Ilya

Another sign that Tsiskaridze might be winning, and that the ground is perhaps being laid for him to seize power at the Bolshoi: the Bolshoi is being audited by the Accounts Chamber, http://izvestia.ru/n...#ixzz2O97NLX84. Another report from a labor union meeting, http://izvestia.ru/news/547101, and another gem: I have a radical suggestion. To avoid such tragedies, why don't the Bolshoi artists refrain from hiring convicted killers to maim their upper management?

Here it is:

Moreover, the election of Dmitrichenko is confirmed by the Bolshoi press secretary Novikova in the first Izvestia article quoted above: http://izvestia.ru/n...546889. That's certainly an independent source that gives even more credence to the story. Astonishing. I find the following comment by an unnamed member of the union from the second article (http://izvestia.ru/news/547033) especially priceless: So now Filin's directorship is to blame for the acid attack. Next thing you know the Bolshoi artists will accuse Filin of splashing acid on Dmitrichenko.

Perhaps this might be because the topic's title is "Sergey Filin attacked". Naturally we are mostly discussing the brutal physical attack against him on January 17 and the brutal verbal attacks against him that have gone on for two months since then.

This statement is incorrect: there do exist people who are not saddened. Tsiskaridze said so many times, for example, in David Remnick's article: Moreover, there have been reports of Dmitrichenko being elected "unanimously" or "almost unanimously" to be the chairman of Bolshoi's labor union, after his detention---this was claimed by Tsiskaridze in the video posted above and then found its way into a number of Russian newspapers. While all these stories certainly create the impression of many Bolshoi dancers supporting Dmitrichenko and questioning Filin, these reports are all vague on the number of people present at all these meetings. Do these reports have more than one source? I wonder.

It's not obvious to me that anything has "worked" in the theater. I still have only seen ten signatures on the letter in support of Dmitrichenko. Various numbers such as 300 or 360 signatures have been thrown around, but it is unclear to me whether the media has any reliable sources for these numbers. Even assuming that these numbers are correct (which I am not going to believe until I see the signers volunteer their names), only 10% of the Bolshoi employees signed the letter, as there are about 3500 employees. Even if we are to believe the reports that have come out in the press, then most of the principals, leading soloists, and teachers of the ballet company did not sign it.

A couple of excerpts from this are quoted above in my post #457. Basic summary: unscrupulous people piling on a severely injured person. And on, and on, and on. "All the confrontations between Pavel and Sergey were because of all the injustices that Sergey perpetrated on various dancers... Sergey was looking very strange at the press conference. If you are a burn victim, you'd want your burns to be uncovered or at most covered with cotton. How come he was wearing a heavy woolen cap and a scarf? How can one look like that after chemical burns?---Yes, everybody at the theater is talking about this... All of us have suspicions---we all would like for professionals to explain to us, where are these, unfortunately sulphuric acid burns---God save everyone from these---especially they are talking about third-degree burns, about a wild number of surgeries... In actuality, you are looking at this person yourselves (footage of Filin's press conference being shown on the big screen in the studio) and its funny to give any explanations... Everyone at the theater is talking about this." Fifteen minutes of this video were enough to make me want to throw up, then I stopped watching. It's too disgusting for me to finish watching the entire 40 minutes, sorry.

The second one is from "Izvestia", http://izvestia.ru/news/546821

Two more translations. The first one is from gazeta.ru, http://www.gazeta.ru...n_2803161.shtml

These pictures do not give a good view of anything---the resolution is too low. But even there you can see that his entire face and neck are scarred. This, combined with the statements from his doctors and the reports of more than a dozen surgeries, looks extremely severe to me.

Almost certainly that is the case. Don't forget it wasn't just dancers that signed but also members of the opera, stage hands, and many others on the Bolshoi pay roll. http://www.bbc.co.uk...europe-21766692 Besides the President and other officials and the media, the letter is addressed to "Admirers of ballet and theater in Russia and abroad," which includes all of us here on this forum. As far as I am concerned, the letter is (mostly) anonymous, because I have only seen the signatures of ten people, plus the names of 30 or so others that came out in the press. Saying that the press is not interested in who else may have signed the letter is a lame excuse: in this day and age, information can be easily published online without going to the press---that is, if there is any desire to publish it. Clearly, most of the mysterious "300+" signers have no such desire. In the last letter to the President that came out of the Bolshoi, some of the signatures were reportedly obtained through lies, and at least one signature appeared to be forged. Based on this very recent history, I will remain very skeptical until all the signers come forward, and until there is evidence that they had actually read the letter and meant to sign it.

Below is my translation of an interview with a police official published in "Izvestia" on March 15: http://izvestia.ru/news/546733 There is some legal jargon (e.g., "ochnaya stavka" --- interrogation of two or more suspects or a suspect and a victim in the same room at the same time) that has no equivalent known to me in English, as well as some slang which is difficult to translate. I tried my best.

