The American media appreciated the image of Putin in the film by Oliver Stone & nbsp. Oliver Stone on Vladimir Putin: The Russian people have never lived so well Peaceful sleep and thoughts of death
The first episode of Oliver Stone's film has been released. The Russian leader, among other things, said that at first he did not want to become prime minister and for some time he was in doubt
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin/Reuters
Oliver Stone's documentary about the Russian president has begun airing. The first part of the four-episode picture Putin Interviews was shown on June 12 on the American TV channel Showtime.
In particular, Vladimir Putin told Oliver Stone that he had some doubts when Yeltsin offered him the post of prime minister in 1999:
Putin: When Yeltsin offered me the first time, I refused.
Stone: Refused?
Putin: Yes, right here, in the next office, he invited me, said that he would like to appoint me as prime minister and would like me to run for president later. I said that this is a very big responsibility, it should change my whole life, and I'm not sure that I'm ready for this.
In the first episode, the words of the Russian president, already mentioned in the media, about US sponsorship of terrorists in the North Caucasus and Russia's non-interference in the affairs of other countries were heard. In addition, the president told Oliver Stone about his personal life: he rarely spends time with his grandchildren, although he is proud of them, and also shared that he never has nightmares.
Three more episodes of a documentary film about the Russian president will be released in the coming days on Showtime. It is one of the most popular cable channels in the US. Its program mainly consists of series of its own production. Among them, the Russian audience is familiar with, for example, "Dexter", Homeland, or "Motherland", "Stargate" and Californication. Part of the air is allocated for broadcasting sports events and, as in the case of Oliver Stone's picture, for documentaries.
American media journalists note that recently the documentary program of the channel has been increasingly shifting towards politics. So, films about WikiLeaks and ex-Congressman Anthony Wiener, caught in intimate correspondence with minors, were aired. When Oliver Stone offered them his film about Vladimir Putin, Showtime management immediately agreed to purchase the broadcasting rights, the channel's director of documentaries told Variety. “This is a portrait of one of the most provocative and influential world leaders, who, according to the American authorities, is one of the most dangerous people in the world. It is this content that we have decided to show in recent years, ”the portal quotes the words of a Showtime representative. The channel is paid, the total number of subscribers is not disclosed, but more than one and a half million people have subscribed to the online version of Showtime alone.
Oliver Stone is known in the US and around the world for the films "Platoon", "Scarface" and "Midnight Express", which were filmed back in the 70s and 80s. In recent decades, the director has become interested in documentaries, and often emphatically critical of American politics. In particular, Stone made films about Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, fugitive intelligence officer Edward Snowden and three times about Fidel Castro. After the Kyiv Maidan, which the director called "a CIA special operation," Stone released the film "Ukraine on Fire." How will a new documentary about Putin be received by a politically mature audience in the US?
Political scientist “I think that the film will arouse a certain interest in the United States, of course, not among wide circles of American television viewers - they are not very actively interested in foreign policy and do not delve into such details as are discussed in the Oliver Stone film, but for the American establishment, that part of it that deals with foreign policy, Putin is an extremely interesting figure, the most promoted in the American media, the most recognizable. He has mixed respect and fear from the American elite, so I think the film will generate interest and be watched very carefully by this part of the American establishment. Moreover, this film will be quite popular among the American academic community, in universities and colleges where both foreign policy and Russia are studied and where there is considerable interest in Putin as a very serious modern political brand, personality. I think that some parts of the film, some quotes, may be more widely distributed, but the film itself, which consists of four parts, most Americans will not watch. Of all living foreign politicians, Putin has the most interest among Americans, incomparable with the interest in people about whom Stone has made films before. Stone partly enjoys the prestige that he earned in the previous decade, when he was considered one of the most prominent American directors and producers. In recent years, his position has become too politicized and marginalized, so he is treated as a person of deep talent, but whose views are not those of the majority. Therefore, it seems to me that there will be a slightly biased and condescendingly cautious attitude towards him.
