1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:03:30,079 --> 00:03:31,689 The richest man in Russia, 4 00:03:31,733 --> 00:03:33,169 Mikhail Khodorkovsky 5 00:03:33,213 --> 00:03:35,693 seized at gunpoint by Russian Special Forces... 6 00:03:35,737 --> 00:03:36,825 Khodorkovsky is locked up 7 00:03:36,868 --> 00:03:38,914 in an overcrowded Russian prison. 8 00:03:41,830 --> 00:03:42,874 So, to stay at a prison, 9 00:03:42,918 --> 00:03:44,267 why didn't you leave the country? 10 00:04:23,698 --> 00:04:25,308 Out! 11 00:05:20,711 --> 00:05:22,452 To hear Vladimir Putin tell it, 12 00:05:22,496 --> 00:05:24,280 Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a villain 13 00:05:24,324 --> 00:05:25,803 in a real-life gangster movie. 14 00:05:26,891 --> 00:05:28,284 But to Putin's opponent's, 15 00:05:28,328 --> 00:05:31,287 Khodorkovsky's ten years in a Siberian prison 16 00:05:31,331 --> 00:05:34,159 made him a hero for the cause of human rights and democracy. 17 00:05:35,335 --> 00:05:36,510 Now out of prison, 18 00:05:36,553 --> 00:05:38,555 Khodorkovsky is looking for a third act. 19 00:05:39,513 --> 00:05:40,601 That drew my interest 20 00:05:40,644 --> 00:05:42,385 at a time when we all seem haunted 21 00:05:42,429 --> 00:05:44,387 by Russia's role in the world, 22 00:05:44,431 --> 00:05:45,519 so I started a film about it. 23 00:05:48,826 --> 00:05:51,481 While I can go to Russia, he could not. 24 00:05:51,525 --> 00:05:53,918 He's wanted there for murder. 25 00:05:53,962 --> 00:05:56,486 So like many stories about Russia these days, 26 00:05:56,530 --> 00:05:58,140 this one started in London. 27 00:07:00,898 --> 00:07:05,163 Putin and Khodorkovsky they are both very strong guy. 28 00:07:06,687 --> 00:07:09,777 -Everyone else, weaker. - Yes. 29 00:07:09,820 --> 00:07:12,736 But Putin... 30 00:07:12,780 --> 00:07:15,913 respects Khodorkovsky as a rival. 31 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:22,398 He really respects him, because he is strong. 32 00:10:39,856 --> 00:10:41,902 Just behind Red Square, there's a shopping mall 33 00:10:41,945 --> 00:10:44,861 where actors get paid for posing in tourist photos, 34 00:10:44,905 --> 00:10:46,558 playing Russia's past leaders. 35 00:10:47,603 --> 00:10:49,170 In the winter of 2018, 36 00:10:49,213 --> 00:10:52,652 I was told that the number of Stalin's was multiplying. 37 00:10:52,695 --> 00:10:55,655 A local joked was that this was a sign. 38 00:10:55,698 --> 00:10:58,527 Russia was nearing a pageantry of election season. 39 00:11:21,115 --> 00:11:23,117 Well, there is no election season. 40 00:11:24,553 --> 00:11:26,163 There's election theater. 41 00:11:30,298 --> 00:11:34,389 The Kremlin has to create their own counter candidates. 42 00:11:34,432 --> 00:11:36,913 Because no one wants to be a candidate against Putin 43 00:11:36,957 --> 00:11:38,567 because you will lose anyway. 44 00:11:41,526 --> 00:11:43,485 Today's election theatre 45 00:11:43,528 --> 00:11:46,575 is what has become of Russia's experiment in democracy. 46 00:11:46,618 --> 00:11:49,578 A bold attempt to shift from years of Communist rule 47 00:11:49,621 --> 00:11:51,188 to free market capitalism. 48 00:12:07,552 --> 00:12:10,120 In 1991, the Soviet Union has convulsed 49 00:12:10,164 --> 00:12:12,166 in a struggle of its future. 50 00:12:12,209 --> 00:12:14,429 But oligarch Communists come to an empire 51 00:12:14,472 --> 00:12:17,301 in a system that centralized government control. 52 00:12:17,345 --> 00:12:21,871 A new generation demanded economic and political freedoms. 53 00:12:21,915 --> 00:12:25,483 Their charismatic leader, who was Boris Yeltsin. 54 00:12:25,527 --> 00:12:28,660 Yeltsin! Yeltsin! Yeltsin! 55 00:12:32,577 --> 00:12:35,363 Boris Yeltsin has become the one rallying point 56 00:12:35,406 --> 00:12:38,018 for oppositions and the hardliners. 57 00:12:38,061 --> 00:12:40,063 I was there as the BBC Moscow correspondent 58 00:12:40,107 --> 00:12:42,413 from '88 to the end of '91. 59 00:12:42,457 --> 00:12:43,632 This is Martin Sixsmith. 60 00:12:43,675 --> 00:12:44,807 Martin Sixsmith. 61 00:12:44,851 --> 00:12:45,895 Martin Sixsmith. 62 00:12:45,939 --> 00:12:48,506 BBC News Moscow. 63 00:12:48,550 --> 00:12:51,335 Yeltsin was a very, very inspirational figure. 64 00:12:51,379 --> 00:12:53,860 Back in 1991, he was the man for the moment. 65 00:12:56,166 --> 00:12:57,472 Yeltsin! Yeltsin! 66 00:12:57,515 --> 00:12:58,952 It just felt like, you know, 67 00:12:58,995 --> 00:13:02,390 a sort of, see change in the fortunes of a country. 68 00:13:19,276 --> 00:13:20,538 I remember writing 69 00:13:20,582 --> 00:13:22,540 all these sort of, great optimistic articles 70 00:13:22,584 --> 00:13:24,847 about how decades of communism have come to an end 71 00:13:24,891 --> 00:13:27,371 and now we were going to have a new Russia, 72 00:13:27,415 --> 00:13:30,418 a new Russia with democracy and freedom, and openness. 73 00:13:30,461 --> 00:13:31,941 And looking back, I'm... 74 00:13:31,985 --> 00:13:33,551 a little ashamed that I wrote all that, 75 00:13:33,595 --> 00:13:36,163 because the signs were there, even then, I think, 76 00:13:36,206 --> 00:13:38,339 that, um, it wasn't going to work out. 77 00:14:16,812 --> 00:14:19,815 He was a man of great intelligence, and great vision. 