Russian dancer denies link to Bolshoi acid attack

No tie to husband’s business, she says

TORONTO • A renowned Russian ballerina insisted Friday there is no link between the threats that forced her to move to Canada and a vicious acid attack against the artistic director of the famed Bolshoi Theatre.

Svetlana Lunkina said she could not explain the attack on Sergei Filin, but said she and her family had been the victim of ongoing threats.

“I can’t even imagine what could have led to something that horrible to happen,” Lunkina said through a translator.

“This is outrageous and it’s terrible.”

Lunkina said the threats against her, which she said included fabricated allegations and blackmail, came from a well-known Soviet-era comedian, Vladimir Vinokur, her husband’s former business partner.

Her husband, Vadislav Moskalev, had a dispute with Vinokur over a movie they were making, she said.

“I had nothing to do with the project or business dealings but the threats were aimed at me,” she said.

On Wednesday, Vinokur told the Russian News Service radio that Moskalev did have a conflict with Filin and had threatened the ballet chief.

Lunkina, who glanced frequently at her gesturing husband as she answered questions, said Vinokur had backtracked on that assertion and also denied her ties to Filin were strained.

“I have had a very good relationship with Mr. Filin all along,” Lunkina said. “We’ve been longtime partners.”

Moskalev refused to comment.

Lunkina insisted the acid attack and her husband’s business dispute were not linked.

“I don’t see a connection between the two events because the conflict that we are involved in has been going on for the last six months at least.”

Lunkina, 33, took a leave of absence from the Bolshoi and came to Canada in September, where she is a permanent resident.

The leave, for family reasons, was supposed to last until this summer, she said.

Her husband and two Canadian-born children — a daughter aged three and son aged nine — are Canadian citizens and have been living in Toronto on and off for the past decade.

RYAN ENN HUGHES/THE CANADIAN PRESS Ballerina Svetlana Lunkina, photographed through a window while speaking to media in Toronto on Friday, says she moved to Canada because of threats against her in Russia.