Gurchenko and Freundlich followed his masculine charm: the secret of TV presenter Urmas Ott

Nothing. Two people who no longer exist are sitting opposite each other. But thanks to TV, this particular program, they are and will be. Listen, without any pathos, mysticism and blind faith: but this is immortality.

Urmas Ott passed away very early, at 53 years old. I remember well how he appeared on Soviet television, here in Moscow, on Central Television – 1986, perestroika, the very beginning. There is still neither “Vzglyad”, nor “Before and After Midnight”, nor the famous Leningrad television programs that made him famous. But there is a simple Estonian guy. He’s in his thirties. He is already a star in Estonia, and someone in Moscow, at Gosteleradio, came up with the idea to invite a provincial to the “best city on Earth” and do a series of interviews with the very, very cream of society.

Who were the “cream” then? Ilya Glazunov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Evgeny Evstigneev, Iosif Kobzon, Raymond Pauls, Innokenty Smoktunovsky… But this guy appears and overturns all the canons of Soviet television. No admiration for the masters (this is a conversation on equal terms), a conversation on the verge of a foul (but never crosses it), a mixture of personal, creative and monetary. “I want to know everything” is the slogan not only of the TV magazine, but also of the newly minted presenter Urmas Ott. He works for us, for us, we see in him our guy who crawled through, went into the holy of holies, there, to the very top, to them, the inhabitants of heaven, and let them tell us how, what and how much. The people want to know.

And the time began, it seemed, so honest and open. We must comply.

Urmas matched like no other. With all due respect, he cut the “firsts” without a knife, he got into the very soul.

And they succumbed to him, opened up like never before with anyone. Women, of course, Gurchenko and Alisa Freindlich, simply fell for his masculine charm – oh, what a boy! – and also smart, damn courteous, just handsome. But famous men also fell in love with him in the same human way. They were ready to go with him on reconnaissance, they were ready to give him everything. It’s some kind of hypnosis, an aura, magic, but it happened. And he, Urmas, knew everything about them, they sat in front of him, as if in confession, “naked”, as if in a bathhouse. This was the leader, the first sign of perestroika.

So he worked in Moscow until 1993. During this time, a large country flourished and fell apart, Urmas became a friend among strangers, a stranger among his own (straight according to Mikhalkov), from his boyfriend he turned into a foreigner, and then it all ended with an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, the first president and the last secretary general, who lost everything, a loser , but remained a normal person.

Ott went to live abroad in Estonia, worked a lot, but in the default year of 1998, again someone from Moscow (and this was Anelya Merkulova) called him to the capital of another state with a painfully familiar slogan: “We can repeat it.” Or enter the same river again.

And he repeated and entered. Why not. Yes, now in a new status: he is a European, and we are… Eurasians? Asians? But the people are the same! I remember it now: Urmas meets Alla Borisovna in the Prague restaurant, Igor Nikolaev is with her. They all go to him again, as if they were making an appointment, in line. They are still interested in telling him the inside story, showing all their cards. It is an honor for them to meet such a journalist.

“We haven’t met for 10 years,” Urmas told Kobzon at the beginning of their second meeting. “Eleven and a half,” corrected Joseph Davydovich. He remembered everything, because that first meeting with Urmas became a revelation for Kobzon.

…Those high-profile interviews of 1998 are over. That’s when I met Ott. He was very modest and tried not to attract attention to himself. And still the same sweater… He was in his forties. But putting on an expensive suit from sponsors before recording and fastening a bow tie, Urmas was transformed, becoming a sleek, polished socialite. In fact, he played the role, he played it well. No, and sometimes I was like that, the position obliged me… But I was also terribly lonely, no family, no children.

Left for Estonia. Then the illness… He was treated, worked, worked, treated… Alone… They began to forget him. Then only radio, Russian-language.

Suddenly there was a call to the small Russian channel “Nostalgia” live: “Do you still remember me?” It was Urmas Ott. Soon he died…

…And you say Larry King. And you say Oprah Winfrey. What do these Americans mean to us? When we had Urmas Ott. Such Urmas Ott! So what do we need about Oprah and Larry in dazzling suspenders? Can they be compared with Urmas? With our Urmas! No, no way.

But Urmas left and did not promise to return. He was in his early fifties…