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Russian Communists Don't Want DiCaprio to Play Lenin

Leonardo DiCaprio Thore Siebrands / Wikicommons

Members of the Communists of Russia party and activists from the St. Petersburg communists organization have threatened that they will stage protests at the Lenfilm studio in St. Petersburg if the studio casts Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio as Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in one of their films.

"We have sent a letter to Lenfilm and told them that such a move would provoke protest actions. We would launch civil disobedience actions near the Lenfilm entrance, we simply would not let them enter the premises," one of the party leaders, Sergei Malinkovich, told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

He added that the studio should find a Russian actor for the role.

The comment comes days after Lenfilm, Russia's oldest film studio, said that it is willing to make a film in which DiCaprio plays Lenin.

Earlier this month the actor told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that he would love to play the role of President Vladimir Putin, Lenin or Grigory Rasputin.

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