Who Is Mister Putin? Anastasia Kirilenko in Washington, DC
On April 27, 2016, Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Initiative hosted U.S. screening and the English-language premiere of the film “Who Is Mr. Putin?”
Based on investigations by independent journalists Anastasia Kirilenko and Vladimir Ivanidze, the film documents the origins of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s private wealth and subsequent rise to power. The screening was followed by a short panel discussion, moderated by Hudson Senior Fellow David Satter, featuring Anastasia Kirilenko, Karen Dawisha, and Ilya Zaslavskiy.
In December 2015, the film, chronicling Putin’s ascent from the St. Petersburg mayor’s office to the presidency, was placed on Radio Liberty’s site without English subtitles and has already gained over 2 million views on the Radio’s YouTube account.
The film has been lauded by Russian and Western experts for demonstrating how Putin’s ascension to the Russian presidency is explained by an alliance built in the early 1990s between himself, close friends from Leningrad’s KGB, and organized crime groups.
The movie Who is Mr. Putin? attracted the interest of a whole spectrum policy makers and experts and got positive reviews in Washington’s press immediately after the event at Hudson Institute. The screening itself was attended by a various audience and the direct question what the authors expect from Americans to help to combat Russian corruption, was asked. “True change should come from Russia,” said Kirilenko, stressing that it was a 100% Russian production (by Russians residing abroad) and that 2015 was the year of investigations in Russia. She also pointed out that this trend continues and the comprehension of the reality depicted in the film, also confirmed recently in Panama Papers, starts to gradually progress in Russia, especially among intellectuals.
At the panel, Zaslavskiy pointed out this film and investigation behind it show that Putin likes the scheme that Russian organized crime calls – “krugovaya poruka” – that is collective (mutual) gang responsibility. By implicating many people in particular chains of criminal activity, such as his boss mayor Anatoliy Sobchak, Putin made people dependent on himself. He also observed that Putin has employed some of the criminal encroachments on the free market in the energy sector of St. Petersburg, schemes that were later used as a template all around Russia and beyond it.
Karen Dawisha, author of Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? which was a ground-breaking book in western academic world exposing criminal elements inside Russia’s political system, made remarks about current activities of some of the people mentioned in the film and their associates that demonstrate that they are well-connected with the current regime and even exert their influence in high-level international organizations.
Karen Dawisha mentioned among others one character in the movie, a close Putin’s friend Vladimir Smirnov, which links to criminal gang Tambovskaya was subjected to journalistic and Prosecutor’s investigations, especially in Germany. He’s also responsible for the export of Russian nuclear contracts. “And this man is responsible for signing intergovernmental nuclear treaties with the US,” she said.
David Satter, the author of Darkness Before Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State and other renowned books, made remarks about continuous criminal features of the Putin’s regime that have been evident from early 1990’s to nowadays, including the mid-2000s that he researched through a series of investigations and films.
Apart from these events organized by Kleptocracy Initiative, Anastasia Kirilenko, leading journalist behind film’s investigation, and Ilya Zaslavskiy, expert of Free Russia Foundation who specializes in Russia’s export of corrosive practices to the West, saw many representatives of DC’s policy-making community. All these meetings have been organized by Free Russia Foundation and aimed to communicate nature of Putin’s regime to experts in the national capital.
During these visits of to several think-tanks, pro-democracy organizations and places relevant subjects were raised and discussed, from very general to very specific ones. For example, the current Russian civil society’s situation, how Americans can help active Russians to educate themselves or to undertake their democratic projects despite repressive environment which saw American foundations expelled en masse from Russia and denigrated by propaganda. Kirilenko and Zaslavskiy stressed that many activists have already left Russia after protest rallies in 2012 were crushed and especially after the annexation of Crimea, when some activists were forced to leave due to fabricated criminal proceedings against them. Kirilenko and Zaslavskiy suggested that the criteria for eligibility for educational or other grants might be changed and that Russian activists living abroad should be more engaged with western counterparts.
The importance of the project of the Kleptocracy archive (Hudson Institute) and its part dedicated to Russian corrupt officials, was also underlined in the context of the importance of investigations when the press in Russia is not free. Kleptocracy can hardly be uncovered by Russian journalists themselves and last courageous media outlets and journalists personally experience great troubles and threats.
