Russian rumours: Gergiev in Moscow raid

Izvestia has reported that Valery Gergiev will be announced today as head of the Bolshoi Theatre.

The official statement is due to be made at the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum.

He will replace Vladimir Urin, who has led the Bolshoi for ten years and ‘will leave of his own free will’.

The Bolshoi has refused to comment on this and other reports.

Gergiev, 70, has been chafing at his shrunken opportunities since his pal Putin invaded Ukraine. Shunned by the western world, he has built a Mariinsky outpost in Vladivostok and found an admiring audience in China.

But that does not satisfy his imperial ambitions.

Without world tours, the Mariinsky has been diminished to a provincial opera house of limited significance. The Bolshoi, on the other hand, is still a world brand.

Gergiev wants to run both institutions to ensure his footprint in history.

Urin alone stands in his way.