Top Russian ballet star who slammed Putin's war 'plunged 60ft to death'

Vladimir Shklyarov had starred at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House in London. He fell from his own apartment block in St Petersburg, Russia

One of the world's premier ballet dancers who performed around the world and was a fierce critic of his country's war in Ukraine, has fallen 60ft to his death.

Vladimir Shklyarov had starred at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House in London, and also featured regularly in Munich at the invitation of Vladimir 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.

A report from a crime news agency claimed Mr Shklyarov had been leaping between two balconies on the fifth floor of his residential block in St Petersburg. Other reports from an unconfirmed law enforcement source say he had been locked in his apartment by his ex-wife ballerina Maria Shirinkina, in a bid to stop him buying drugs, and was running away after escaping the apartment when he fell.

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 Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg did not say how Mr Shklyarov had died and the Russian Investigative Committee indicated the “preliminary cause of death was an accident”, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

The couple - recently divorced - had a young son and daughter. Ballerina Irina Bartnovskaya reported Mr 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.

She said: "He was on painkillers and preparing for foot surgery before his death." She added that 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 Mr 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.