At the end of their round of meeting in Washington, Kirilenko and Zaslavskiy were recorded in two interviews, one in English at Voice of America, and one in Russian on Current Time TV program.
Based on investigations by independent journalists Anastasia Kirilenko and Vladimir Ivanidze, the film documents the origins of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s private wealth and subsequent rise to power. The screening was followed by a short panel discussion, moderated by Hudson Senior Fellow David Satter, featuring Anastasia Kirilenko, Karen Dawisha, and Ilya Zaslavskiy.
In December 2015, the film, chronicling Putin’s ascent from the St. Petersburg mayor’s office to the presidency, was placed on Radio Liberty’s site without English subtitles and has already gained over 2 million views on the Radio’s YouTube account.
The film has been lauded by Russian and Western experts for demonstrating how Putin’s ascension to the Russian presidency is explained by an alliance built in the early 1990s between himself, close friends from Leningrad’s KGB, and organized crime groups.
The movie Who is Mr. Putin? attracted the interest of a whole spectrum policy makers and experts and got positive reviews in Washington’s press immediately after the event at Hudson Institute. The screening itself was attended by a various audience and the direct question what the authors expect from Americans to help to combat Russian corruption, was asked. “True change should come from Russia,” said Kirilenko, stressing that it was a 100% Russian production (by Russians residing abroad) and that 2015 was the year of investigations in Russia. She also pointed out that this trend continues and the comprehension of the reality depicted in the film, also confirmed recently in Panama Papers, starts to gradually progress in Russia, especially among intellectuals.
At the panel, Zaslavskiy pointed out this film and investigation behind it show that Putin likes the scheme that Russian organized crime calls – “krugovaya poruka” – that is collective (mutual) gang responsibility. By implicating many people in particular chains of criminal activity, such as his boss mayor Anatoliy Sobchak, Putin made people dependent on himself. He also observed that Putin has employed some of the criminal encroachments on the free market in the energy sector of St. Petersburg, schemes that were later used as a template all around Russia and beyond it.
Karen Dawisha, author of Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? which was a ground-breaking book in western academic world exposing criminal elements inside Russia’s political system, made remarks about current activities of some of the people mentioned in the film and their associates that demonstrate that they are well-connected with the current regime and even exert their influence in high-level international organizations.
Karen Dawisha mentioned among others one character in the movie, a close Putin’s friend Vladimir Smirnov, which links to criminal gang Tambovskaya was subjected to journalistic and Prosecutor’s investigations, especially in Germany. He’s also responsible for the export of Russian nuclear contracts. “And this man is responsible for signing intergovernmental nuclear treaties with the US,” she said.
David Satter, the author of Darkness Before Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State and other renowned books, made remarks about continuous criminal features of the Putin’s regime that have been evident from early 1990’s to nowadays, including the mid-2000s that he researched through a series of investigations and films.
Apart from these events organized by Kleptocracy Initiative, Anastasia Kirilenko, leading journalist behind film’s investigation, and Ilya Zaslavskiy, expert of Free Russia Foundation who specializes in Russia’s export of corrosive practices to the West, saw many representatives of DC’s policy-making community. All these meetings have been organized by Free Russia Foundation and aimed to communicate nature of Putin’s regime to experts in the national capital.
During these visits of to several think-tanks, pro-democracy organizations and places relevant subjects were raised and discussed, from very general to very specific ones. For example, the current Russian civil society’s situation, how Americans can help active Russians to educate themselves or to undertake their democratic projects despite repressive environment which saw American foundations expelled en masse from Russia and denigrated by propaganda. Kirilenko and Zaslavskiy stressed that many activists have already left Russia after protest rallies in 2012 were crushed and especially after the annexation of Crimea, when some activists were forced to leave due to fabricated criminal proceedings against them. Kirilenko and Zaslavskiy suggested that the criteria for eligibility for educational or other grants might be changed and that Russian activists living abroad should be more engaged with western counterparts.
The importance of the project of the Kleptocracy archive (Hudson Institute) and its part dedicated to Russian corrupt officials, was also underlined in the context of the importance of investigations when the press in Russia is not free. Kleptocracy can hardly be uncovered by Russian journalists themselves and last courageous media outlets and journalists personally experience great troubles and threats.
At the end of their round of meeting in Washington, Kirilenko and Zaslavskiy were recorded in two interviews, one in English at Voice of America, and one in Russian on Current Time TV program.