Bolshoi Theater Director Dismissed Amid Acid Attack Scandals

The Bolshoi Theater’s director was dismissed Tuesday seven months after an acid attack on his artistic director and a series of scandals that tarnished the reputation of Russia’s most renowned ballet company. Anatoly Iksanov headed Russia’s trademark cultural institution for almost 13 years. His time at the helm saw scandals, corruption allegations and internal squabbles, many of which only became public after the January acid attack on artistic director Sergei Filin that left Filin's face and eyesight badly damaged. Despite this, the imposing, balding manager was credited with carrying out a radical makeover of the theater that had long been considered a bastion of traditionalism. He invited controversial choreographers and composers, started online broadcasts of the theater’s performances and introduced workshops for young performers with little or no background in classical ballet. Russia’s Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky announced Iksanov’s dismissal Tuesday, noting that the decision was “not spontaneous.”

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130709/182139377/Russian-Theater-Director-Dismissed-Amid-Acid-Attack-Scandals.html

Russia sues US over Schneerson collection

Russia's Ministry of Culture and the State Library have filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Commercial Court against the US and its Congressional Library over the disputed Rebbe Schneerson book collection, a lawyer said on Tuesday. They are suing not only the library but also the United States as a country, Yury Pilipenko, managing partner of the YUST law firm, who is representing the Ministry of Culture in court, told RAPSI. The plaintiffs have asked the court to order the Congressional Library to return seven books from the collection of rare Judaist books, also known as the Schneerson Collection. The books, now part of the Russian State Library's Oriental Literature Center, have been on loan to Washington since 1994 as an international interlibrary loan. Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson was forced to leave the Soviet Union in 1927. He took his collection with him to Latvia and Poland, where he left the books after Poland was attacked by Nazi Germany. The collection was taken to Germany and confiscated by the Red Army in 1945. Schneerson died in 1950 without leaving instructions regarding the collection. On January 16, the US District Court for the District of Columbia ordered Russia to pay fines of $50,000 per day until it returns the books and manuscripts to America's Hasidic community. Russia's Foreign Ministry described the ruling as unlawful provocation.

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20130702/267995275.html

Schneerson Library to be Handed Over to Russian Hasids

Books from the so-called Yitzchok Schneerson collection will be handed over to Russian Hasids amid requests by Hasids in the United States to transfer the books into their possession instead, an official said on Thursday. The disputed books will be registered with the Russian State Library, Presidential Commissioner for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi said at the Moscow Jewish Center on Thursday. Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson was forced to leave the Soviet Union in 1927. He took his collection with him to Latvia and then Poland, where he left the books after Poland was attacked by Nazi Germany. The collection was taken to Germany and confiscated by the Red Army in 1945. Schneerson died in 1950 without leaving instructions regarding the collection. On January 16, the US District Columbia Court ordered Russia to pay fines of $50,000 per day until it returns the books and manuscripts to American Hasids. Russia's Foreign Ministry described the ruling as unlawful provocation.

http://www.rapsinews.com/news/20130315/266727201.html

Bolshoi Attack Mastermind Denies Ordering Acid Assault

A lawyer for the star Russian ballet dancer who admitted this week to having masterminded an attack on the artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater said in court on Thursday that his client had not ordered acid to be used in the assault. A masked assailant threw concentrated acid into the face of Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi’s artistic director, on January 17 in Moscow and fled the scene. Filin, 42, suffered third-degree burns to his face and eyes. The former dancer is undergoing treatment in Germany. Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, 29, confessed to police earlier this week that he had organized the attack. Two other men also admitted involvement. But Dmitrichenko’s lawyer told a packed Moscow courtroom on Thursday his client had not ordered the alleged attacker, 35-year-old Yury Zarutsky, to use sulfuric acid in the assault. Police said on Thursday Dmitrichenko paid Zarutsky 50,000 roubles ($1,600) to carry out the attack. “Dmitrichenko admits his guilt,” said lawyer Alexander Barkhanov. “[But] my client did not intend to cause severe injuries to Filin, and especially not in this abominable way.”

http://en.ria.ru/crime/20130307/179867991/Bolshoi-Attack-Mastermind-Denies-Ordering-Acid-Assault.html

Bolshoi Solo Dancer Arrested over Acid Attack on Artistic Director

Police in Moscow have detained a suspect over a horrific acid attack on the Bolshoi Theater’s artistic director, a police spokesperson told RIA Novosti on Tuesday. A masked assailant threw concentrated acid into the face of Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi’s artistic director, on January 17 in Moscow and fled the scene. Filin suffered third-degree burns to his face and eyes. He is currently undergoing treatment in Germany. “Yury Zarutsky, the suspected attacker, has been detained,” the spokesman said. Meanwhile, police also searched an apartment belonging to the Bolshoi Theater’s leading solo dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko, who was later detained in connection with the attack.  Dmitrichenko has performed at the theater for more than a decade. In one of the most recent performances, he played the tsar in "Ivan the Terrible." The police believe he ordered the attack.

