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Putin loyalist Valery Gergiev installed as director of Bolshoi theatre
Valery Gergiev, a Russian conductor, has been appointed as the director of both Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre and St Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre. This comes after Gergiev was shunned by Western concert halls due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Gergiev's predecessor, Vladimir Urin, asked to be relieved of his duties at the Bolshoi Theatre after signing an open letter calling for a halt to military operations and negotiations in Ukraine.
The Bolshoi Theatre is known for its gilded theatre, grand ballets and operas, as well as its artistic intrigues and rivalries.
Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who has not been welcomed in most concert halls since the beginning of the war in Ukraine due to his pronounced pro-Russian views, was today appointed the new director of the famous Bolshoi Theater.
The Russian government on Friday appointed a supporter of President Vladimir Putin, conductor Valery Gergiev, as director of the Balshoi Theatre, amid an accelerated crackdown on Russia's cultural sector since the attack on Ukraine, AFP reports.