Kremlin Spy Tried to Bribe Me Out of Mocking Diaper-Wearing Putin in New Movie: Actor

An amateur actor who plays Vladimir Putin in a satirical movie about the Russian leader says a Kremlin goon tried to bribe him in a bid to derail their boss’s portrayal.

The Polish-made movie, Putin, was announced in 2022, and will be released this coming January. A trailer shows Putin wearing a soiled diaper, taking part in martial arts, and confronting former president Boris Yeltsin.

In May, the film’s director Patryk Vega claimed that Russian spies attempted to interfere in the production.

Now, the man who plays the strongman—with the help of artificial intelligence—has shared more details.

Slawomir Sobala, 55, from Wroclaw in Poland, told the Daily Beast that he was offered $50,000 to hand over Vega’s script—but he turned down the “tempting” deal.

“Yes, there were attempts to interfere with the film, and I experienced this firsthand. At one point, I was approached—likely by individuals connected to Russian agents—who made an offer to buy the script from me," he said. “The proposed price reached as high as $50,000. While tempting on the surface, I immediately knew I couldn’t agree to such a deal.”

An AI deepfake image of Putin’s face was joined to Slawomir’s body for the film. He said he studied Putin’s mannerisms for months before shooting.

He showed the Beast a screenshot of a WhatsApp message he received from a person he believed was a Russian agent. In it, the “agent” says that they and a second person are willing to fork out $1,000 for “insider information” and up to $50,000 for the full script.

But Slawomir, who runs a transport company in Poland, said the overall message of the film was worth more than money.

“The film’s message and purpose were far too important to compromise,” he said. “Accepting that offer would have meant undermining everything we were trying to achieve. I’m proud to say I stood my ground, and despite these attempts, we were able to complete the project and stay true to its vision.”

In May, Vega told The Telegraph in London that he and his crew were bombarded with messages from people posing as U.S. political advisers or Ukrainian film executives.

Vega said that he was offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to hand over the script.

He said: “They started messaging these people, for example saying things like, ‘I am an assistant to a congressman from South Dakota, I hear you made this film. My boss would like to pay $100,000 for a screening of this movie, and also for a script.’”

Slawomir told the Beast that the fact that Vega was receiving similar proposals “makes me think this was part of a broader effort to disrupt the project.”

“We both stayed firm in our decisions, though. The integrity of the film was always the top priority for us, and no amount of money could change that,” he said.

The actor added that he could only send a small part of the correspondence “because it is being checked by international secret services.”

The movie follows Putin through six decades of his life, from the age of 10, and includes an imagined version of his death. It is set for release on Jan. 10, 2025. Its creation and release in Poland reflects the country’s deep hostility to Putin and concern that he has territorial ambitions greater than the takeover of Ukraine.