Former Royal Ballet star Sergei Polunin, well-known for his tattoos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday introduced that he plans to go away Russia.
The Ukrainian-Russian dancer was one of the vital outstanding stars who backed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and navy offensive in Ukraine. He was rewarded with prestigious state posts.
In a rambling misspelled message on his Instagram account, Polunin wrote: “My time in Russia ran out a very long time in the past, it appears at this second that I’ve fulfilled my mission right here.”
The put up first appeared Sunday on his little-read Telegram account.
Polunin, 35, didn’t give a particular purpose for leaving however stated that “a time comes when the soul feels it isn’t the place it ought to be”.
He stated he was leaving together with his household — his spouse Yelena and three kids — however “the place we are going to go isn’t clear up to now”.
In the summer season, the dancer complained of a scarcity of safety and stated he was being adopted.
Polunin, who was born in Ukraine, backed Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and gained Russian citizenship in 2019.
He was appointed appearing head of a dance academy in Crimea’s Sevastopol and director of the town’s opera and ballet theatre, for which a big new constructing is underneath building.
Last yr he was embellished by Putin for his function in popularising dance.
– ‘Bad boy of ballet’ –
But in August he was changed as head of the dance academy by former Bolshoi prima Maria Alexandrova, and per week in the past, Russia’s arts minister Olga Lyubimova introduced his theatre director job would go to singer Ildar Abdrazakov.
This got here after on December 9 Polunin printed a social media put up saying he was “very sorry for individuals” dwelling within the closely bombarded village close to Ukraine’s metropolis of Kherson, the place his household originates from, and that “the worst deal can be higher than battle”.
Aged 13, Polunin gained a scholarship to coach on the Royal Ballet School in London and have become its youngest ever principal dancer.
With his tattoos and rebellious perspective, he turned often known as the “unhealthy boy of ballet” and precipitated a sensation by resigning from the Royal Ballet on the top of his fame in 2012.
Later he made a 2015 hit video to Irish musician Hozier’s tune “Take Me to Church” and was the star of a 2016 documentary known as “Dancer”.
He moved to carry out at Moscow’s Stanislavsky Musical Theatre’s ballet earlier than launching a solo profession, starring in dance performances in roles together with the mystic Grigory Rasputin.
In 2019 he posed for AFP with a big tattoo of Putin on his chest which he later supplemented with two Putin faces on both shoulder. He additionally has a big Ukrainian trident on his proper hand.
This yr he took half in Putin’s marketing campaign for reelection as a celeb backer.
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