Russia Interior Ministry Press Service handout, via Reuters

Pavel Dmitrichenko, seen after his arrest, left, and performing as Ivan the Terrible, right, suggested he had not meant for the attack to go so far.

MOSCOW - A dancer at Russia's Bolshoi ballet who made his name playing villains has confessed to ordering the acid attack that nearly blinded its director. Sources said he was angry that his lover was being kept out of leading roles.

Pavel Dmitrichenko, who has danced the crazed monarch in Ivan the Terrible and the villain in Swan Lake, was detained on Tuesday over a crime that shocked Russia and blackened the reputation of the world-famous theater.

Haggard and unkempt, Dmitrichenko was shown in a police video confessing to plotting the attack, in which a masked man threw a jar of sulphuric acid in the face of artistic director Sergei Filin late on Jan. 17.

"I organized this attack, but not to the extent that it happened," he said, apparently meaning he did not intend the attack go so far.

Two other men who had no known connection to the Bolshoi also confessed in the video released by police. One said he had thrown the acid at Filin and the other that he had driven the getaway car.

LifeNews, a Russian website with close ties to the police, said the suspected attacker, Yury Zarutsky, and his driver Andrei Lipatov were found by tracking cellphone calls made from the crime scene.

Dmitrichenko, who is in his late 20s, said he had given the reasons for the attack in a written statement to police but did not say what they were on camera.

A source at the Bolshoi confirmed media reports that the outspoken dancer was angry that his partner, ballerina Anzhelika Vorontsova, had missed out on top roles including the lead in Swan Lake.

"Filin certainly squeezed out Vorontsova, but that is not a reason to throw acid in someone's face," the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Russia Interior Ministry Press Service handout, via Reuters

Andrei Lipatov, left, allegedly drove the getaway car and Yury Zarutsky, right, is accused of carrying out the attack.

Before flying to Germany for treatment last month to save his sight, Filin, 42, said he believed he knew who was behind the attack and that he thought it was connected with his work. He is recovering and is expected back at work this summer.

The management of the Bolshoi, which declined to make any comment Wednesday, had been hoping none of the ballet company was involved in the attack as this might limit damage to its reputation and morale.

Dmitrichenko, born in Moscow to a family of dancers, had been at the Bolshoi since 2002 and was to dance in "Sleeping Beauty" this month. He could face jail and the end of his dance career.

As artistic director of the Bolshoi's ballet company, Filin had the power to make or break careers in the fiercely competitive world of ballet. Tales of his uncompromising grip on the troupe and his disagreements with dancers have been widely reported in the Russian press.

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Russia Bolshoi Ballet acid victim: I forgive my attacker

MOSCOW — The Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director, Sergei Filin, left a Moscow hospital on Monday to have treatment in Germany after an acid attack that damaged his eyes and face.

Wearing dark glasses but saying he felt well, the 42-year-old said before checking out of the hospital that he knew who was behind last month's attack and made clear he believed it was linked to his work at Russia's prestigious Bolshoi Theater.

"I feel well, I'd even say great, if only my eyes could see a bit better. But I can say I feel well," he told reporters as he left, wearing a netted bandage across the lower part of his face.

Filin told Russian state television about the agony he experienced after the attack, which occurred as he was walking home at night from the Bolshoi on Jan. 17. "I fell on my face in the snow and began to rub snow in my face and eyes," he said.

"I was in terrible, unbearable pain."

He said he lay in the empty street in front of his apartment building for 20 minutes after the attack, pressing his face into the snow, until he caught the attention of a security guard who called an ambulance. 

Filin also told the television crew before leaving the hospital that he forgave his masked attacker, who splashed acid in his face outside his Moscow apartment.

Asked if he knew who had attacked him, he said in the television interview: "Every person has an organ called a heart, and my heart knows who did it, and in my soul I have an answer to that question."

Filin had been one of the most talked-about figures in Russia as head of the ballet for nearly two years when he was attacked. He said the attack followed repeated threats and may have been motivated by rivalry or resentment.