Russia Cans Bolshoi Boss Amid Scandal

Russia's culture ministry has fired the director general of the scandal-plagued Bolshoi Theater. After a January acid attack on artistic director Sergei Filin and amid claims of pimping at the ballet, the country's culture ministry is replacing director general Anatoly Iksanov, the AP reports. Culture minister Vladimir Medinsky said that "around the theater and the troupe—everything pointed to the need for renewal," he said, per the BBC. But all isn't necessarily lost for Iksanov: The same ministry that's firing him has offered him another job as an assistant to Medinsky.

Iksanov had headed the theater for 13 years and had more than a year left in his contract, the BBC notes. Taking over the director general job will be Vladimir Urin, who runs the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater, another top ballet and opera company, Medinsky says. In addition to the scandals, Iksanov faced criticism over the Bolshoi's $1 billion renovation, and he was at odds with top dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, whose own contract won't be renewed. (More Bolshoi stories.)