Story highlights
An masked attacker doused acid on Sergei Filin, causing severe burns
State media: The Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director had received threatening calls
Police are questioning a suspect in connection with an acid attack that disfigured the artistic director of Russia’s illustrious Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow authorities said Tuesday.
Sergei Filin was doused with acid by a masked assailant in January, an attack that caused severe burns.
Russian authorities gave little more detail on the investigation.
In January, doctors fought to save Filin’s sight and said it may take at least six months for him to recover from the third-degree burns to his face and eyes.
He was coming home around midnight January 17 when the unidentified attacker flung concentrated acid at him on a Moscow street, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The agency reported Filin had suffered months of intimidation, including threatening phone calls and the slashed car tires. Shortly before the acid attack, somebody attempted to hack his Facebook page, RIA Novosti said.
Filin took up the key role at the world-renowned ballet company in 2011 after three years directing Moscow’s Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater.