To promote the film in the United States, Oliver Stone did not hesitate to use provocative methods. The poster posted on the director's Twitter shows Vladimir Putin and Oliver Stone staring at him with the caption "Know your enemy."
The veteran cinematographer is accused of fawning over Putin while filming a four-hour documentary about the Russian leader, but he refuses to repent. Will this be the climax of his career?
“Have you ever been beaten?” Vladimir Putin asks Oliver Stone towards the end of an extraordinary four-hour documentary about the Russian leader. "Yes," Stone replies. “Then it won’t be anything new for you because you will get hurt for what you are doing,” the Russian executive says before leaving a room that evokes memories of the Sistine Chapel mixed with interior designer Donald Trump’s wildest fantasies.
In this case, Putin was right. The Daily Beast called the epic four-part movie Putin (The Putin Interview) a "terribly irresponsible love letter" to the Russian president. “This movie says as much about Oliver Stone as it does about Vladimir Putin,” CNN said. "Flattery with a little skepticism," the New York Times said.
Pretty harsh words for a project considering it took a lifetime of achievement to get it and two years to get it done. Stone against such statements? “You know, it reflects in films. You work very hard on a film, and sometimes it is judged more by the personality of the creator than by the content. In this sense, I can say that I am black. It's not the content, not the content of my character, but the nature of my investigation.
Stone is a multifaceted person. Sitting in the posh Conrad Hotel in Manhattan in a room with a picture of Elizabeth Peyton hanging on the wall, he looks like a real Oscar-winning director who made classics like Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers, and at the same time time the dummy film "Alexander" (where Alexander the Great was played by Colin Farrell). He wrote the script for Scarface, and in the film Wall Street he gave her a brief and succinct description: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works." He is a decorated Vietnam War veteran. And he's not black. Although it is precisely because of such statements that men of his age (almost always men) get into trouble today. At the risk of losing the rest of the interview, which has just begun, I ignore these words, wanting to listen to him.
This decision, but on a much larger scale, brought trouble to Stone's project. In the first half of his documentary, Putin confesses that he doesn't have bad days because he is "not a woman." “I don’t want to offend anyone,” he says, doing just that. “It's just in the nature of things. There are certain natural cycles." He also admits that he wouldn't shower with a gay man. “Why provoke him? But you know that I am a master of sports in judo.” And these are the words of the leader of a country that has a disgusting attitude towards the rights of the LGBT community.
Stone ignores these comments. Why doesn't he argue with Putin? "It's none of my business," says the director. He wanted to create a complete portrait of perhaps the most mesmerizing and intimidating leader of this generation. Thinking so, Stone wants you to know this. He is trying not to change Putin's thinking, but to show it.
Context
Stone: afterword to the film
The New York Times 06/11/2017Oliver Stone solves Putin's mystery?
The Guardian 06/12/2017 Los Angeles Times 06/13/2017Stone's more important point is that Putin is not very different from many world leaders, even when it comes to social issues. "Was Obama against same-sex marriage before 2014 or 2015?" Stone asks. (In fact, until 2012, but his arguments are convincing and fair, and it’s better not to even start talking about the Clintons.) “So what's the problem? Everyone wants to be on the front lines, but they have to say politically correct words, although in America they do something completely different, and at every fucking show. Comedian Bill Marr says nonsense (this TV presenter recently called Four Or by saying the indecent word "Niger"), but everyone has a sharp desire to participate in the orgy of condemnation for the sin. That's all. They like to do it. With Trump - too, Stone says.
What does Stone think of Donald Trump? “Don’t catch me on this,” the director replies. - It will be in the headlines. Instead of talking about my movies, there will be talk about these headlines.”
“The press is interested with Trump, it’s like a game, it’s exciting, but it doesn’t meet the needs of a civilization for which the main thing is peace, security, peace, security, peace, security. And we don't do that."
Most of the reviews for Stone's Putin film were written when critics watched the first two hours. It shows a sympathetically painted portrait of Putin, and tells of his emergence from the Yeltsin era, reminiscent of the Wild West, which Stone describes as "mad capitalism and alcoholism, a sort of Dostoyevsky orgy." However, "Interview with Putin" becomes more critical in its content in subsequent episodes. In the second half of the film, Stone puts pressure on Putin, asking him questions about the US election hacks, the oligarchs, and how long he intends to stay in power. Putin's sphinx-like mask cracks from time to time, but he remains a deadpan black belt judoka.