http://en.ria.ru/crime/20130305/179823862/Bolshoi-Acid-Attack-Suspect-Detained.html
http://www.lenta.ru/news/2013/03/06/filin/

Russia to Strike Back at US over Schneerson Library

The Russian Foreign Ministry has suggested that the Ministry of Culture and the Russian State Library have a Russian court  impose a fine on the US Congress Library for failing to return seven books out of the Schneerson collection that Moscow gave Washington for temporary use back in 1994, according to the Moscow-based daily Kommersant. A scandal around the Rabbi Schneerson collection flared up in the Soviet years. The US-based Hasidic movement Chabad Lubavitch demanded the collected on the ground that the author had bequeathed the books to them. A US federal court ruled in the middle of January this year that Russia should pay $50,000 dollars a day in fines for Moscow’s refusal to return the books and manuscripts to the US Hasids. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Moscow would respond toughly to the court ruling.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2122228
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_02_08/Russian-Foreign-Ministry-wants-US-Congress-Library-fined/
http://rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20130208/266343138.html

Bolshoi Prima Seeks Refuge in Canada

Less than a month after Boshoi Ballet Artistic Director Sergei Filin nearly lost his vision in a brutal acid attack in central Moscow, it has been widely reported that the company’s principal dancer Svetlana Lunkina has sought refuge in Canada based on threats she and her family have purportedly faced in the aftermath of a business deal gone bad with artist Vladimir Vinokur. The reputation of the legendary Bolshoi Ballet has come under fire in the weeks since a masked assailant heaved what is believed to have been concentrated sulfuric acid in Filin’s face as he attempted to enter his home in January. Filin suffered third degree burns. Despite initial fears to the contrary, he is expected to recover his vision.

http://www.rapsinews.com/news/20130205/266306531.html

Chassidic Sect won't Insist on Freeze of Russian Assets in U.S.

The US-based Chassidic movement known as Chabad Lubavitch will not insist that valuable Russian cultural objects in the US be confiscated in retaliation for Russia's refusal to give up the Schneerson Library collection. The Chassidic movement claims that Russian officials have distorted its position in their statements so as to set the American public against Chabad Lubavitch. The movement stresses that it is the largest Judaic organization in the world. The immunity of Russian works of art in the US is also guaranteed in the memorandum of the court that adjudicated the claim. The Schneerson Library collection includes 12,000 books and 50,000 rare documents collected by a Hasidic rabbi who at the time was based in Russia's modern-day Smolensk region. In late July 2011, a US court ordered that  manuscripts from the collection of Lubavitcher Rabbi Schneersohn - which are currently in the possession of the Russian state library - be transferred to the Chabad Lubavitch religious movement. The US court subsequently imposed a daily fine of $50,000 on the Russian government until the collection is returned to the American Hasidic group. The Foreign Ministry earlier stressed that the Schneerson Collection "was amassed in this country and is therefore a national asset belonging to the Russian people. As state property of the Russian Federation, it has jurisdictional immunity." Moscow plans to issue a harsh response should any Russian state property be arrested. Schneerson was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1927. He took his collection first to Latvia and then to Poland, where he abandoned it after the Nazi invasion. The collection was then taken to Germany and reclaimed by the Red Army in 1945. According to a US court, the manuscripts are currently held in the Russian State Military Archives.

http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20130121/266132688.html

Russia Warns U.S. of Strong Response to Schneerson Library Ruling

Russia has condemned the US court ruling in the case of the so-called Schneerson library and threatened with a strong response if the US attempted to seize its properly abroad. According to the ruling, Russia is to pay Chabad-Lubavitch, an Orthodox Jewish movement, a fine of $50,000 a day until it releases the collection of books and manuscripts that Chabad has been claiming as its own. In its statement, Russia’s foreign ministry has decried the Washington court’s decision as “unprecedented,” warning it could lead to most grievous consequences, including Russia's retaliatory measures. Earlier, the Russian embasy in Washington stated: “Under the Russian law, the Schneersohn library is an integral part of Russian cultural heritage and can’t be alienated.”

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_17/Moscow-warns-of-strong-response-to-Schneerson-library-ruling/
http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20130117/266099733.html
http://mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/newsline/DE9FEAD01192ED1A44257AF60026DA16 (document)