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 ...

Polunin, who was born in Ukraine, backed Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea and gained Russian citizenship in 2019. He was appointed acting head of a dance academy in Crimea's Sevastopol and ...