in Moscow – Former Royal Ballet dancer, Sergei Polunin, famous for his tattoos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced on Wednesday that he plans to leave Russia. The Ukrainian-Russian dancer was one of the most prominent stars to support Russia unilateral 2014 annexation of Crimea and its military invasion of Ukraine. He has been awarded high state positions.
In a giggling, misspelled message on his Instagram account, Polunin wrote: “My time in Russia ended a long time ago, it seems that at this moment I have fulfilled my duty here.”
The post first appeared on Sunday on his little-read Telegraph account.
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Polunin, 35, did not give a specific reason for leaving, but said: “I am grateful for everything Russia has done for me. The time comes and the soul feels like there is no place to be.”
He said he was traveling with his family – his wife Yelena and three children – but “where we will go is not clear yet.”
In the summer, the dancer complained of insecurity and said she was being followed.
Polunin, who was born in Ukraine, supported Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014 – an introduction to this ongoing, full invasion of Ukraine that Putin launched in February 2022.
The dancer was granted Russian citizenship in 2019. He was appointed acting head of a dance school in the Crimean capital, Sevastopol, and director of the city's opera and ballet theater, where a large new building was being built.
Just last year he was decorated by Putin for his role in popularizing dance. But in August he was replaced as head of the dance center by former Bolshoi prima Maria Alexandrova, and last week, Russian arts minister Olga Lyubimova announced that her job as theater director would go to singer Ildar Abdrazakov.
This happened after on December 9, Polunin posted on social media that he was “very sorry for the people” who live in the heavily bombed village near the Ukrainian city of Kherson, “where Polunin's generation grew up and my Russian grandfather built a small house in the house with his own hands.”
He urged Putin to negotiate to end the war in Ukraine, saying that “the worst would be better than war.”
“I trust the Humanity of the Russian president and if possible there will be a normal conversation with Trump,” Polunin wrote at the time. “It is better to show strength and good nature yourself and start negotiations.”
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At the age of 13, Polunin won a scholarship to train at the Royal Ballet School in London and became its youngest dancer.
With his tattoos – including a large image of Putin's face emblazoned across his chest – and his rebellious attitude, he is known as the “bad boy of ballet” and sparked outrage by resigning from the Royal Ballet at its peak. 2012.
He later made the 2015 hit video for the Irish singer Hozier's “Take Me to Church” and was the star of a 2016 documentary called “Dancer.”
He moved to ballet at Moscow's Stanislavsky Musical Theater before starting a solo career, dancing in roles including the mystic Grigory Rasputin.
In 2019 he asked AFP for a large tattoo of Putin on his chest which he later inked with two faces of Putin on both shoulders. He also has a large Ukrainian trident in his right hand.
This year he participated Putin's campaign for re-election as a celebrity endorser.
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