Vladimir Shklyarov Russian ballet dancer mystery death. A principal dancer and vocal opponent of the Ukraine war falls 5 stories to his death in St Petersburg.
A political victim? A top Russian ballet star who criticised Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine has plunged 60ft to his death local media has reported.
Vladimir Shklyarov, 39, was among the world’s premier ballet dancers and had starred at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House in London.
His body was found beneath his home on Lieutenant Schmidt Embankment in St Petersburg, on November 16 following an ‘accidental’ death according to state media agency, RIA Novosti.
Alcohol and drug addiction?
The Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg did not say how the acclaimed ballet dancer died with the Russian Investigative Committee indicating the ‘preliminary cause of death was an accident’ while declining to give a sequence of the events.
The incident took place while Shklyarov was on painkillers prior to a spinal surgery scheduled for Monday, Nov. 18, Anna Kasatkina, a spokesperson for Marrinsky Theater said according to local news outlet, Fontanka.
A crime news agency claimed Shklyarov had been leaping between two balconies on the fifth floor of his residential block at the time of his death.
Unconfirmed by law enforcement, this version said he was seeking to escape from his apartment where his ex-wife ballerina Maria Shirinkina had locked him – at his request – to stop him buying drugs.
The report alluded that the dancer was suffering from unknown drugs and alcohol addiction problems.
The couple – recently divorced – had a young son and daughter.
The acclaimed international performer featured regularly in Munich at the invitation of Putin’s son-in-law Igor Zelensky, 55, previously head of the Bavarian State Ballet, the second husband of the dictator’s daughter Katerina, 38, or Ekaterina, a high-kicking ‘rock’n’roll’ dancer.
Accidental fall ahead of surgery?
Ballerina Irina Bartnovskaya reported Shklyarov’s death as a ‘great tragedy’, and pointedly attacked ‘speculation in the press’, appearing to contradict the addiction version.
She gave a different account of his last moments, stating he was on painkillers and preparing for foot surgery before his death.
He went out to smoke on ‘a very narrow balcony’ and fell five stories in ‘a stupid, unbearable accident.’
She insisted: ‘He loved life, family, adored his children and his audience.’
It was also revealed Shklyarov had written to his doctor shortly before his death, saying: ‘We have to operate. I am not ready, but there is no other way out. I can’t stand this pain.’
The dancer’s death follows comments he had made in 2022 in which he issued a critique of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Posted Shklyarov : ‘Friends! I am against the war in Ukraine!
Dancer critiques Ukraine War
‘I am for the people, for a peaceful sky above our heads.
‘Politicians should be able to negotiate without shooting and killing civilians, for this they were given a tongue and a head.
‘My grandfather, Anatoly Filimonovich, graduated from school in Ukraine with a gold medal, my great-grandmother Sonya lived her whole life in Kyiv.
‘It is impossible to watch everything that is happening today without tears…
‘I want to dance…I want to love everyone – that is the purpose of my life…
‘I do not want wars or borders. Vladimir Shklyarov.’
In contrast to Olga Smirnova, a star ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet who fled Russia and moved to Europe, Shklyarov continued performing in Russia and refrained from further commenting on the war.
Shklyarov joined Mariinsky Theatre, where he would become the famed company’s principal dancer in 2003, following his graduation from the Academy of Russian Ballet.
Shklyarov received several accolades during his lifetime, including the Léonide Massine International Prize in 2008. He was also appointed an Honoured Artist of Russia in 2020.
‘He forever inscribed his name in the history of world ballet,’ the Mariinsky Theatre said.
The dancer’s death has since led to speculation that his criticism of the war could be related to his death given that many Putin critics have suffered unexplained early deaths.
