In the program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” broadcast on March 21, political analyst Dmitry Kulikov presented a passage from the film “Thirty-three” as a quote from an interview with Soviet actor Yevgeny Leonov to “Western journalists”.
“There is an excellent answer to the western journalist made by our great Russian actor Yevgeny Leonov. When asked if he had ever been abroad, he said: ” Yes, in Poland, the Czech Republic and in Germany.” “As a tourist?” “No, in the infantry.” This is an objective fact, it is recorded in an interview with Western media,” said the political scientist.
And Vladimir Solovyov agreed with him: “Yes, this is true.”
However, these words were not spoken in real life by Yevgeny Leonov, but by his character in the 1965 comedy “Thirty-three”. And it was said not by a Western journalist, but by a Soviet one. And the actor Yevgeny Leonov did not take part in the Second World War and did not serve in the army at all.
This absurdity was indicated by the Twitter user Gulay_Pole, who published a video with a fragment of the program and original footage from the Soviet comedy.
The next day, Kulikov admitted that he confused Yevgeny Leonov with his character, but this allegedly does not matter, since this is a “cultural archetype”.
