Prominent pro-Putin ballet star Sergei Polunin says he’s leaving Russia

Moscow — Former Royal Ballet star Sergei Polunin, famous for his tattoos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Wednesday announced that he plans to leave Russia. The Ukrainian-Russian dancer was one of the most prominent stars who backed Russia’s unilateral 2014 annexation of Crimea and its military assault on Ukraine. He was rewarded with prestigious state posts.

In a rambling, misspelled message on his Instagram account, Polunin wrote: “My time in Russia ran out a long time ago, it seems at this moment that I have fulfilled my mission here.”

The post first appeared Sunday on his little-read Telegram account.

Polunin, 35, did not give a specific reason for leaving, but said: “Thank you for everything that Russia has done for me. The time comes and the soul feels that it’s not where it should be.”  

He said he was leaving with his family — his wife Yelena and three children — but “where we will go is not clear so far.”

In the summer, the dancer complained of a lack of security and said he was being followed.

Polunin, who was born in Ukraine, backed Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea  — a prelude to the ongoing, full-scale 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 academy in occupied Crimea’s biggest city, Sevastopol, and director of the city’s opera and ballet theatre, for which a large new building is under construction.

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 academy by former Bolshoi prima Maria Alexandrova, and a week ago, Russia’s arts minister Olga Lyubimova announced his theater director job would go to singer Ildar Abdrazakov.

This came after, on December 9, Polunin published a social media post saying he was “very sorry for people” living in the heavily bombarded village near Ukraine’s city of Kherson, “where a generation of Polunins grew up and my Russian grandfather built a small house with his own hands.”

He urged Putin to negotiate to end the war in Ukraine, saying even “the worst deal would be better than war.”

“I am hoping for Humanity of the president of Russia and if there is a possibility to have a normal professional conversation with Trump,” Polunin wrote at the time. “It is better to show willpower and good nature yourself and start negotiations.”

Aged 13, Polunin won a scholarship to train at the Royal Ballet School in London and became its youngest ever principal dancer.

With his tattoos — including a large depiction of Putin’s face emblazoned prominently on his chest — and his rebellious attitude, he became known as the “bad boy of ballet” and caused a sensation by resigning from the Royal Ballet at the height of his fame in 2012.

Later he made a 2015 hit video to Irish musician Hozier’s song “Take Me to Church” and was the star of a 2016 documentary called “Dancer.”

He moved to perform at Moscow’s Stanislavsky Musical Theatre’s ballet before launching a solo career, starring in dance performances in roles including the mystic Grigory Rasputin.

In 2019 he posed for AFP with a large tattoo of Putin on his chest which he later supplemented with two Putin faces on either shoulder. He also has a large Ukrainian trident on his right hand.

This year he took part in Putin’s campaign for reelection as a celebrity backer.