Valery Gergiev has officially been named the Bolshoi Theatre’s new General Director.

The Russian government’s Telegram account said Gergiev’s term will “be a five-year term under an order signed by Prime Minister Mikhail V. Mishustin.” Gergiev will replace Vladimir Urin who according to the Telegram account was “relieved of this position at his own request.” The news comes only weeks after Opera Magazine reported that Gergiev was set to take over.

According to the New York Times, Urin announced his resignation to colleagues on Thursday after a performance of César Cui’s “The Mandarin’s Son” and Stravinsky’s “The Nightingale” at the Bolshoi.

Urin’s departure from the Bolshoi comes as no surprise. In 2022, Vladimir Putin suggested that Gergiev should take over both the Mariinsky Theatre and Bolshoi Theatre and unite them. Urin was also part of a petition at the start of the war in 2022 which was against military action. At the start of the war, numerous Bolshoi artists resigned including its Music Director Tugan Sokhiev and prima ballerina Olga Smirnova. However, Urin continued to work at the Bolshoi and canceled or banned numerous productions with artists who had spoken out against the war.