Vladimir Urin

Vladimir Georgievich Urin is a People's Artists of Russia; a Musical Theatre of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko director (1995–2013), then Bolshoi Theatre director until 1 December 2023. In 1995 he became general manager of Musical Theatre of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko and two years later held the same position at the International Festival of Contemporary Dance. In 2013, after the scandals inside the Bolshoi theatre and the attack on Artistic Director Sergei Filin, he was appointed as General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre, replacing Anatoly Iksanov.

July 8, 2017, three days before the first night Urin called off the premiere of a ballet Nureyev about legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev. He claimed it was due to the bad quality of the dancing. It was the first time a show has been pulled in such a way since the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking rumours about the motivation behind it.

Political involvement In March 2014, Urin joined a host of other Russian arts and cultural figures in signing an open letter of support for Vladimir Putin's politics in Ukraine and Crimea. Signatories stated that they "firmly state support for the position of the president of the Russian Federation" in the region. The letter was posted on the website of Russia's culture ministry on March 12, 2014, few days before the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.

In February 2022, Urin was among the signatories of a petition by cultural leaders calling on Putin to stop the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. The petition states: "We call on everyone on whom it depends, all sides of the conflict, to stop the armed action, and to sit at the table for negotiations. We call for the preservation of the highest value – human life." Other signatories included Vladimir Spivakov, Konstantin Raikin, Yevgeny Mironov, Valery Fokin and Alisa Freindlich. On November 30, 2023, he resigned from his position as director of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow without explanation.