Fanatical Russian general portrayed by Steven Berkoff in Octopussy. Determined to convince the détente-conscious Soviet leadership that a successful military invasion of Western Europe is still possible, Orlov plans to detonate a nuclear weapon on the US Air Force’s Feldstadt Air Base in West Germany and blame the Americans. Such an “accident,” Orlov believes, will force the West to disarm unilaterally, destroying the nuclear deterrent along the border and allowing Soviet tanks and infantry to cross at will.
To accomplish this plot, Orlov makes a pact with an exiled Afghan prince named Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan), whose associate Octopussy (Maud Adams) owns an international circus that can gain access to the American base. In return, Orlov is offering a treasure trove of jewels stolen from the Kremlin Art Repository and replaced with duplicates created by his forgery expert, Lenkin (Peter Porteous). One of these forgeries, a jeweled Fabergé Easter egg, is stolen from East Berlin by 009 (Andy Bradford). When it ends up in the hands of the British Secret Service, Bond (Roger Moore) is sent on Operation Trove to find the egg’s real owner.
Orlov is first seen by Bond when the general arrives by Soviet helicopter at Kamal Khan’s Monsoon Palace in the mountains above Udaipur, India. Having escaped from his room, where he is being held prisoner, 007 tries to listen in on the Orlov/Kamal Khan conversation, but when the lovely Magda (Kristina Wayborn) uses her blow-dryer, it interferes with the bug that Bond has planted. All he hears is a time and a place: “one week” and “Karl-Marx-Stadt.”
Bond hightails it to Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany, where Octopussy’s circus is performing, and confronts Orlov, but the general escapes when his Soviet guards attack. Now pursued by fellow Russian general Gogol (Walter Gotell), who has discovered Orlov’s forged jewelry operation, Orlov makes it to the West German border. But when he crosses illegally, he’s gunned down by East German border guards. Gogol stands over him, branding him a thief and a disgrace to his uniform. With his dying gasp, Orlov says, “Yes, but tomorrow I shall be a hero of the Soviet Union.”
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