MOSCOW, April 19 People's Artist of the RSFSR, film director Nikita Mikhalkov said that he was sorry talented artists who left the country, such as comedian Semyon Slepakov*, recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation.
«I don’t feel sorry for these (those who left Russia — ed.) people. I feel sorry for the talented ones. I feel sorry for, say, Slepakov*, as a talented person, because his talent was in demand, interesting and came from the country of Russia,» — Mikhalkov said at a press conference.
He added that the artists who left the country did so of their own free will. “They left the country where they were loved, where they were paid a lot of money. Why did they leave? Because NVO, aggression? They bombed civilians in Donetsk for eight years and no one bothered,” the film director emphasized.
* An individual performing the functions of a foreign agent