Putin ‘played a Nazi soldier in war movie’

Vladimir Putin played a Nazi soldier as an extra in a 1970s war film, according to an acquaintance of the Russian president.

Vasily Shestakov, who once wrote a book with Putin about how to practise judo, said they both took bit parts in three films. Arkady Rotenberg, a friend and martial arts partner of Putin who is now a billionaire businessman, also took roles.

‘‘We all acted together in Blockade and The Izhorsk Battalion,’’ Shestakov said. He could not remember the name of the third film.

Shestakov, who is head of the International Sambo Federation, a martial arts organisation, said the young men took parts as both Soviet and German soldiers.

‘‘We didn’t care who we played,’’ he added. ‘‘We got paid what was very good money in those days. We were students. My engineer’s salary was 110 roubles [per month], but if there was filming going on I got 75 roubles a day.’’

Judo enthusiasts from St Petersburg such as Putin, who became a black belt, started taking parts in movies made by the city’s Lenfilm studio after Alexander Massarsky, a martial arts trainer, got a job there.

The studio did not have a stunts unit, so Massarsky brought in young sportsmen to fill minor roles that required physical agility.

‘‘There was no practice of tricks in cinema in the Soviet Union,’’ he recalled. ‘‘That all happened abroad, and no-one shared it with us. We did it our own way, getting bumps and bruises, and learning from each other.’’

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said he had no knowledge of the president having acted in films.