Bolshoi Acid Attacker Made Solution Even Stronger for Director Sergei Filin Assault

The man accused of throwing acid in the face of director of Russian Bolshoi Ballet made the solution even stronger to inflict maximum injuries on his victim, Moscow police have said.

Yuri Zarutsky, 35, allegedly bought a bottle of acid at an auto shop and heated it up to make it more concentrated before throwing it at Sergei Filin.

Police said they believed the attack was masterminded by Pavel Dmitrichenko, a 29-year-old soloist in the ballet, who harboured a "personal enmity" against Filin.

He paid Zarutsky 50,000 roubles (£1,100) to wait for Filin outside his building and throw the acid at him as the director came home from a late-night party.

It is thought that Zarutsky fled the scene in a vehicle driven by a third suspect, Andrei Lipatov.

Dmitrichenko, Lipatov and Zarutsky have all confessed to taking part after they were arrested. They were denied bail by a Moscow court.

Dmitrichenko told the court he never meant Filin to be scarred with acid, but just wanted him to be "beaten up".

"It's not true that I ordered him to throw acid at Filin," he said.

"I told Yuri Zarutsky about the policies of the Bolshoi Theatre, about the bad things going on, the corruption. When he said: 'OK, let me beat him up,' I agreed but that is all that I admit to doing."

Infighting and jealousy

Filin suffered from severe burns to his eyes and face. He was undergoing treatment for his injuries in Germany.

The scandal revealed a world of infighting and jealousy behind the curtains of Russia's most famous ballet.

Some of Filin's colleagues claimed the director may have been punished for preferential treatment of some dancers for leading roles.

"We believe that investigators still have a lot of work to do to establish all of the facts," Filin's lawyer, Tatyana Stukalova, told Rossiya state television.

Dmitrichenko joined the theatre in 2002 and has had a meteoric rise, playing several major parts in recent years.

He was arrested during a police raid on the flat where he was staying with his girlfriend Anzhelina Vorontsova, also a Bolshoi soloist dancer.

According to Russia's state Channel One television, Vorontsova was known to have been at odds with Filin.