78 00:14:19,859 --> 00:14:21,904 He was also a very decisive man. 79 00:14:21,948 --> 00:14:24,602 As soon as a door opened, he was straight through it. 80 00:14:25,821 --> 00:14:27,257 He'd been a member of the young 81 00:14:27,301 --> 00:14:29,956 communist organization, Komsomol. 82 00:14:29,999 --> 00:14:31,740 Not because he believed in communism 83 00:14:31,783 --> 00:14:34,221 but because Gorbachev and the Perestroika era 84 00:14:34,264 --> 00:14:36,963 started to relax the ban on private enterprise 85 00:14:37,006 --> 00:14:39,008 starting with the Komsomol. 86 00:14:39,052 --> 00:14:42,794 By the time the collapse of the Soviet Union happened at 1991, 87 00:14:42,838 --> 00:14:45,580 he had some cash in his pocket. 88 00:14:45,623 --> 00:14:48,757 He created the first commercial bank in Russia. 89 00:15:51,733 --> 00:15:52,777 "The Holocaust", he said, 90 00:15:52,821 --> 00:15:54,388 "I thought of this all as a game, 91 00:15:54,431 --> 00:15:55,911 and I was good at playing the game." 92 00:15:55,955 --> 00:15:57,957 Exactly. He was good at playing the game, 93 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,655 but most people were very bad at playing the game. 94 00:16:10,317 --> 00:16:14,408 Moving from the Soviet Union into capitalist Russia, 95 00:16:14,451 --> 00:16:17,411 most Russians were completely naive. 96 00:16:17,454 --> 00:16:19,717 Because they had read all these propaganda 97 00:16:19,761 --> 00:16:21,110 for all these years. 98 00:16:21,154 --> 00:16:23,286 With capitalists, where people was, you know... 99 00:16:23,330 --> 00:16:26,289 big cigars, and money coming out of their pockets. 100 00:16:26,333 --> 00:16:29,597 And they imagined that you would get rich automatically. 101 00:16:30,554 --> 00:16:31,773 Where they grew up, 102 00:16:31,816 --> 00:16:35,385 everything was taken care of by the state. 103 00:16:35,429 --> 00:16:38,084 You know, free economy sounds nice. 104 00:16:38,127 --> 00:16:40,695 But you have to make choices every five minutes. 105 00:16:43,524 --> 00:16:46,048 In the early '90s, Russians face lots of choices 106 00:16:46,092 --> 00:16:48,398 they didn't really understand. 107 00:16:48,442 --> 00:16:51,184 Egged on by American free market boosters, 108 00:16:51,227 --> 00:16:53,099 the Russian government announced a program 109 00:16:53,142 --> 00:16:56,972 to hand out a chip worth around 40 dollars to every citizen. 110 00:16:57,016 --> 00:16:58,800 The chips were called "vouchers." 111 00:16:58,843 --> 00:17:01,281 And could be traded sole for cash, 112 00:17:01,324 --> 00:17:04,893 or exchanged for shares in small or state-owned enterprises. 113 00:17:04,936 --> 00:17:06,503 They were sold as golden tickets 114 00:17:06,547 --> 00:17:08,679 to escape the dead end of communism. 115 00:18:29,847 --> 00:18:31,936 It was a time of great economic hardship, 116 00:18:31,980 --> 00:18:33,503 and the ordinary people didn't realize 117 00:18:33,547 --> 00:18:35,331 what this piece of paper was worth. 118 00:18:35,375 --> 00:18:36,724 But the people who did, 119 00:18:36,767 --> 00:18:38,595 some type of people with suitcases full of cash, 120 00:18:38,639 --> 00:18:40,902 and they said, "Look, you don't need that piece of paper. 121 00:18:40,945 --> 00:18:42,773 Here, we'll give you ten dollars. 122 00:18:42,817 --> 00:18:44,123 And you can go and buy some bread." 123 00:19:56,456 --> 00:19:57,979 The more Khodorkovsky made, 124 00:19:58,022 --> 00:20:00,634 the more vouchers and companies he could buy. 125 00:20:00,677 --> 00:20:03,985 Either on the open market or in backroom deals. 126 00:20:04,028 --> 00:20:05,552 It was gangster capitalism, 127 00:20:05,595 --> 00:20:08,685 with the rule of laws weak and bendy as a rubber band. 128 00:20:12,907 --> 00:20:15,692 Under communism, the absence of personal wealth 129 00:20:15,736 --> 00:20:18,260 meant there were few targets for violent criminals. 130 00:20:18,304 --> 00:20:20,697 Now, organized crime groups 131 00:20:20,741 --> 00:20:23,613 prey on the new rich of the capitalist era. 132 00:20:23,657 --> 00:20:26,137 Moscow's become the murder capital of Europe. 133 00:20:26,181 --> 00:20:28,749 If you were rich, and people knew you were rich, 134 00:20:28,792 --> 00:20:30,011 you were a target. 135 00:20:30,054 --> 00:20:31,969 It's Wild West capitalism. 136 00:21:17,363 --> 00:21:20,322 In '92, we launched The Moscow Times. 137 00:21:20,366 --> 00:21:22,324 And we had a lot of news. 138 00:21:22,368 --> 00:21:23,760 A lot of people got killed, 139 00:21:23,804 --> 00:21:28,025 and many, many companies were looking for protection. 140 00:21:28,069 --> 00:21:31,202 The Moscow Times developed pretty well. 141 00:21:31,246 --> 00:21:35,250 And then, two years later, I launched Cosmopolitan. 142 00:21:35,294 --> 00:21:39,515 Which, from day one, was an enormous commercial success. 143 00:21:39,559 --> 00:21:43,214 And it attracted a lot of shady people. 144 00:21:43,258 --> 00:21:46,609 I thought, you know, maybe it's better 145 00:21:46,653 --> 00:21:52,354 to get one of these rising oligarchs as a shareholder. 146 00:21:52,398 --> 00:21:55,923 There was one guy in particular that I got interested in. 147 00:21:55,966 --> 00:21:58,186 And it was Mikhail Khodorkovsky. 