In a certain sense, the election of Trump was just right for Stone. The DNC hacks allegedly carried out by Russian agents and Trump's seeming sympathy for Putin before the election make Stone's film highly relevant and timely. None of this would have happened if America had elected President Clinton.
Everyone wants to know what Putin thinks about Trump and the alleged Russian hacking of the American elections. Unfortunately, Putin says little about this. He calls the accusations of hacking “stupid”. “Of course, we liked the idea of electing Trump, and we still like him, as he has publicly declared his willingness to restore Russian-American relations.” That's what Putin said. He also added that it would be nice to establish economic cooperation and a joint fight against terrorism.
But Stone continues to insist on his own. “So why did you decide to hack during the election?” Putin looks down at his own nails and then replies, "Russia doesn't do that." Stone continues and asks him about Russia's ability to carry out cyberattacks. Putin does not reveal anything. But, says Stone, he “looks a lot like a fox just out of a chicken coop.”
There are no "yeah, gotcha" moments in the film, but the director's goal, Stone says, is to start the debate, not end it. For many in the United States, Putin, in the words of McCain, is a "butcher", "bandit" and a more terrible threat than ISIS ( an organization banned in Russia - approx. per.). And according to Stone, the public should be concerned about the digital capabilities of the United States. The world is a dangerous place, and both sides had bad intentions. Simply demonizing Putin, and with him Russia, is both dangerous and wrong, Stone says. “They have freedom of religion, they do what they want. They travel, and Russians have never lived better than now. But, of course, in America they believe that they are unhappy, they live in a dictatorship, in Stalin's gulag camps, that this monster tortures them all. It's just crazy. And the British are even worse,” says the director. “I mean, these are Murdoch’s lies, he lied about the whole world, and these lies led to wars.”
Such a view won't get much support in the corridors of power in Washington or London. And it will be challenged by many Russians, including Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been jailed and physically attacked for leading protests against Putin's regime.
As if to emphasize how little this documentary will satisfy Putin's many critics, it will be shown in Russia without censorship cuts. It is clear that much of it will please the Russian establishment.
But while the merits of Stone's film are debatable, there is no doubt that he and longtime fellow producer Fernando Sulichin scored a resounding victory. They first met Putin when they were working on a film about NSA operative and whistleblower Edward Snowden. Sulikhin, exuding a severe charm, achieves what he needs. During the filming of Spike Lee's Malcolm X, he persuaded the Saudis to allow filming in Mecca. This was the first time that Riyadh had agreed to shoot a feature film in the holy city.
Putin was also persuaded, and they made this film for two years, taking more than a dozen interviews with the Russian leader, mostly in February of this year, immediately after the US presidential election. Kremlin scholars are immersed in deciphering what we can learn (and whether we can at all) about the role of Russia and Putin in Ukraine, about cyber attacks, about Syria. All this became the subject of lengthy discussions that forced experts to pore over each frame in search of signs and hints of this most slippery statesman. But the average viewer is simply fascinated by the opportunity to see Putin so close, for many hours.
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The Sydney Morning Herald 04/30/2017There are lighter moments in this film, and not all of them are premeditated. Putin and Stone are a very strange couple. A scruffy, angular, bear-like Hollywood savage and a suave, enigmatic politician. It's more like David Frost vs Richard Nixon Frost interviewed Nixon after his resignation from the presidency - approx. per.), but at Balu with Sherkhan, who moved from the Jungle Book to the Kremlin.
Sometimes it's like a game like "you to me - I to you." As they walk down the corridor to Putin's office (it used to be Stalin's), the TV accidentally shows Putin's speech in Munich in 2007, in which he refused diplomatic courtesy and accused the United States of provoking a nuclear arms race, of "almost uncontained exaggerated use of force in international affairs.
