Leonid

[Magda]

sooooo Ruth, you can post all your info now lol

[Annie]

Sorry Jiat, guess you were just being efficient, but I'd like the Leonid thread to stay in the Marat Forum, because he's Marat's friend.

I'm just gathering all the info together, will post it shortly ;D

[sirius]

no prob. mags and i were just wondering where to put it

[Annie]

Ok, so if you’re reading this thread, I guess you like Leonid Nerushenko too! Well, I’m just going to post all my info for anyone interested and feel free to post your stuff here too.

Leonid Nerushenko is one of Marat's childhood friends, and they used to play at Spartak Moscow tennis club together as children. Marat also used to go to Leonid's grandmother's where they did their homework together! Leonid was part of a Russian hip-hop trio called 'Dynamit' until December 2003. He also presented the Sunday Chart on MTV Russia for a while.

Biography:

BIRTHDAY: 14 DECEMBER 1977

LIVES: MOSCOW

HEIGHT: 1.84m/ 6'1"

WEIGHT: 70 kg.

EYES: BLUE

HAIR: BLOND/BROWN

LOVES: HIP-HOP & MOTORCYCLES

Leonid is described as an aesthetic, an intellectual and a scholar, capable of guessing any 'riddle' [musical key??] in any "guess melody". He was schooled near VDNKH (Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR) but was a 'hooligan' and tried to get himself expelled for bad behaviour twice! Did 5 years of piano and 2 years in the choral department, and also found time to play tennis.
His parents were diplomats/ambassadors and in 1990 they moved to Stockholm, Sweden. He attended the American High School for two years, then three years at Sweden's top international school. It was there he became very close with the black community ('gangsters') and was immersed in hip-hop culture. This was because, as a Russian, he found the Swedes unwilling to make friends with him and it was the equally rejected black students who adopted him. After that he went to Finland in 1995 and studied for a 'certificate of Russian School'. He was going to study there and progress to the institute of foreign languages, but it didn't happen. A random meeting with Dynamit's producer led to Leonid joining almost immediately. He left Dynamit in December 2003. He likes to fly to Ibiza every spare moment and not just party there at the clubs but absorb new musical ideas and trends and share them with the band after returning. Leonid was also chosen to be VJ (TV Presenter) for Russia's MTV music chart countdown.

Little bits of random info I’ve picked up from all over the place:

Full name: Leonid Mikhailovich Nerushenko (yep, same middle name as Marat!)

Nicknames: Ermm… well… people seem to call him ‘Lenya’ and I once heard Marat call him ‘Lenny’ (or maybe that was just my bad hearing?). Some fans also refer to him as ‘Leo’ but don’t know if this is what he likes being called.

Leonid is good friends with fellow pop star, Dima Bilan. He's also mates with a guy called Timoti, who was in the final 3 of Russian Pop Idol (thingy) called something like 'Factory of the stars' (very communism inspired )

Leonid was supposed to have a cameo in the cult Russian film 'Даже не думай 2' But since I've never seen the film and haven't heard anything more, I've no idea if he did it in the end.

Like Marat, he also has a tattoo on his right bicep, of a snake wrapped around an orchid, which represents the Chinese Year of the Snake (year he was born)

He seems to like blondes (*rollseyes*) and has/had an off/on relationship with Xenia Sobchak for some time (click here to read about her www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/international/europe/29MOSC.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5007&en=dafa13c9a3923534&ex=1374811200&partner=USERLAND ) He’s also dated a few fellow popstars and basically.....he likes women ;D I've no idea if he's single at the moment, but probably not *lol*

Ok, the biggest request I get is usually ‘where can I download his music videos?’ Well, there are a few places:

www.3mp3.ru
This is a subscription download site (in many languages) but it’s incredibly cheap ($4.55 for 1 month which is about £2!) There are 9 full-length good quality Dinamit videos you can download once you’ve registered and paid, averaging around 30/40mb (although the ‘Jamaika’ video is 99mb!) Also check out the Evelina Bledans and Dima Bilan music video sections for Dinamit guest appearances.

Dinamit music downloads: 3mp3.ru/eng/artist/1083/Dinamit
Dinamit music videos: 3mp3.ru/eng/vartist/137/
Evelina Bledans video: 3mp3.ru/eng/clip/3529
Dima Bilan video: 3mp3.ru/eng/clip/3526

The official dynamit website has all their videos but most are only sample versions and the quality is really bad, so you can’t see much. www.dynamit.ru/html/clips/clips.htm

There was also a rare live perfomance of Dinamit on a TV show available for download from www.liberdvd.com but that site seems to have closed/been moved? A lot of people had trouble downloading it because you again had to pay a subscription, but you couldn't use credit/debit cards.

Video List
Here’s the list (spelt phonetically in latin alphabet!) of Dinamit music videos that Leo appears in:

Bely Sneg (White Snow)
Kuda Uzh Lushche (Where it’s already better)
La La La
Moja Moskva (My Moscow)
Tvoe Telo (Your Body)
Ubegaju (I runaway)
Jamaika (Jamaica)
Leto (Summer) [also called ‘Mad Summer’]
Krasivie Slova (Beautiful Words)
Nezabudu/Ja Nezabudu (I won’t forget you)
Nikamu nizachto nikagda (No way, on no account, never)

Other Videos with Leo in:

Pridium Liubov – Evelina Bledans (download from: http://www.bledans.ru)
Ty Tolko Ty – Dima Bilan (download from http://www.dima-bilan.ru)
Dynamit I.D for muz.ee (download from: www.muz.ee/multimedia/video/id/dynamit.mpg )

Beijing Videos:
Just in case anyone missed them, Leo was in some videos with Marat taken during Marat’s Promotional tour of Beijing back in November 2003.

