Russian ballet star who criticised Putin 'plunges 60ft to his death'

A top Russian ballet star who criticised Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has reportedly plunged 60ft to his death.

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, named after a hero of Russia's 1905 revolution. 

The Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg did not say how Shklyarov had died and the Russian Investigative Committee indicated the 'preliminary cause of death was an accident' but without giving a sequence of the events, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. 

A report from a crime news agency claimed he had been leaping between two balconies on the fifth floor of his residential block.

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 reports said he was suffering from previously unreported and unknown drugs and alcohol addiction problems, but there are also claims that this version is malicious and inaccurate.

The couple - recently divorced - had a young son and daughter.

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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. 

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 he 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.'

It is known that in 2022 Shklyarov had issued a powerful critique of Putin's war in Ukraine.

He had posted defiantly: 'Friends! I am against the war in Ukraine!

'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.'

It is unclear if his war criticism could be related to his death though many Putin critics have suffered unexplained early deaths.