“You could be a movie star,” Stone says, looking at the screen and playing the trump card of flattery. They go to Putin's office, and he responds with a compliment for a compliment: Stone's book The Untold History of the United States is on his desk. Putin supposedly reads a lot, but this book looks like it hasn't been touched.
There is another revealing scene. Stone is preparing to film a sequence in which Putin is to walk into a room and the couple will act like they haven't spoken in months. "Started!" Stone screams. Nothing happens. “Start,” he repeats. Nothing again. He asks to call the interpreter. Still nothing. Here the camera pans to Putin as he enters, winking at her as he carries two cups of coffee. If you had any doubts about who was in charge on the set, now you are completely at a loss.
But Sulikhin sees this scene differently. He says that Putin is shy around the camera. In his opinion, Putin is cheerful, good-natured, and very humane. According to others, even the sight of a playful Putin makes people shudder. Sometimes it is very difficult to separate the message from the messenger. Stone understands this well. Now he seems a little tired and bored. “Everything I have done has been studied in a certain light. The artist is very limited. I hate it. I'm trying to avoid that, and as you can see, I've made a wide variety of films. I would like to do more, but there are always some obstacles on the way. I kept my independence, I didn't make a single film that I didn't want to make. I am responsible for all my paintings, including those that were not well received. But even at my age, I do what I think is right. If you don’t have a feeling of freedom in your heart, you will never reconcile with yourself, ”says the director.
What's next? Stone is pleased that Jeremy Corbyn did such a good job in the UK elections. “First of all, I like Corbyn's foreign policy. I know he was chosen for some other reason, like playing free bingo bingo or whatever. In England they are crazy. But if we talk about foreign policy, then he understands it better than any other Western politician and understands what is needed to save the world, what changes the world needs.” Maybe his next project will be a documentary about the Labor leader? “He is part of that change. And he can clearly articulate them. But the problem is to keep the English Conservatives, not to let them get to the top, because they are so angry, these rightists in England. They always want to start a war somewhere. You know, it reminds me of Winston Churchill, who said: “We need to kill someone.”
But there are early signs that Stone is about to retire. In his
The US press greeted Oliver Stone's film coldly, which, of course, is expected: why would the local journalists praise the director who has been criticizing the American state system for many years, and even more so the hero of his new work? Nevertheless, almost all the largest newspapers of the country made detailed reviews, dismantling each of the four episodes piece by piece.
Most publicists complain that Stone "departed from the principles of critical journalism", while at the same time noting the bright sides of his work. “Putin appears to be a tough but fair leader, surrounded by slanderous Westernizers,” writes a columnist for The Washington Post, acknowledging that “Stone, with his leftist views, is destroying the stereotypes in the press of perception of Russia.”
But what about ordinary Americans? The film on the Showtime channel was on at 9 pm - in fact, some cool series is on at that time ... “Among my acquaintances,“ Interview with Putin ”is not discussed,” says the ex-correspondent of KP Nadezhda Shulga, who has been living in Washington. “But that’s because it’s generally not customary here to talk about politics outside the closest circle of friends.” But a listener of Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda, our former compatriot from Detroit, said that "everything that concerns Putin is of great interest to ordinary Americans."
In the United States, we recall, many believe that Russian hackers influenced the last presidential election, so Stone's film was guaranteed high ratings.
On the Web, US citizens feel more relaxed. “This documentary shows Putin and Russia from an unexpected angle,” says one Mike from San Francisco on the website of the popular film encyclopedia imdb.com. - The mainstream media and most Americans have strong negative associations with Russia. And this despite the fact that most often they know little about Russian history. The film provides an opportunity to try to understand Putin and the Russian people, and not just condemn. Highly recommend!".
By the way, audience ratings on movie sites speak eloquently about the perception of Stone's work. On the same imdb.com, Interview with Putin has a score of 7.6/10. For comparison: The Revenant, for which Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar, has a slightly higher rating: 8/10.
