expected to recover his vision after initial fears that he could be permanently blinded.

The former dancer, who became artistic director of the ballet troupe in 2011, has refused to speculate on who was behind the assault but said he thought it was connected to his work.

One of the theatre’s most experienced ballerinas, Galina Stepanenko, 46, was appointed as acting artistic director this week. Filin is expected to return to his post after treatment.