Bolshoi dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko jailed six years for acid attack on director
Assault exposed bitter rivalries inside one of Russia's most revered cultural institutions
Russian dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko was sentenced to six years in a high-security prison yesterday for ordering an acid attack that nearly blinded the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet and tarnished the reputation of the renowned theatre.
A judge announced the sentence after convicting Dmitrichenko and two co-defendants of the attack on Sergei Filin last January, which exposed poisonous rivalries over roles, money and power at one of Russia's most prominent cultural institutions.
Yuri Zarutsky, who admitted to being the masked attacker who threw acid in Filin's face in January, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Andrei Lipatov, who drove Zarutsky to the scene, was sentenced to four years.
Judge Yelena Maximova said Dmitrichenko and two codefendants had intentionally caused grievous bodily harm.
"Their guilt in committing the crime has been established in full," she said.
Handcuffed in a courtroom cage with Zarutsky and Lipatov, Dmitrichenko smiled and looked over at his father as Maximova finished reading out the verdict.