How did Putin react to Trump's victory? Film by Oliver Stone
FOURTH SERIES
Vladimir Putin to Oliver Stone: Have you been beaten yet? For this movie you will get
The President spoke about the demonization of Stalin, the Obama Politburo and the intrigue of the 2018 elections
THIRD SERIES
Vladimir Putin: We didn't have simple times. We must thank the Lord that he gives us the opportunity to serve our country
The President spoke about Russia's relations with the United States, Ukraine and Syria ()
SECOND SERIES
Vladimir Putin: Someone dreams of seeing Russia knocked out, but they know that this will not happen
In the second part of the Oliver Stone interview film, the president spoke about Snowden, Ukraine and how he started playing hockey ()
FIRST EPISODE
Vladimir Putin: The United States has the illusion that they can do everything and they will get nothing for it. It was a trap
The President, in an interview with director Oliver Stone, spoke about the mistakes of Washington, the refusal to Yeltsin and his grandchildren ()
Vladimir Putin to Oliver Stone: Have you been beaten yet? For this movie you will get
The President spoke about the demonization of Stalin, the Obama Politburo and the intrigue of the 2018 elections
The American cable channel Showtime premiered a four-hour documentary called The Putin Interviews. The tape of the famous American director will be shown in four episodes from 12 to 15 June. The main slogan on the posters: "Know your opponent." The director himself explained that he created a film about Putin in order for the United States to hear and understand a different point of view, in order to prevent a further deterioration in relations. And, it is worth noting, the Russian president revealed himself to the American film director to a much greater extent than to the domestic media. got acquainted with the first series and notes: the Russian public will learn something new about its leader.
Challenged or charmed
“Let him speak. After all, I am also a playwright, I encourage my actors to be better, to speak out, to perform, ”the film director recalled his professional skills in an interview. The Showtime channel promoted the film about Putin like a good TV show. Still, the art of television serial films has risen in America to unprecedented heights. For several weeks, public interest was fueled by teasers, and each was news, some were almost a scandal. Stone himself readily gave out interviews, and the first two episodes were shown to the press.
And there were many reproaches: they say, he fell under the spell of a politician; it is not the director who directs the hero, it is the hero who directs the director, viewers-journalists wrote. And Stone does not hide the fact that Putin impressed him: “The way he defends Russian interests, the way he works. With discipline and perseverance. No American president has worked like that."
The filmmaker worked on the material for more than two years, during which time a dozen interviews were recorded - dozens of hours of pure time. The Kremlin claims that they do not know how he compiled the final material. Like, you can expect anything from him: a talented and recognized person, unless you ask him to “coordinate the material”. On trips around Russia, the director was accompanied by a whole film crew. They were allowed into the Kremlin offices (not at all the ones that Russian TV viewers are used to seeing), they were shown sports training (this is already familiar) and they were given a ride in a car driven personally by Putin (we have not seen this for a long time either).
Photo: filmstills.net / Globallookpress.com
In the promo video, questions are asked one by one: do you want to be a tsar (against the background of the throne in the Andreevsky Hall of the Kremlin), why did you hack our elections, did you make a mistake in Crimea? Stone claims that he tried to press on all the pain points. Many people think that they didn't. “You may think that I behaved gently, but no. I challenged, behaved more and more boldly,” he intrigues. Again according to the laws of the genre.
Peaceful sleep and thoughts of death
Stone's conversations with Putin are valuable primarily for their novelty. Stone experimented (after all, not every interviewer will put the interlocutor in the conditions of a submarine and a soul with a gay), touched on personal topics. Unlike Putin's recent interviews with a TV presenter or a French one, there were no questions that had bothered everyone for a long time.
Does the President of Russia sleep well? The director himself admitted that with such work he would have lost sleep. But no, Putin sleeps very well, he does not have nightmares. Isn't he afraid of an assassination attempt, moreover, by personal guards? “I trust them,” Putin replied. - Do you know what the Russians say? Whoever is destined to be hanged will not drown.” One day death will come to everyone, "the only question is what will you have time to do in this world, were you happy." And until we are “carried to the cemetery in white slippers”, there is always hope. Including the improvement of relations with the United States.
