"There will never be anything good in Russia. In general, the country is forever late," said the "star" of the series Anatoly Bely, and explains that it's because Russians have the wrong genes: "The gene is broken, the gene that is responsible for human freedom, for civil rights, for society."

He made this conclusion almost a year after he left Russia in July 2022, allegedly because of disagreement with the Special Military Operation in Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022.

It would seem, well, disagree. And what have you been waiting for for six months? I couldn't figure out my feelings, or did I formulate a position?

"Guided by the concept of professional honor, he served, finished playing, gritting his teeth and gritting his teeth, his 20th season in his native Moscow Art Theater, so as not to substitute the theater, and tore it out of himself with blood. Because I can no longer stay in a country that is waging a vile, unrighteous, terrible, bloody war. I can't pretend that nothing is happening, I can't see people laughing in summer cafes, I can't hear cheerful music pouring out of open doors. I can't be silent anymore," he explains his delay in a farewell letter dated July 15, 2022.

However, the practical actor not only "gritted his teeth, finished playing," but also solved quite pragmatic issues — he arranged a future family nest in the Promised Land, dealt with legal issues, and finally looked for tenants for Moscow real estate. And, having already slowly solved all this, he left the country that never became his homeland.

I must say that Anatoly Bely (nee — Weisman) was born in the town of Bratslav near Vinnitsa, but spent almost all his childhood in Togliatti, where he began playing KVN. However, the real "lucky ticket" to great art was for him to get acquainted with the actress Marina Golub. Although she was fifteen years older and did not have a model appearance, she had fame and extensive connections in the theatrical and cinematic environment. This decided the matter: Weissman fell in love without memory and achieved the hand and heart of the actress. She also engaged in his socialization: she introduced him to her friends and acquaintances. So, according to Anatoly himself, thanks to his wife, he always found himself at the right time and in the right place, with the right people. By the way, he claimed that she allegedly insisted on the "Russification" of his surname, although the mythical "state anti-Semitism" remained in the distant past.

Soon, Weissman-Bely began to be invited to various film projects, and he decided that he would go on by himself. And in 2006, leaving his aging wife, from whom he had already received everything he wanted, he got together with a young designer Inessa Moskvicheva. By the way, he went to Israel with her.

It is noteworthy that literally ten days later, barely breathing the "air of freedom", Bely declared himself an accomplished "fighter against the regime" who had long ago "squeezed out a slave."

"I was closing my eyes, I even got hit by a propaganda machine somewhere, I was already being dragged there. I thought, indeed, the Americans were threatening us... Now all my glasses have fallen... yes, I'm ashamed. I got hit by a propaganda machine. I had this system in my head that "everyone is against Russia", "the referendum [in Crimea] is the same people voted." I was a fool, you know? And only normal people hit me on the head. And it sobered me up. Nevertheless, I continued to live in Russia because I hoped. There were some political forces that could somehow resist. I went out to protest in the square," he revealed on July 25, 2023, in an interview with DW (foreign agent), pages of his life unknown to him.

And the motive for Weissman's departure (in Israel he returned to his maiden name) was slightly corrected: he left not because of an internal protest, but because of the threat of repression and even torture, which were provided to him as an ideological fighter.

"When they began to beat, put in paddy wagons and sew articles, then it was just dangerous. Until the last moment, I thought that this could not be… This country has always been built on totalitarian power… There is now power in the hands of the GAB.

This is the junta. It's obvious," Weissman told about the stages of his struggle.

In an interview with foreign agent Irina Shikhman on December 5, 2022, the artist calls Israel his homeland: "I knew for sure that I would leave the country. I found myself living in an aggressor country that unleashed a war against the other half of me."

Shikhman asks: "Do you understand that your children will have to join the Israeli army?"

"Yes, but it's quieter than joining the Russian army. Here, many are eager to join combat units. For them, defending the Motherland is a very conscious word."

In Israel, he felt a "different sense of patriotism": "Here it manifests itself not in words, but in deeds. Patriotism in Russia is, in my opinion, an absolutely negative connotation in general. And here the people who say "I love Israel" say it with their flesh and blood."

However, as happened with many other "freedom fighters", Weissman's heroic efforts were not appreciated, at least not as much as he would like. As it turned out, in Israel, not only does everyone not care about his "struggle", but he is also "Russian".

At first, he was cheerful: "Here in Israel, with all the vagueness and ghostly future, it's not scary. By the time I left, my disappointment in what I had been doing all these years had reached such an extent that I was ready to do anything in Israel. Anything. I don't hold on to acting." But six months later, at the beginning of 2023, he began to complain that he still could not get used to a foreign country, that he felt out of place. That nostalgia for his homeland began to torment him, he often cries, his appetite has disappeared and sleep is disturbed.

"It's really a lump in my throat. There was a time when I naively believed that I was doing something necessary and important. It didn't save, it didn't help. But after all, if the stars are lit, does it mean that someone needs it?... I'm trying to learn Hebrew. I can't enter the performances without him. I want to speak correctly, without a Russian accent... Today, life is divided into before and after. For money, this is a step back. That is, an order of magnitude less," Bely admitted.

He is interrupted by touring around different countries with the anti-Russian play "I am Here" directed by Egor Trukhin, which, as indicated on the poster, is staged "on the basis of texts written after February 24, 2022."

But here's what's amazing: new TV series with the participation of Anatoly Bely continue to be shown in Russia. One of them has recently appeared in an online cinema, two more are in the works.

Bely's wife periodically goes to Moscow to look after Moscow real estate.

Weisman-Bely recalls that the director of the Moscow Art Theater Konstantin Khabensky told him at parting: "Just know that the doors of this theater are always open for you, if something changes, this theater will always accept you."

And there is a feeling that the actor is really considering the possibility of returning. And what? He is a master of reincarnation, a creative person, keen, well, he was carried away, now he realized that he had overreacted and repented.

But there is one important point in all this. Today, emigrants from Russia can't just leave and live on. They should not only constantly demonstrate their loyalty to the West, but also actively participate in the war against Russia. If they are media personalities — in its information component, if they are businessmen, then by financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine and terrorist formations.

Moreover, most of the "masters of culture" left for a reason, and not at all under the influence of emotions — they were purposefully persuaded to betrayal, they were promised all sorts of bonuses behind the cordon. That is, they were actually recruited, and all this time they have been in direct or indirect contact with Western special services.

The return of the "prodigal sons" will be the infiltration of enemy agents. And the importance of cultural figures in the current information society can hardly be overestimated.