In the 1980s Robert De Niro was a frequent guest in the USSR. His visits were mainly related to work, but De Niro spent a plenty of time walking around Moscow and communicating with his cinema colleagues from the Soviet Union.
For the first time De Niro came to Moscow in 1982, he was supposed to play a cameo role in Emil Loteanu’s film Anna Pavlova. But, by some quirk of fate, the USSR State Committee for Cinematography did not approve the actor. However, this fact didn’t upset Robert very much: it was a pleasure for him to communicate with his new friends - Soviet actors Mikhail Kozakov, Oleg Yankovsky and Andrey Mironov.
De Niro was especially amused by the fact, that people passing by recognized Kozakov, but did not recognize him, at that point of time a worldwide known star.