148 00:21:59,492 --> 00:22:03,365 They moved to a very fancy castle in Moscow. 149 00:22:03,409 --> 00:22:05,759 Machine guns all over the place, 150 00:22:05,802 --> 00:22:10,329 he had former KGB colonels running his security. 151 00:22:11,330 --> 00:22:13,332 This was not Russia, this was... 152 00:22:13,375 --> 00:22:15,334 Khodorkovsky land, you know, 153 00:22:16,639 --> 00:22:18,902 Medvedev has a nice house, 154 00:22:18,946 --> 00:22:20,817 Nevzlin was next door, 155 00:22:20,861 --> 00:22:23,080 and then, there was Khodorkovsky. 156 00:22:25,213 --> 00:22:26,388 I said that, "Most of the times, 157 00:22:26,432 --> 00:22:29,739 it's a fiercely independent newspaper. 158 00:22:29,783 --> 00:22:33,439 And if we sell ten percent of our sales... 159 00:22:33,482 --> 00:22:36,833 we want to remain a fiercely independent newspaper." 160 00:22:36,877 --> 00:22:39,793 And he thought about it, and he said yes. 161 00:22:39,836 --> 00:22:42,404 He was an extremely... 162 00:22:42,448 --> 00:22:44,058 intelligent person. 163 00:22:44,101 --> 00:22:48,845 But of course, using every trick in the book available to him. 164 00:22:48,889 --> 00:22:50,891 And at that time, 165 00:22:50,934 --> 00:22:55,112 this transition from communism to capitalism... 166 00:22:55,156 --> 00:22:56,766 uh, was so fast, 167 00:22:56,810 --> 00:23:00,683 that it was impossible for the legal structure to keep up. 168 00:23:23,097 --> 00:23:24,620 But it's Berezovsky, who was one 169 00:23:24,664 --> 00:23:28,319 of the big seven oligarchs very famously said... 170 00:23:28,363 --> 00:23:31,845 "The seven of us controlled 50 percent... 171 00:23:31,888 --> 00:23:34,108 of the whole Russian economy." 172 00:23:43,291 --> 00:23:45,293 Two of the oligarchs placed big bets 173 00:23:45,336 --> 00:23:47,426 on the future of television. 174 00:23:47,469 --> 00:23:49,602 Boris Berezovsky bought a national network 175 00:23:49,645 --> 00:23:51,342 called Channel 1. 176 00:23:51,386 --> 00:23:52,605 He thought he'd cash in 177 00:23:52,648 --> 00:23:54,955 by turning a Soviet propaganda vehicle 178 00:23:54,998 --> 00:23:56,652 into a selling machine. 179 00:23:56,696 --> 00:23:59,699 Vladimir Gusinsky set his sights on starting a new network 180 00:23:59,742 --> 00:24:01,178 called NTV. 181 00:24:09,143 --> 00:24:12,799 The original concept of NTV was a TV channel, 182 00:24:12,842 --> 00:24:15,236 which is not controlled by the government. 183 00:24:17,107 --> 00:24:20,850 An investor who was... Vladimir Gusinsky. 184 00:24:20,894 --> 00:24:24,593 He didn't know anything about TV at all, but... 185 00:24:24,637 --> 00:24:26,290 there was a benefit. 186 00:24:26,334 --> 00:24:29,250 He badly underestimated how much it would cost. 187 00:24:31,426 --> 00:24:32,471 Bravo. 188 00:24:39,086 --> 00:24:41,262 Gusinsky spent hundreds of millions of dollars 189 00:24:41,305 --> 00:24:43,699 buying movies, launching game shows 190 00:24:43,743 --> 00:24:47,007 and building an independent news division from scratch. 191 00:24:47,050 --> 00:24:48,356 Thanks to the Soviets, 192 00:24:48,399 --> 00:24:50,967 most everyone in Russia had TV sets. 193 00:24:51,011 --> 00:24:52,795 So the money started rolling in. 194 00:24:54,405 --> 00:24:56,886 The oligarchs organized between themselves. 195 00:24:56,930 --> 00:24:59,933 "I do the oil, you do the cable communications, 196 00:24:59,976 --> 00:25:01,151 you do the real estate." 197 00:25:01,195 --> 00:25:06,287 So, it was one big, uh, scam. 198 00:25:06,330 --> 00:25:09,246 For the oligarchs, the scam of Russian capitalism 199 00:25:09,290 --> 00:25:12,467 was only possible as long as there was a political system 200 00:25:12,511 --> 00:25:15,035 that protected private property and individual rights. 201 00:25:16,340 --> 00:25:18,691 Call it "democracy." 202 00:25:18,734 --> 00:25:21,563 But if the communists returned to power, well... 203 00:25:21,607 --> 00:25:23,260 that would have been bad for business. 204 00:25:24,523 --> 00:25:27,526 Yeltsin was up for re-election. 205 00:25:27,569 --> 00:25:31,094 But the country was in a really, really bad state. 206 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:34,097 People looked around, if this is... 207 00:25:34,141 --> 00:25:36,317 you know, capitalism that they promised, 208 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:39,102 we don't want anything to do with it. 209 00:25:39,146 --> 00:25:40,408 The government coffers were empty, 210 00:25:40,451 --> 00:25:42,410 so people's salaries weren't being paid, 211 00:25:42,453 --> 00:25:44,064 pensions weren't being paid. 212 00:25:44,107 --> 00:25:45,631 And if you imagine, as a president 213 00:25:45,674 --> 00:25:48,851 who's not paying people's pensions and people's salaries, 214 00:25:48,895 --> 00:25:50,723 you're not gonna be very popular. 215 00:25:50,766 --> 00:25:52,725 It really did look as if Gennady Zyuganov, 216 00:25:52,768 --> 00:25:54,596 the communist leader, who's going to beat Yeltsin 217 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:56,250 hands down at the election. 218 00:25:57,164 --> 00:25:58,165 Spasiba! 