MOSCOW, March 21 - RAPSI. The Accounts Chamber is looking into the legitimacy of the 2012 balanced budget of the Bolshoi Theater and recently assaulted Artistic Director Sergei Filin, Izvestia reports on Thursday, citing a theater source.

Filin suffered third-degree burns to his face and eyes on January 17 when unknown assailants attacked him with what is believed to have been concentrated acid.

Theater sources have suggested that the audit is being conducted due to the management's financial misconduct.

Earlier, Bolshoi Theater CEO Anatoly Iksanov announced that the theater's annual budget is over 3 billion rubles ($97 million) and includes government subsidies and the box office. The Bolshoi Theater has also received an annual presidential grant aid of 375 million rubles ($12.1 million).

The Accounts Chamber has confirmed the audit, but stressed that it is of a routine nature.

According to Izvestia, the auditors will evaluate the expenses, which are the direct responsibility of theater management and artistic director Filin, who decided on the performers' remuneration.

Bolshoi Theater dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko, who was detained on suspicion of attempting to murder Filin, claimed in an interview that he and the artistic director had argued about the questionable remuneration scheme at the theater.

Allegedly, Filin allocated extra bonuses to his favorite dancers, only to withdraw excessive amounts and to use the funds at his own discretion.

The police have stated that, if violations are found by the chamber, investigators will get involved.

Supposedly, members of the Bolshoi Theater company fear Filin's return, and claim that he has blacklisted the performers who spoke out against him after he was assaulted.

Dmitrichenko stands accused of having organized the attack on Filin. He and two others - the alleged actual attacker Yury Zarutsky and Andrei Lipatov, who supposedly drove him to the crime scene - have been detained in connection with the case.

If convicted, the assailants face up to eight years in jail for willfully inflicting damage on the health of another individual.

Over 300 members of the Bolshoi Ballet company have signed a letter in defense of Dmitrichenko.

Filin, 42, joined the Bolshoi as a dancer in 1988 after graduating from the Moscow School of Choreography. He has also been invited on several occasions to dance with the English, Hungarian and Japanese national ballets, as well as with many other theaters. He ended his dancing career in 2008. In March 2011, he was appointed the artistic director of the theater amid fierce rivalry for the position.