Hollywood star Tom Cruise met with fans Monday on Pushkin Square ahead of the Russian premiere of his new film “Valkyrie,” about a 1944 plot by German officers to assassinate Hitler.

Cruise flew into Moscow on a private jet Sunday and stayed at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, local media reported. Cruise, who plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the officer who spearheaded the unsuccessful plot to kill Hitler, told a news conference that he had long wanted to come to Russia.

“I’ve always dreamed of coming to Moscow, St. Petersburg,” he said, RIA-Novosti reported.

The actor cancelled a trip in 2004 for the premiere of the film “Collateral” after terrorist attacks brought down two airliners in Russia. He has already promoted his new film in South Korea, Britain and Germany.

Cruise has long been a proponent of the controversial Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, though he appeared to have little time for his fellow Scientologists in Russia.

“He is coming on a business trip that has no relation with religion,” said Natalya Alexeyeva, a spokeswoman for the movement in Moscow. “But, by the way, on Sunday we are going to be 15 years in Moscow.”

(Source: The Moscow Times)