219 00:26:21,580 --> 00:26:22,972 The problem was that, Yeltsin, 220 00:26:23,016 --> 00:26:24,974 at that point, was so weak. 221 00:26:25,018 --> 00:26:27,281 He was at the three percent approval rate. 222 00:26:27,324 --> 00:26:30,371 He was sick, he had all these heart attacks, 223 00:26:30,414 --> 00:26:31,894 he was down and out. 224 00:26:40,511 --> 00:26:45,168 One of the very new things which NTV started doing, 225 00:26:45,212 --> 00:26:47,954 was a puppet show calledKukly. 226 00:26:47,997 --> 00:26:52,654 It was a really... a satirical, satirical show. 227 00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:02,490 In one of the show, 228 00:27:02,533 --> 00:27:05,667 Mr. Yeltsin was portrayed as Don Quijote. 229 00:27:05,711 --> 00:27:07,669 And the head of his security 230 00:27:07,713 --> 00:27:11,934 was portrayed as his, uh, Sancho Panza. 231 00:27:11,978 --> 00:27:16,635 It's not Russian tradition to laugh at the president, 232 00:27:16,678 --> 00:27:21,901 so laughing at... at a czar, so to say, at an emperor... 233 00:27:21,944 --> 00:27:24,643 was something unheard... unheard of. 234 00:27:34,522 --> 00:27:37,351 Yeltsin was in a very difficult situation. 235 00:27:37,394 --> 00:27:39,614 We'd film him, and he'd be... 236 00:27:39,658 --> 00:27:43,792 staggering across the room, barely able to stand upright. 237 00:27:46,229 --> 00:27:49,929 It was clear that he was quite ill. 238 00:27:49,972 --> 00:27:52,627 But of course, there was a natural... 239 00:27:52,671 --> 00:27:57,545 sympathy and support for Yeltsin from a Russian TV. 240 00:27:57,588 --> 00:27:59,634 Yes, probably, it was not very fair 241 00:27:59,678 --> 00:28:02,202 but his opponent was a communist. 242 00:28:02,245 --> 00:28:04,117 Who, openly, was saying that, 243 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,903 "No such thing as freedom of... of the press, or of this... 244 00:28:07,947 --> 00:28:10,427 under his rule. 245 00:28:10,471 --> 00:28:11,907 Openly supporting Yeltsin, 246 00:28:11,951 --> 00:28:13,953 NTV hatched an elaborate plan 247 00:28:13,996 --> 00:28:16,390 to hide the president's ill health. 248 00:28:16,433 --> 00:28:19,262 Malashenko sent a crew to Yeltsin's country home 249 00:28:19,306 --> 00:28:21,612 where he was secretly confined to bedrest, 250 00:28:21,656 --> 00:28:23,963 after a major heart attack. 251 00:28:24,006 --> 00:28:26,748 We had to demonstrate that Yeltsin 252 00:28:26,792 --> 00:28:29,446 is still alive, at least. 253 00:28:29,490 --> 00:28:32,711 He was too seriously ill to travel to Moscow. 254 00:28:32,754 --> 00:28:37,063 So we took some furniture from his Kremlin office 255 00:28:37,106 --> 00:28:41,067 and we reproduced it at his country house. 256 00:28:41,110 --> 00:28:46,594 So at this set, he was visited by Prime Minister Chernomyrdin 257 00:28:46,637 --> 00:28:50,337 And Yeltsin spoke with him for 30 seconds, 258 00:28:50,380 --> 00:28:56,343 signed some paper, and it was shown on TV. 259 00:28:56,386 --> 00:29:00,651 Many times I was told that it's a thing I shouldn't do. 260 00:29:00,695 --> 00:29:04,655 My response is very simple. It was and it is 261 00:29:04,699 --> 00:29:07,441 that I would rather elect the corpse of Yeltsin 262 00:29:07,484 --> 00:29:08,790 than elect Zyuganov. 263 00:29:17,190 --> 00:29:20,019 We had suddenly, this amazing, new Yeltsin. 264 00:29:20,062 --> 00:29:21,890 And, you know, maybe the doctors 265 00:29:21,934 --> 00:29:24,197 have given him a shot of adrenaline or something. 266 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:26,329 But I think what had really re-invigorated him 267 00:29:26,373 --> 00:29:28,027 was the deal he'd cut with the oligarchs. 268 00:29:29,855 --> 00:29:33,815 They struck a Faustian bargain. 269 00:29:33,859 --> 00:29:36,165 Which has become known as loans for shares. 270 00:29:37,384 --> 00:29:39,125 In every Faustian bargain, 271 00:29:39,168 --> 00:29:41,823 the devil is in the details. 272 00:29:41,867 --> 00:29:43,172 On the verge of collapse, 273 00:29:43,216 --> 00:29:45,261 Yeltsin's government desperately needed cash 274 00:29:45,305 --> 00:29:47,394 to pay salaries and pensions. 275 00:29:47,437 --> 00:29:49,831 The oligarchs agreed to funnel money to the state 276 00:29:49,875 --> 00:29:51,485 by making a series of loans 277 00:29:51,528 --> 00:29:53,530 the government couldn't afford to pay. 278 00:29:54,575 --> 00:29:56,098 When the loans did default, 279 00:29:56,142 --> 00:29:57,883 the oligarchs got the right to buy 280 00:29:57,926 --> 00:30:00,102 Russia's biggest state enterprises. 281 00:30:00,146 --> 00:30:03,192 And sham auctions run by the oligarchs themselves. 282 00:30:04,193 --> 00:30:05,978 On TV, the deals played like 283 00:30:06,021 --> 00:30:08,371 arms-length banking transactions. 284 00:30:08,415 --> 00:30:11,853 In reality, the oligarchs have cut inside deals 285 00:30:11,897 --> 00:30:13,899 to pay bargain basement prices 286 00:30:13,942 --> 00:30:16,031 for Russia's most valuable assets. 287 00:30:21,732 --> 00:30:23,996 Khodorkovsky was interested in a massive state 288 00:30:24,039 --> 00:30:25,780 oil company called Yukos. 289 00:30:25,824 --> 00:30:28,739 His bank Menatep, was the only bettor at the auction, 290 00:30:28,783 --> 00:30:32,265 which was run by... Menatep. 291 00:30:32,308 --> 00:30:36,095 At the time, Yukos was valued at five billion dollars. 292 00:30:36,138 --> 00:30:39,098 Menatep offered and paid what it had on-hand, 293 00:30:39,141 --> 00:30:42,841 three hundred and ten million. A steal. 