Between the scan of handwritten signatures and the names printed in the article itself, there are 42 names listed. That still is a long way from 300+. A letter from the Bolshoi to the President where the names of the signers come to light little by little---why does this sound so familiar? Another thing that sounds familiar is the President's response, http://vz.ru/news/2013/3/13/624230.html:

It is certainly said to have been signed by more than 300 employees, but in fact the letter (or at least its published version) is anonymous (it's quite ironic that they are calling it an "open letter"). I have not seen any evidence that this number is anywhere close to reality. The article cited above names the following signers: Alexandrova, Allash, Antonicheva, Volchkov, and Tsiskaridze. That's five. Who are the remaining 295+?

My interpretation of what's said in the article is that he was going to call it off because it was getting late and Filin hadn't come out yet. Just as he was going to call it off, Filin appeared, and so, instead of calling it off, he told Zarutsky that Filin just came out of the theater and was probably going to drive home. So I don't see much contradiction.

His page on the official Bolshoi website: http://www.bolshoi.ru/persons/ballet/146/

In order for everybody else to understand what you are referring to, here is a translation of the last paragraph of the same article. We need to keep in mind the following flow of information: Dmitrichenko -> interrogator(s) -> article's source(s) -> the journalist (Nadezhda Gladchenko) -> the published text. Distortions are possible at every link of this long chain. It is also a possibility that Dmitrichenko was scared during the interrogation and much less scared during the court appearance.

http://lifenews.ru/news/111507 I don't have time to translate the whole thing, but here is an excerpt that has to do with Mr. Annadurdyev.

I'm glad to have done the translation, even though it took a lot of time. Pavlenko comes across as a very reasonable person who is making some reasonable points, and I think she deserves to be heard. Two things strike me as particularly sad. First, the crazy system of micromanaging pay scales that involves demeaning and arbitrary fines, and an arbitrary assignment of prices to roles. Whoever concocted this insanity was clearly brought up under communism and has no idea about the basics of economics and management. Second, while $700 million is spent on the construction of Mariinsky-2 (most of it probably to line up the pockets of various officials), they offer a salary of $4000 per year to the likes of Smirnova and Shapran. (One of the fringe benefits: the possibility of spending several weeks in a row without days off.) Talk about not being able to save for an apartment "in a year or two"---with these salaries, they wouldn't save for an apartment in 100 years! Sometimes I wonder if Gergiev's brain is actually aware of what comes out of his mouth during his interviews.

An interview with Darya Pavlenko http://ptj.spb.ru/bl...m-u-vas-lebedi/

The entire system at the Mariinsky is rotten to the core. The top guy has an enormous conflict of interest. As the AD of the opera, he should be (and is!) interested in putting all the resources and effort into the opera and the orchestra. But as the GM of the entire company, he is supposed to pay attention to the ballet and opera companies in equal measure---perhaps more attention to the ballet which I suspect brings in more revenue. And clearly he does not. Knowing all this, no high-caliber ballet administrator or choreographer in his/her right mind would ever accept an offer to become the AD of the ballet. So trying to conduct a search for a ballet AD, as was proposed above, is doomed to failure in the current circumstances. Mariinsky Ballet's only hope is for Gergiev to resign or be dismissed from the position of the General Manager, or for the ballet to separate from the opera and become a stand-alone company. Neither one of these two scenarios is likely to happen, unfortunately.

The dancers seem to be well aware of the five rankings from the website. For example, Tereshkina recites them in this interview (around 3:15): http://www.1tvnet.ru...e-balerini.html, and lists some privileges that come with the rank of prima ballerina---specifically, being able to dance only the leads. Are you saying that Fateyev personally decides individual salary levels, roles, teacher assignments, etc, without any regard for the ranks posted on the website? If so, it seems like a recipe for disaster. What's the point then of having these ranks? As to the incredible promotion of Kim Kimin from trainee to first soloist just at the time when the article and the company's response to it started receiving some publicity---I'm sure that's simply a coincidence.

I haven't found anything to support these extremely serious accusations. Could you please cite press reports supporting these?

More reactions from various signers, from a newspaper called "Vzglyad", http://www.vz.ru/cul.../23/608449.html While it certainly looks like Tsiskaridze has done some despicable things here, the explanations of some of the signers look quite bizarre. For example, in a previous interview (translated above) Lavrovsky said that Tsiskaridze brought the letter to him, and now he says that he didn't read it. Why?? The reaction of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater press person is very strange. Zakharov's new explanation is also very strange.

No one is denying his right to speak. In fact, he speaks freely and regularly, using every conceivable and inconceivable media outlet, including a show called "Our Favorite Animals" and a Russian version of "Dancing with the Stars" where he has been a judge since 2006. Interviews with him abound on TV and in print. His media exposure easily exceeds that of all the other Russian ballet dancers combined. Yet in this case, he has gone out of his way to avoid public limelight: the letter was not intended to be published; he avoided affixing his own signature to it; and even now that the letter has become pubic, he has refused to comment. All the reporting suggests that the letter was not intended to become public. That it did appears to be an accident.