The Russian president also commented on the desire to become tsar attributed to him: “The question is to dispose of at least the power that you have. And do it right." Putin believes that the Western media call him the tsar because they like the image: "They can't get rid of these old stereotypes."
Childhood and the collapse of the USSR
The first series of the TV project was devoted mainly to the events of the distant past. Putin told Stone about his parents. He recalled that his father started the war in special units, then was sent to the army, to one of the most dangerous sectors of the Leningrad front. Before his birth, his parents lost two children, one of them during the blockade of Leningrad. Putin was a late child, but his parents always worked very hard. “I lived in a very free mode, spent a lot of time on the street, in the yard. Since I started doing judo, it has changed my life for the better,” Putin said.
When the conversation turned to the events of 1991, Putin clarified his phrase about the collapse of the USSR as the main catastrophe of the 20th century. “I often heard criticism in my address that I regret the collapse of the Soviet Union. First, and most importantly, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, 25 million Russian people ended up abroad overnight, and this is really one of the biggest disasters of the 20th century,” Putin said. The Russian president noted that the citizens of the USSR lived within the framework of a single country, they were equal, but in one second everything changed.
“And first signs appeared in the country, and then a full-scale civil war. And of course, I saw all this perfectly, especially when I became a director,” Putin added. At the same time, the social protection system was completely destroyed, entire sectors of the economy were stopped, the healthcare system was actually destroyed, the army was in a deplorable state, millions of people fell below the poverty line, he recalled.
Filmed after 30 hours of conversations with the Russian leader. The full four-hour tape will air on the cable channel Showtime (part of CBS) June 12-15. He explained his opinion about the outcome of the war by the fact that, in his opinion, the missile defense system does not protect the entire US territory, Bloomberg quotes.
Asked if there is any hope that Russian-American relations will improve, Putin replied: “There is always hope. Until they carry us in white slippers to the cemetery.”
Oliver Stone's Putin plays hockey, works out on the gym, feeds carrots to his horse and drives a car, he jokes, and American journalists find his jokes sexist, the president and the director discuss politics and watch Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove together, Putin briefly and in monosyllables tells about youth and the path to power and admits that he has little time to play with his grandchildren. The American media express the impression that they have managed to see, they are trying to assess the degree of praise or criticism of Stone, the presentation of material by him, they write what image the Russian leader has turned out to be. The journalists were shown two large fragments of the film, according to Variety. There is no discussion of relations with US President Donald Trump in these passages.
Many serious media have already reflected Putin's ideas about gender equality in the headlines. In the film, he said that he works as president without days off, because he is a man, not a woman, and he does not have "critical days." He is quoted by Bloomberg, which calls the Russian president "macho" in the headline: "I'm not trying to offend anyone. Such is the nature of things. It's a natural cycle." The same joke of his is played up in the headlines of CNBC, Fox News, The Washington Times, as well as less serious publications. According to Bloomberg, Stone asked the Russian leader about possible discrimination against homosexuals in Russia after the adoption in 2013 of a law banning gay propaganda. The agency notes that in this issue one can see only a hint of criticism from the director. Putin replied that there is no discrimination against sexual minorities in Russia, unlike, for example, in some Muslim countries where gays can be executed. When asked if he would take a shower on a submarine with a gay man, Putin replied with a laugh that he would prefer not to take a shower in such a company. “Why provoke him? - he said. “But you know, I am a master of sports in judo.”
Stone asked Putin if he thought Wall Street was trying to undermine the Russian economy in the interests of Washington. As recalled by Bloomberg, the director previously made laudatory films about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who explained the state of the economy of their countries by the actions of external enemies. To this, Putin replied that the US administration, in his opinion, considers Russia a competitor.
The Russian leader wondered what is the point of the existence of NATO now, since the USSR and the Eastern Bloc are no more. “According to my understanding, NATO needs an external enemy to justify the very existence of the alliance, so there is a constant search for an enemy or provocations that are made to designate someone as an adversary,” Putin was quoted by the Daily Beast. Now, according to him, NATO is a simple foreign policy tool for the United States, which has no allies, but only vassals. As soon as a country joins NATO, it becomes difficult for it to resist pressure from the United States and suddenly any military facility can appear on its territory - missile defense elements, new military bases, and, if necessary, offensive systems. In this situation, Russia is forced to take counter-measures. The situation is becoming more tense, the Russian leader argues.