294 00:30:42,884 --> 00:30:45,452 It was all conflict of interest. 295 00:30:45,495 --> 00:30:50,326 There was no transparency, it was just one big mess. 296 00:30:50,370 --> 00:30:52,328 You know, we wrote about this stuff. 297 00:30:52,372 --> 00:30:56,376 And Menatep was a shareholder of The Moscow Times. 298 00:30:56,419 --> 00:30:59,727 Khodorkovsky himself was not sitting on our board, 299 00:30:59,770 --> 00:31:02,599 but Leonid Nevzlin, his right hand man. 300 00:31:02,643 --> 00:31:05,994 So this Nevzlin, was, you know, fuming. 301 00:31:06,038 --> 00:31:08,040 Was there ever any pressure on you 302 00:31:08,083 --> 00:31:10,694 to write something that was kind of, pro-Yukos? 303 00:32:46,921 --> 00:32:49,793 This was the biggest mistake of the oligarchs 304 00:32:49,837 --> 00:32:52,883 and the journalists, and the liberals. 305 00:32:52,927 --> 00:32:55,669 I blame them as much as the communists 306 00:32:55,712 --> 00:32:58,802 and the other forces, even more. 307 00:32:58,846 --> 00:33:01,196 Because they were the people who has the vision 308 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,025 and, and the will to change, and... 309 00:33:04,069 --> 00:33:07,420 and they were going to create a new Russia. 310 00:33:07,463 --> 00:33:10,031 And what do they do the first time they get into trouble 311 00:33:10,075 --> 00:33:12,120 in, you know, in '96... 312 00:33:12,164 --> 00:33:14,427 their candidate may lose. 313 00:33:14,470 --> 00:33:16,516 They just throw out the whole idea 314 00:33:16,559 --> 00:33:19,562 of a normal democratic process. 315 00:33:58,297 --> 00:34:00,690 Putin is also a product of the '90s. 316 00:34:05,260 --> 00:34:07,001 Vladimir Putin came from nowhere. 317 00:34:07,045 --> 00:34:09,743 He's been a minor official in the KGB 318 00:34:09,786 --> 00:34:12,615 in East Germany when the war collapsed. 319 00:34:12,659 --> 00:34:14,226 And found himself out of a job. 320 00:34:15,401 --> 00:34:18,143 He found a post up in Leningrad 321 00:34:18,186 --> 00:34:21,320 with... a man called Anatoly Sobchak. 322 00:34:26,281 --> 00:34:29,197 If you worked your whole life with Sobchak, 323 00:34:29,241 --> 00:34:31,808 the most liberal man in Russia, 324 00:34:31,852 --> 00:34:34,159 you must be an okay guy. 325 00:34:34,202 --> 00:34:35,290 That's what I thought. 326 00:34:38,685 --> 00:34:40,513 In fact, Putin was accused 327 00:34:40,556 --> 00:34:42,123 of launching a kickback scheme 328 00:34:42,167 --> 00:34:45,779 to embezzle money meant for food for St. Petersburg, 329 00:34:45,822 --> 00:34:47,433 which was facing a famine. 330 00:34:50,088 --> 00:34:52,742 When members of the city council raised the issue, 331 00:34:52,786 --> 00:34:54,875 Sobchak did not fire Putin. 332 00:34:54,918 --> 00:34:57,007 He promoted him to deputy mayor. 333 00:34:58,661 --> 00:35:00,576 As if to commemorate the moment, 334 00:35:00,620 --> 00:35:03,449 Putin commissioned this documentary about himself. 335 00:35:03,492 --> 00:35:04,972 He kept the title simple. 336 00:35:41,791 --> 00:35:45,621 When Putin's boss failed to win re-election in 1996, 337 00:35:45,665 --> 00:35:47,710 Putin and some friends flew to Moscow 338 00:35:47,754 --> 00:35:49,973 where they landed low-level jobs for the Kremlin. 339 00:35:53,107 --> 00:35:56,023 Putin held six jobs in three years. 340 00:35:56,066 --> 00:35:58,982 By 1999, he was Prime minister, 341 00:35:59,026 --> 00:36:01,550 and Yeltsin's likely successor. 342 00:36:01,594 --> 00:36:05,119 But Putin didn't get to the top all by himself. 343 00:36:05,163 --> 00:36:07,730 The oligarchs, were in fact, the force, 344 00:36:07,774 --> 00:36:10,385 that in many ways, brought Vladimir Putin to power. 345 00:36:14,955 --> 00:36:18,306 Putin was put there, very much, to carry on Yeltsin's rule. 346 00:36:18,350 --> 00:36:21,091 With the help of ultimately, four people. 347 00:36:22,180 --> 00:36:23,746 Yeltsin's daughter and her husband, 348 00:36:23,790 --> 00:36:26,706 and two of the oligarchs who were close to Yeltsin, 349 00:36:26,749 --> 00:36:29,622 Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich. 350 00:36:29,665 --> 00:36:30,884 They were looking for a successor 351 00:36:30,927 --> 00:36:33,626 who would, basically guarantee their safety 352 00:36:33,669 --> 00:36:34,931 and guarantee their wealth. 353 00:36:45,290 --> 00:36:46,900 One of the so-called oligarchs 354 00:36:46,943 --> 00:36:49,250 set about selling Putin to the public. 355 00:36:49,294 --> 00:36:51,383 Boris Berezovsky used his TV channel 356 00:36:51,426 --> 00:36:53,515 to mock Putin's political rivals, 357 00:36:53,559 --> 00:36:55,822 and promote his image as a tough leader. 358 00:36:57,215 --> 00:36:58,520 When a series of explosions 359 00:36:58,564 --> 00:37:00,261 killed hundreds in Moscow, 360 00:37:00,305 --> 00:37:03,786 some suspect that Putin himself might have been involved. 361 00:37:03,830 --> 00:37:05,484 But at the time, TV news footage 362 00:37:05,527 --> 00:37:08,574 highlighted Putin's tough response to the bombings, 363 00:37:08,617 --> 00:37:10,315 which he blamed on Chechen terrorists. 364 00:37:28,942 --> 00:37:30,204 He's tough. 