At the Opera
Playing in the Snow
Historical Visit
Trailer
Rivulets Highlight 1
Rivulets Highlight 2
Rivulets Highlight 3

You can download all of them here: www.theguyfromrussia.com/videos.htm


Leonid on the internet:

With regards to photos of Leo, there’s no main website, just lots of very small (and very slow) fansites devoted to either him or Dinamit. There are no English websites about him (I wonder why?!) so it’s best to surf the sites using a translation tool like babelfish or prompt (www.translate.ru) Here are the main fan/info sites:

kto-v-chem.ru/index.php?sct=16&pid=137
miramax.sitecity.ru/index.phtml
www.iii-dynamit.sitecity.ru/
www.komi.com/Dinamit/index.html
www.clubprom.ru/reports/report_detail.htm?rlink=0006_news_dinamit
yo-school524.narod.ru/dinamit.html
dynamit-fk.narod.ru/
www.superdynamit.narod.ru/index.html
dynamit-zona.narod.ru/
peoples.ru/art/music/pop/dinamit/
bofed.h11.ru/ne.html

I have a collection of Leo photos but they’re not online in a gallery. If people are interested, I can create a small Leo page on TGFR with the photos at a later date.
I have some funny stories about Leonid & Marat which I'll post later and also some personal impressions from me and other fans who've met him But I think that's the main stuff dealt with for now ;D

[Elisabeth]

Thank you Ruth for all this informations about Leonid!! ;D
Really interesting!
it's certainly a nice guy....like Marat!

[Magda]

Ey Ruth thanks for that!! And well... I'm interested in pics . And of course I can't wait to read the stories about him and Marat. I believe they must be hilarious

[Elisabeth]

Magda said:

Ey Ruth thanks for that!! And well... I'm interested in pics . And of course I can't wait to read the stories about him and Marat. I believe they must be hilarious

Yeah me too I'm interested in pics!!hahaha!! ;D
And i can't wait to see what stupidity marat and leonid mad!!! ;D

[Annie]

Well, here's a few extra stories about Leonid (the Marat ones are a bit longer, so I'll save them till later, when I have more time)

Leonid got into Dynamit almost by accident! He was meeting a friend in a hotel in Moscow, but the friend hadn't arrived. Leo waited in the lobby for a while, then went outside to call his friend. The friend said to go back inside and wait. So Leo goes back inside the hotel, and Yuri Azienships (Dynamit producer) approached him. He had noticed Leonid straight away and said 'Are you auditioning today?' Leonid was like 'No, I'm waiting for a friend.' So Yuri asked 'Can you sing?' Leo said yes. 'Can you dance?' Leo was like 'Sure' (Humility is not his strong point ). So Yuri said 'We've got auditions for a new band upstairs - I'd really like you to audition.' So Leonid did, and he got the job! I'm not sure if the friend not arriving was just coincidence, or whether Leo's friend had deliberately arranged it.

Before then, Leonid had worked as a Hotel Manager (when he was like 17!) and was in charge of everything. He also worked as a professional translator, and translated press releases/subtitles etc for films like Babe and Mission Impossible 2 from english into Russian!

I read a funny story (I'll try to find the Russian link) about Dynamit. They were visiting a zoo [with friends, it said, so you never know: maybe Marat was there!] They really liked the monkey cage and there was one monkey inparticular they thought was really funny. So they asked the girl who was feeding them if they could hold the monkey. But she said no, it's too dangerous. Anyway, they chatted to the girl and she gave them food to feed the monkey etc. Finally, she gave in and said they could come into the monkey cage with her. But as she opened the door, the monkey escaped and ran off into the zoo! She began to chase the monkey and locked Dynamit & friends inside the cage!
They were stuck inside the cage while the zoo rangers found the monkey, but they were there for about an hour or something. Anyway, they were getting hungry, and people were walking past the cage, laughing at them and recognising the people inside. So fans started to ask for autographs, which they pushed through the bars, and in exchange, Dynamit got the kids to feed them chocolate bars while they waited because they were so hungry! (Sounds like Marat must have been there if food was involved ;D)

[Magda]

ROTRLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Annie]

Here's a hilarious photo of Marat and Leonid that Nelia sent me a few days ago (Thanks Nelia )
It was taken in Moscow 2002, I'm pretty sure it was at a Davis Cup practice session.

[Nélia]

Ruth said:

Here's a hilarious photo of Marat and Leonid that Nelia sent me a few days ago (Thanks Nelia )
It was taken in Moscow 2002, I'm pretty sure it was at a Davis Cup practice session.

It was at Dina's match

[Annie]

From this year? Seriously? Because I have a series of photos that are identical to this with Marat & Amit (& Lenya in background) at this stadium with exact same clothes on from 2003

[Nélia]

it was taken during the kremlin cup 2002

[Nélia]

[Annie]

Sorry, my fault, I misunderstood you. :-[I thought you meant the photo was taken this year watching Dinara play.... I don't know why thought that - I've got to stop watching TV and typing at the same time!
Yep, Kremlin Cup 2002; we're talking about the same thing

Awwww....some of my fave pics of Leo! I've just realised how sad I am, because I know where all those photos were taken.....Like I wasn't sad enough about Marat, now I'm being pathetic about his best mate....