“Why are we reacting so strongly to NATO expansion? Because we, by the way, understand its significance and the threat posed by this organization. But here's what we're especially concerned about: we're concerned about practices and how decisions are made there. And I know HOW decisions are made there,” Putin said (according to the Daily Beast).
Former American intelligence officer Edward Snowden did not betray his country because he did not disclose or transfer to another state any secret information that would harm the United States and acts completely openly, Putin said. The director and the president discussed Snowden in the car, Putin was driving.
At the same time, the president believes that Snowden did the wrong thing: if he was dissatisfied with the actions of the structures in which he worked and collaborated, he should have simply quit. Putin himself left the secret services after the attempted coup, then, in his opinion, they went too far.
As a result of Snowden's revelations, it was revealed that US intelligence agencies are spying on the electronic contacts of fellow citizens, foreigners, and even leaders of US allied states. Putin said that you can't spy on allies unless you consider them vassals, otherwise information about such surveillance could undermine trust and, as a result, have a bad effect on the security of the country that is spying. He highly appreciates the work of the Russian special services.
Russia is not going to extradite Snowden to the United States, since the two countries do not have an agreement on the mutual extradition of criminals. And, “since Snowden did not violate Russian laws,” and the United States never extradited criminals to Russia who asked for asylum in America, the former CIA and NSA contractor will not be extradited to the United States (quoted by Daily Beast). Russia granted him asylum because Moscow believed that he intended to fight for human rights, TASS quoted Putin. The first contact with Snowden took place when he was in China, reports Bloomberg.
The Hollywood Reporter finds Stone in this work "flirtatious and restrained", the publication calls the material seen cautious and prudent. The conversation about the biography and career of the hero of the film was not at all interesting, the newspaper notes. But Putin is more willing to talk about hobbies in sports. Assessing the composition of individual frames and the style of interviewing, the Hollywood Reporter writes that Stone's film is similar to the political dramas of the 70s. with separate references to agitprop. The viewer will not recognize the Russian leader as a person, but will get an idea of how the world picture of this politician works, who considers himself a victim of betrayal by a number of American presidents who said that the Cold War was over, and who immediately supported his political rivals and tried to strengthen NATO. “It doesn’t matter if he is right or wrong when he talks about US efforts to influence the Russian state, it doesn’t matter that he gives facts without backing them up with evidence and without giving dates, it doesn’t matter if he is paranoid or not,” the newspaper writes. “He thinks that the US has been trying for years to undermine the Russian economy and, as a result, his position.”
Variety notes that Putin and Stone can be loved or hated, that their ideas and reputations precede them, but writes that both characters are so attention-grabbing that their interaction creates the impression of comedy, farce, and sometimes a game of invisible chess. According to the publication, the image of the Russian president turned out to be dizzying and all-encompassing, in the film he has more “deadly charm” than in political reports, but the viewer is unable to break through his defense and see what is inside him. Behind Putin's politeness, the publication sees a steely restraint. Stone sometimes appears skeptical, but with all the earlier criticism of Russia's human rights abuses, Variety can't say the director's skepticism is enough. Putin, on the other hand, appears as a super-competent leader and has the opportunity to praise himself more than once, however, the publication heard in the film both outright lies and manifestations of hypocrisy, which they called shocking. According to the publication, the documentary is "destabilizing" in nature, as it challenges Americans' ideas about themselves.
The Daily Beast likens the film to a love letter from Stone that doesn't require a response. According to the publication, the purpose of the film is to "demonize America" and "humanize" the Russian leader. It notes the obsequious remarks of the director, who often misses an opportunity to challenge Putin and mostly outright succumb to him. According to The Daily Beast, the lion's share in the film is made up of clips from the "Kremlin propaganda mouthpiece" - the RT channel.