365 00:37:30,248 --> 00:37:33,599 And I think this is the thing that we need 366 00:37:33,642 --> 00:37:36,515 in this country at the moment. Some toughness. 367 00:37:48,962 --> 00:37:53,445 Yeltsin left office on December 31st, 1999. 368 00:37:53,488 --> 00:37:56,578 And appointed Putin acting president. 369 00:37:56,622 --> 00:37:59,189 Putin, in turn, promised to forgive Yeltsin 370 00:37:59,233 --> 00:38:01,801 for any sins or crimes he may have committed. 371 00:38:02,845 --> 00:38:04,543 It was another inside deal, 372 00:38:04,586 --> 00:38:08,111 sealed by a new election a few months later. 373 00:38:08,155 --> 00:38:11,332 Putin running as an incumbent, won easily. 374 00:38:11,376 --> 00:38:14,422 Eighteen years later, he's still in the same office. 375 00:38:44,713 --> 00:38:47,368 Putinism is a way to restore... 376 00:38:48,195 --> 00:38:49,414 pride in your country. 377 00:38:51,633 --> 00:38:53,243 Putinism in itself... 378 00:38:54,984 --> 00:38:56,072 there's nothing wrong with it. 379 00:38:58,248 --> 00:39:00,468 Uh, when Putin started... 380 00:39:00,512 --> 00:39:02,644 he did a lot of good things for the country. 381 00:39:03,471 --> 00:39:06,561 Because it was a mess. 382 00:39:06,605 --> 00:39:09,085 People were completely dispirited. 383 00:39:09,956 --> 00:39:12,001 Um, people longed... 384 00:39:13,176 --> 00:39:16,310 to, to be part of something. 385 00:39:16,354 --> 00:39:19,008 You know, if you grew up in a world power, 386 00:39:19,052 --> 00:39:21,141 and then the rest of the world 387 00:39:21,184 --> 00:39:24,231 faced you as a joke, as a Banana Republic, 388 00:39:24,274 --> 00:39:26,625 it's very humiliating. 389 00:39:26,668 --> 00:39:29,584 So people really needed such a fable. 390 00:40:31,211 --> 00:40:33,126 Putin has declared that he supported 391 00:40:33,169 --> 00:40:35,302 the liberal views of Yeltsin, 392 00:40:35,345 --> 00:40:36,564 and that he was going to keep Russia 393 00:40:36,608 --> 00:40:39,306 on the course of liberty and openness. 394 00:40:39,349 --> 00:40:41,743 But even then, you could see that Putin was looking for a way 395 00:40:41,787 --> 00:40:45,268 to recalibrate this relationship 396 00:40:45,312 --> 00:40:48,358 between political barrier and the oligarchs. 397 00:40:58,499 --> 00:41:00,327 At first he said, "Look, we'll do a deal, 398 00:41:00,370 --> 00:41:02,460 uh, I'm not gonna question 399 00:41:02,503 --> 00:41:04,679 the results of the privatization process, 400 00:41:04,723 --> 00:41:06,159 which meant I'm not gonna try and take back 401 00:41:06,202 --> 00:41:08,509 your business empires that you've... 402 00:41:08,553 --> 00:41:11,817 got through the, uh, loans for shares auctions. 403 00:41:11,860 --> 00:41:13,906 As long as you keep out of politics." 404 00:41:15,864 --> 00:41:17,257 For the moment, 405 00:41:17,300 --> 00:41:18,737 that separation of business and politics 406 00:41:18,780 --> 00:41:20,913 served Khodorkovsky's interests. 407 00:41:20,956 --> 00:41:24,046 For Khodorkovsky, business had been hard enough. 408 00:41:24,090 --> 00:41:26,309 He left banking to focus on Yukos. 409 00:41:26,353 --> 00:41:28,921 He travelled to remote regions of Siberia 410 00:41:28,964 --> 00:41:31,097 to learn how to pool oil out of the ground, 411 00:41:31,140 --> 00:41:33,099 move it and sell it. 412 00:41:33,142 --> 00:41:35,405 And he had to motivate workers and managers. 413 00:41:35,449 --> 00:41:38,408 He never needed to care for efficiency or competition. 414 00:41:44,589 --> 00:41:47,287 All these shady global oil companies 415 00:41:47,330 --> 00:41:48,941 that, you know, just lost money, 416 00:41:48,984 --> 00:41:51,552 and were totally inefficient. 417 00:41:51,596 --> 00:41:55,904 He turned it around, he started streamlining these companies. 418 00:41:55,948 --> 00:41:58,951 Khodorkovsky, from a business perspective, 419 00:41:58,994 --> 00:42:01,170 did an amazing job. 420 00:42:01,214 --> 00:42:03,825 But you know, small towns in Siberia, 421 00:42:03,869 --> 00:42:07,176 a lot of the people who worked there, they lost their job. 422 00:42:07,220 --> 00:42:09,701 Many local mayors were very unhappy. 423 00:42:10,484 --> 00:42:12,486 And some mayors... 424 00:42:13,226 --> 00:42:15,054 died. 425 00:42:15,097 --> 00:42:17,622 One of those mayors was Vladimir Petukhov, 426 00:42:17,665 --> 00:42:21,103 of Nefteyugansk, a major Yukos hub. 427 00:42:21,147 --> 00:42:23,192 Petukhov was furious with Khodorkovsky 428 00:42:23,236 --> 00:42:25,978 for laying off nearly 15,000 workers. 429 00:42:26,021 --> 00:42:30,243 Delays in payroll, and battles over paying local taxers. 430 00:42:30,286 --> 00:42:31,810 Khodorkovsky claimed that Petukhov 431 00:42:31,853 --> 00:42:33,942 was in the grip of Chechen gangsters. 432 00:42:33,986 --> 00:42:37,119 And using taxes to pay for bribes. 433 00:42:37,163 --> 00:42:40,383 So Khodorkovsky flew to Nefteyugansk with bags of cash 434 00:42:40,427 --> 00:42:42,385 to make direct payments to teachers, 435 00:42:42,429 --> 00:42:44,431 nurses and city workers. 436 00:42:44,474 --> 00:42:47,608 In protest, the mayor embarked on a hunger strike. 437 00:42:47,652 --> 00:42:50,611 Until finally, a deal was cut. 438 00:42:50,655 --> 00:42:52,874 Four days later, the mayor was shot. 439 00:43:28,475 --> 00:43:30,520 At first, we went to Nefteyugansk 440 00:43:30,564 --> 00:43:32,044 to look at the oil industry 441 00:43:32,087 --> 00:43:34,742 weeks after the murder of the mayor. 