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Russian actor Artur Smolyaninov was the star of one of the of President Vladimir Putin Favorite Movies – About a Soviet unit making a last-ditch stand against Afghan insurgents. He is now classified as a “foreign agent” and faces a criminal investigation.
Smolyaninov was the protagonist of the 2005 Russian feature film “Devyatya Rota” (The 9th Company). He played the role of the last soldier standing during the fighting in Afghanistan. soviet army occupied for a decade. He was often described as the Rambo of Russia, a nod to American action films starring Sylvester Stallone.
A lot has changed since then. Smolyaninov is in exile and in a recent interview said he was ready to fight on the side of Ukraine and kill Russian soldiers. He told Novaya Gazeta last week: “I feel nothing but hatred for the people on the other (Russian) side of the frontline. And if I were there on the ground, there would be no mercy.”
He said that a former ally had gone to fight on the Russian side. “Will I shoot him? Of course! Do I keep my options open to fight for Ukraine? Absolutely! It’s the only way for me. And if I had to go to this war, I would only fight for Ukraine.
A few days later, the Russian Ministry of Justice classified the actor as a foreign agent.
The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, also ordered that a criminal case be opened against Smolyaninov.
Smolyaninov has been highly critical of Campaign in Ukraine, He recently recorded a Soviet-era song – Temnaya noch (Dark Night) – with rewritten lyrics.
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It included the lines: “Look, occupiers, how the maternity homes are without power, how the children sit in the shelters. And how books sink. The Russian night has reached schools and hospitals.”
Another poem mentions “a bunker, where a Führer hides, and a bald little cook feeds the Führer with a spoon”. The chef was a reference to Yevgeny Prigozhin, who runs the Wagner private military company and won the catering contract from the Kremlin.
When he first spoke out against the war last summer, Smolyaninov, who was in Russia at the time, told an interviewer that it was “a catastrophe, everything collapsed: ashes, smoke, stench, tears.”
Last October, the Moscow District Court imposed a fine of 30,000 rubles (US$430) against Smolyaninov on charges of defaming the Russian Armed Forces. In the same month, he left Russia and is currently believed to be in Latvia.
Smolyaninov told how he had crossed the Russian border into Norway. “I crossed the border on foot… You just walk 30 meters and there are completely different people in front of you. They are very soft. Even the look is different.”
The film “Devyatya Rota” was so popular that Putin hosted the actors and crew, including Smolyaninov, at his residence outside Moscow in November 2005, where he gave a special screening of the film.
The Kremlin said that after watching the film, Putin spoke with director Fyodor Bondarchuk and the leading actors, including Smolyaninov.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported at the time that Putin declared that the film “takes to the soul, you immerse yourself in the film.”
Putin said at the time, “The film is very strong, such a serious talk about the war and the people who found themselves in extreme circumstances in this war and showed themselves to be very worthy.”
The Russian Justice Ministry has added several others to its foreign agents list in recent days, including music critic Artem Trotsky and several journalists.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, “These people were placed on the register under Article 7 of the Russian law on the control of activities of persons under foreign influence.”
This weekend it was also reported that two well-known theatrical actors were fired from the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater for criticizing the war in Ukraine. Dmitry Nazarov and his wife Olga Vasilieva were dismissed by the theatre’s artistic director, Konstantin Khabensky, who accused the actors of “anti-Russian sentiments”.
State news agency TASS confirmed that both had been fired without giving reasons.
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