• Bolshoi director leaves hospital, describes 'unbearable' pain of acid attack

    Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director, Sergei Filin, recalls the "unbearable pain" from January's acid attack as he leaves a Moscow hospital for treatment in Germany. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Anastasia Gorelova and Thomas Grove, Reuters

    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.

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    "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.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Russia Bolshoi Ballet acid victim: I forgive my attacker

    By Steve Gutterman, Reuters

    Yuri Kadobnov / AFP - Getty Images, file

    An April 2011 photo shows Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, as he looked before an attacker threw acid in his face in Moscow on Friday.

    MOSCOW -- The artistic director of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet says he has forgiven the attacker who splashed acid in his face and has pledged to return to the stage.

    His head shaven and a bandage around his neck, Sergei Filin told a Russian television station from his hospital room that he was determined to return to work despite his injuries.

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    Filin, 42, suffered severe burns during the attack on his way home from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow late on Jan. 18. Doctors have performed two operations on each eye and hope to save his sight.

    "I am not going to lie. Of course it is very hard for me and very difficult," Filin said in grainy footage in a video-link with NTV television late on Sunday.

    "I tell myself every morning when I wake up: 'Sergei, you are healthy, everything is in its place -- your arms, your legs.' ... And I will do everything to go back to being the same Sergei I was before."

    Filin did not wear the thick bandages that had swathed his head and face in mobile phone footage taken the day after the attack, but his eyes were half-closed and it was unclear whether he could see.

    Filin's job gave him the power to make or break careers at the ballet, which is an enduring symbol of Russian culture. He said after the attack that he had been receiving threats.

    "A priest came to me, and I told him: 'You know, I forgive everyone, and God will be their judge. Because people are weak,'" he said. "I forgive all the people who are involved in this."

    He said he did not know who was behind the attack but made clear he believed that it was related to his work.

    "Before somehow satisfying their ambitions or quenching the pain of resentment ... it would be truly good if they would just think about the fact that I have three remarkable sons," Filin said.

    "Even if the worst happens, I will continue to look upon this world, and I will continue to do what I do -- but it will be through the eyes of my three sons."

    Russia's top eye doctor told Reuters last week that Filin would retain at least some vision in each eye.

    "I promise, you will see me on stage," Filin said.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.