MOSCOW, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Culture Ministry on Tuesday fired the head of the Bolshoi Theater following a series of scandals, including an acid attack against its artistic director in January.
Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said Anatoly Iksanov would be replaced by Vladimir Urin, head of Moscow's Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater.
Iksanov will be consequently employed as the Culture Minister's advisor, he added.
"I plan no revolutions in the Bolshoi. I expect the majority of its company will be the allies of mine in solving all the problems," Urin told reporters at a press conference.
Iksanov has been the director general of the Bolshoi Theater since September 2000. Prior to that, he worked as a deputy director of the federal Culture TV channel.
The top manager has left the post in a major reshuffle in the flag-carrying Russian theater.
Bolshoi troupe has been marred with long-lasting internal conflict between performers and management which erupted in January with an acid attack against theater's art director Sergei Filin.
Investigators believed the attack was masterminded by the theater's lead dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko.
Filin abstained from commenting on the reshuffle in the theater.
"He learnt the news and reacted calmly, although he was surprised," Interfax news agency quoted Tatyana Stukalova, Filin's lawyer, as saying.
Filin and Urin once worked together for three years in Moscow's Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko theater.
Filin has been in a German clinic since January where he undergoes eyes surgeries.
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