Delayed defenestration?
Vladimir Shklyarov, a world-renowned
Russian ballet star, has died after falling from the fifth floor of a building on Saturday.
His death was confirmed by the Mariinsky Theater, a venue in the city of St. Petersburg where Shklyarov was the highest-ranking dancer.
“This is a huge loss for the entire Mariinsky Theater team,” it said.
“He died a natural death. It’s not a crime,” a source in the emergency services told RIA Novosti.
Shklyarov died two days before he was due to undergo complex spinal surgery and had been taking “serious painkillers” for some time, Russian media reported.
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In the days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Shklyarov was quoted as speaking out in support of peace.
“I am against the war in Ukraine! I am for the people, for a peaceful sky above our heads!” he was quoted as saying in a
Facebook post by Alexei Ratmansky, a Russian-Ukrainian former ballet dancer.
Ratmansky, a former director of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, had been collecting anti-war messages from other figures in the ballet world.