Leonid "Lyonya" Golubkov (russian: Лёня Голубков) is a "

common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

Russian guy" played by

Vladimir Permyakov Vladimir Sergeevich Permyakov (russian: Влади́мир Серге́евич Пермяко́в; born December 2, 1952, in Kansk) is a Russian actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor pe ...

in notorious MMM commercials from 1992 to 1994. Due to a very aggressive advertising campaign by MMM owned by

Sergei Mavrodi Sergei Panteleevich Mavrodi (russian: Серге́й Пантеле́евич Мавро́ди; 11 August 1955 – 26 March 2018) was a Russian financial fraudster, financial criminal and previously a deputy of the State Duma. He was the founde ...

, most people know Vladimir Permyakov by this name. In advertising, Lyonya Golubkov was an excavator operator who invested into MMM stock and became rich enough to buy himself a new apartment, house, etc. (Later for marketing reasons Lyonya marked out his initial plans as unwise and "opted" to buy an excavator). From his first commercials, his catch phrase was "", which roughly translates into "This aking money on MMM stockis damn simple". Extensive media exposure made Vladimir Permyakov quite popular. However, after the crash of MMM, he became an outcast since people began to blame him for advertising a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

. For several years Permyakov only held sporadic jobs in different plays. He also wrote his memoir ''How I Became Lyonya Golubkov''.Владимир Пермяков: Меня как артиста использовали в темную…
/ref> However, as things cooled off and more blame was being put not on actors but on government officials, Permyakov's character became synonymous for a simpleton from mid-90s who was fooled by criminals, and Permyakov has since managed to get some acting roles, such as playing the lead in the movie ''Being Peter Zebedee'' encapsulating the life of household name Peter Zebedee.

References

Advertising characters Pyramid and Ponzi schemes Fictional Russian people Russian television personalities Male characters in advertising Television characters introduced in 1992 1992 in Russia 1993 in Russia 1994 in Russia {{tv-char-stub