442 00:43:36,265 --> 00:43:38,311 And Khodorkovsky was hated there, 443 00:43:38,354 --> 00:43:40,487 because Khodorkovsky at that time was already a billionaire, 444 00:43:40,530 --> 00:43:41,967 and these were the people who were, 445 00:43:42,010 --> 00:43:44,926 basically, unable to get food. 446 00:43:44,970 --> 00:43:46,885 I got angry as a young journalist 447 00:43:46,928 --> 00:43:48,321 and I wrote what I saw. 448 00:43:49,278 --> 00:43:51,237 I don't know whether... 449 00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:52,673 Khodorkovsky's man, 450 00:43:52,717 --> 00:43:56,024 or himself was involved in the death of the mayor. 451 00:43:56,068 --> 00:43:57,635 I wouldn't put it past them. 452 00:43:59,419 --> 00:44:00,594 Petukhov, the mayor, 453 00:44:00,638 --> 00:44:02,988 was murdered on Khodorkovsky's birthday. 454 00:44:03,031 --> 00:44:06,469 Birthdays have been interesting. 455 00:44:06,513 --> 00:44:09,168 The other famous case is Ana Politkovskaya. 456 00:44:09,211 --> 00:44:12,519 The crusading journalist who was investigating 457 00:44:12,562 --> 00:44:15,000 lots of Kremlin corruptions. 458 00:44:15,043 --> 00:44:17,567 And she was murdered on Putin's birthday. 459 00:44:42,331 --> 00:44:44,725 Some observers called it a meltdown. 460 00:44:44,769 --> 00:44:46,727 Russian stocks are at their lowest levels 461 00:44:46,771 --> 00:44:50,818 since President Boris Yeltsin had heart surgery in 1996. 462 00:44:50,862 --> 00:44:53,038 The biggest concern now is that the Russian government 463 00:44:53,081 --> 00:44:55,867 will be forced to devalue the ruble. 464 00:47:30,325 --> 00:47:32,066 He was opening schools, 465 00:47:32,110 --> 00:47:34,112 you know, his foundation was doing the work. 466 00:47:34,155 --> 00:47:37,898 He was the entrepreneur with the vision. 467 00:47:37,942 --> 00:47:40,901 The type of entrepreneur that Russia needed, 468 00:47:40,945 --> 00:47:44,165 to create this new economy. 469 00:47:44,209 --> 00:47:47,821 And he immediately brought in Western 470 00:47:47,865 --> 00:47:49,954 know-how, new technology, 471 00:47:49,997 --> 00:47:52,173 And in a few years built, 472 00:47:52,217 --> 00:47:54,915 you know, one of the best oil companies in the world. 473 00:48:21,899 --> 00:48:24,423 Khodorkovsky's work at Yukos paid off. 474 00:48:24,466 --> 00:48:27,339 When the ruble rose along with the oil prices, 475 00:48:27,382 --> 00:48:28,949 Just after the turn of the century, 476 00:48:28,993 --> 00:48:31,169 the Russian economy was booming. 477 00:48:31,212 --> 00:48:33,867 Powered in large part by oil. 478 00:48:33,911 --> 00:48:35,521 That was a business victory... 479 00:48:35,564 --> 00:48:38,741 but it was also a moment of political opportunity. 480 00:48:38,785 --> 00:48:41,266 Who would take credit for the turnaround? 481 00:48:41,309 --> 00:48:44,008 Former KGB agent turned politician? 482 00:48:44,051 --> 00:48:45,444 Or the ruthless oligarch 483 00:48:45,487 --> 00:48:48,229 whose attention was quickly turning to politics? 484 00:49:27,225 --> 00:49:29,575 Khodorkovsky's an interesting man. 485 00:49:29,618 --> 00:49:31,707 Because, now, he has all these money. 486 00:49:33,883 --> 00:49:37,017 He started thinking about, you know, 487 00:49:37,061 --> 00:49:40,020 "What's next? What is my role in society?" 488 00:49:40,064 --> 00:49:41,935 And this is why he clashes with Putin. 489 00:50:16,100 --> 00:50:18,102 There are rumors that Putin in particular, 490 00:50:18,145 --> 00:50:21,192 didn't like one program... 491 00:50:21,235 --> 00:50:23,672 where he was portrayed as a... 492 00:50:23,716 --> 00:50:27,807 midget man, who became a ruler of the country. 493 00:50:27,850 --> 00:50:31,898 Due to his power of magic. 494 00:50:31,941 --> 00:50:34,292 At some point, magic disappeared, 495 00:50:34,335 --> 00:50:38,122 and people see this midget man for what he is. 496 00:50:41,951 --> 00:50:45,694 Yeltsin could be angry at some program, 497 00:50:45,738 --> 00:50:47,957 but, uh, were no reprises. 498 00:50:48,001 --> 00:50:51,570 Putin and his people had an entirely different attitude 499 00:50:51,613 --> 00:50:53,180 towards TV. 500 00:50:54,616 --> 00:50:56,662 Putin was the product of television. 501 00:50:56,705 --> 00:50:57,793 They made him. 502 00:50:58,751 --> 00:51:00,100 He was absolutely nobody. 503 00:51:00,144 --> 00:51:02,363 I mean, nobody ever heard of Vladimir Putin. 504 00:51:04,278 --> 00:51:07,325 The fact that television could actually help 505 00:51:07,368 --> 00:51:11,416 make him into president, within six months. 506 00:51:11,459 --> 00:51:15,028 I think was enough for him to understand the real power. 507 00:51:18,162 --> 00:51:20,120 If TV could make his reputation... 508 00:51:21,078 --> 00:51:22,079 it could also break him. 509 00:51:32,306 --> 00:51:34,830 Seven months after Putin became president, 510 00:51:34,874 --> 00:51:38,051 a terrible underwater explosion ripped apart the Kursk, 511 00:51:38,095 --> 00:51:40,227 a Russian nuclear submarine. 512 00:51:40,271 --> 00:51:41,924 As the nation anxiously watched 513 00:51:41,968 --> 00:51:45,014 the efforts to rescue a few survivors... 