CNN —
Russian actor Artur Smolyaninov starred in one of President Vladimir Putin’s favorite films – about a Soviet entity putting up a last-ditch stand against Afghan insurgents. Now he is classified as a “foreign agent” and faces criminal investigations.
Smolyaninov was the hero of Devyataya Rota (The 9th Company), a Russian feature film released in 2005. He played the role of the last soldier standing during a battle in Afghanistan, occupied by Soviet troops for a decade. He was often referred to as Russia’s Rambo, a reference to the US action films starring Sylvester Stallone.
A lot has changed since then. Smolyaninov is in exile and said in a recent interview that 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 towards the people on the other (Russian) side of the front line. And if I were on the ground there, there would be no mercy.”
He said a former colleague left to fight on the Russian side. “Would I shoot him? Without any doubt! Do I keep my options open to fight for Ukraine? Absolutely! This is the only way for me. And if I went 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.
Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Russian investigative committee, also ordered the opening of criminal proceedings against Smolyaninov.
Smolyaninov was very critical of the election campaign in Ukraine. He recently recorded a Soviet-era song – Temnaya Noch (Dark Night) – with revised lyrics.
It included the lines: “Look squatters how maternity homes are without power, how children are sitting in shelters. And drown like books. The Russian night has reached schools and hospitals.”
Another verse referred to “a bunker where a leader is hiding, and a bald little cook whom the leader feeds with a spoon.” The chef was a reference to Yevgeny Prigozhin, who runs the private military company Wagner and received catering orders from the Kremlin.
When he first spoke out against the war last summer, Smolyaninov, who was in Russia at the time, told an interviewer it was “a disaster, everything collapsed: ash, smoke, stench, tears.”
Last October, a Moscow district court fined Smolyaninov 30,000 rubles ($430) on charges of discrediting the Russian armed forces. He left Russia in the same month and is believed to be in Latvia at the moment.
Smolyaninov told how he crossed the Russian border into Norway. “I crossed the border on foot … You only walk 30 meters and there are completely different people in front of you. You are so soft. Even the look is different.”
The film Devyataya Rota was so popular that in November 2005 Putin welcomed the cast and crew, including Smolyaninov, to his residence outside Moscow, where he hosted a special screening of the film.
The Kremlin said Putin spoke with director Fyodor Bondarchuk and the main actors, including Smolyaninov, after watching the film.
Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported at the time that Putin had declared the film “take the soul, you dive into the film”.
“The film is very strong, such a really serious thing about the war and people who were in this war in extreme conditions and proved to be very worthy,” Putin said at the time.
The Russian Justice Ministry has added a number of other agents to its list of foreign agents in recent days, including music critic Artemy Troitsky and several journalists.
“These individuals were included in the register pursuant to Article 7 of the Russian Law on Control of the Activities of Persons Under Foreign Influence,” according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.
It was also reported this weekend that two well-known theater actors had been fired from Moscow’s Chekhov Art Theater for criticizing the war in Ukraine. Dmitry Nazarov and his wife Olga Vasilyeva were fired by the theater’s artistic director Konstantin Khabensky, who accused the actors of “anti-Russian feelings.”
The state news agency TASS confirmed the duo’s dismissal without giving any reason.