514 00:51:45,058 --> 00:51:47,365 Putin was photographed hosting a barbecue 515 00:51:47,408 --> 00:51:49,149 at the seaside resort. 516 00:51:49,193 --> 00:51:51,630 For ten days, relentless TV news reports 517 00:51:51,673 --> 00:51:53,284 shredded Putin's reputation, 518 00:51:53,327 --> 00:51:54,981 by chronicling the incompetence 519 00:51:55,024 --> 00:51:56,678 and dishonesty of the government. 520 00:51:59,681 --> 00:52:04,077 To recover, Putin rushed to talk to the widows of the sailors. 521 00:52:04,121 --> 00:52:06,297 But rather than take responsibility, 522 00:52:06,340 --> 00:52:09,474 he looked to administer blame on television. 523 00:52:22,139 --> 00:52:24,793 Putin, as somebody who was both 524 00:52:24,837 --> 00:52:25,925 born and bred in the Soviet Union 525 00:52:25,968 --> 00:52:28,014 but more importantly, bred by the KGB, 526 00:52:28,057 --> 00:52:31,583 has this very conspiratorial view of the world. 527 00:52:31,626 --> 00:52:34,281 And that view of the world suggests that people don't have 528 00:52:34,325 --> 00:52:36,762 any free will, um, and history, 529 00:52:36,805 --> 00:52:38,633 therefore, doesn't have any free will. 530 00:52:38,677 --> 00:52:41,636 That everything is pre-planned, plotted by somebody else. 531 00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:45,074 So he immediately assumed that this was a plot... 532 00:52:45,118 --> 00:52:48,121 uh, to subvert him. 533 00:52:48,165 --> 00:52:50,819 There was a very emotional, I think, genuine outburst. 534 00:52:51,951 --> 00:52:54,954 Vladimir Putin, president of Russia. 535 00:53:01,265 --> 00:53:02,962 What happened with the submarine? 536 00:53:28,205 --> 00:53:31,512 -Thank you, Mr. President. -Thank you. 537 00:53:31,556 --> 00:53:34,602 Putin's command of the media was quickly evident. 538 00:53:34,646 --> 00:53:37,649 Even in the TV images of one of the grieving relatives, 539 00:53:37,692 --> 00:53:40,652 whose voice was silenced, with eerie efficiency. 540 00:54:01,368 --> 00:54:05,329 Putin and his people have KGB background. 541 00:54:05,372 --> 00:54:07,331 I'm talking about control. 542 00:54:07,374 --> 00:54:10,812 What you don't control, is a potential threat. 543 00:54:10,856 --> 00:54:12,901 What you control is safe. 544 00:54:15,077 --> 00:54:16,383 Everything should be controlled. 545 00:54:18,255 --> 00:54:21,823 So those things they did was to establish control, 546 00:54:21,867 --> 00:54:25,784 over TV, because uncontrolled TV was a threat. 547 00:54:27,394 --> 00:54:29,178 After the Kursk episode, 548 00:54:29,222 --> 00:54:31,833 Putin's government took over the two major TV networks 549 00:54:31,877 --> 00:54:33,226 controlled by oligarchs. 550 00:54:34,662 --> 00:54:36,229 Facing the prospect of prison, 551 00:54:36,273 --> 00:54:40,102 Gusinsky and his chief executive Malashenko, fled the country. 552 00:54:40,146 --> 00:54:41,669 Berezovsky soon followed. 553 00:54:43,628 --> 00:54:45,717 When Boris Berezovsky fell out with Putin 554 00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,241 in such a spectacular and public way, 555 00:54:48,285 --> 00:54:50,374 uh, he fled to London, and I had quite lots to do with him. 556 00:54:50,417 --> 00:54:53,028 He asked me if I could write his... 557 00:54:53,072 --> 00:54:54,160 biography for him. 558 00:54:54,203 --> 00:54:55,509 So I spoke to him over the years, 559 00:54:55,553 --> 00:54:57,598 and you know, socially, and, uh, 560 00:54:57,642 --> 00:55:01,298 at times, I recorded the conversations as well. 561 00:55:06,390 --> 00:55:09,001 ...has led Putin after 562 00:55:09,044 --> 00:55:10,698 the tragedy of 563 00:55:10,742 --> 00:55:14,354 Kursk submarine, and the most... 564 00:55:14,398 --> 00:55:18,358 During our meeting, he told me that... 565 00:55:18,402 --> 00:55:21,187 uh, I tried to destroy him. 566 00:55:21,230 --> 00:55:25,234 After that... he's really not good well. 567 00:55:26,671 --> 00:55:30,370 At this time, I need to see my friend... 568 00:55:30,414 --> 00:55:32,633 - Yes. - As a wronged man. 569 00:55:40,075 --> 00:55:42,034 You know, he kicked Berezovsky out 570 00:55:42,077 --> 00:55:43,731 to control of the first channel. 571 00:55:43,775 --> 00:55:46,212 He kicked Gusinsky out of the country, 572 00:55:46,255 --> 00:55:47,822 and... to control of NTV. 573 00:55:49,476 --> 00:55:50,608 He had the airwaves. 574 00:56:08,495 --> 00:56:10,541 Once he controlled the narrative and the image, 575 00:56:10,584 --> 00:56:12,281 which is everything in Russia, 576 00:56:12,325 --> 00:56:13,587 uh, he could take then control 577 00:56:13,631 --> 00:56:15,023 of the commanded hearts of the economy, 578 00:56:15,067 --> 00:56:17,722 the oil, uh, and take on the biggest tycoon. 579 00:56:20,202 --> 00:56:22,727 Putin had a very valid point. 580 00:56:22,770 --> 00:56:26,295 Half of the parliament is on the payroll of Khodorkovsky, 581 00:56:26,339 --> 00:56:29,603 many of the top people in the oil ministry 582 00:56:29,647 --> 00:56:32,214 are people appointed by the oligarchs. 583 00:56:32,258 --> 00:56:34,173 And you think, you know, "What is this?" 584 00:56:34,216 --> 00:56:37,394 If I want to be a real president I need to have my own people 585 00:56:37,437 --> 00:56:40,005 and I need to get these people out of politics. 586 00:56:42,355 --> 00:56:45,097 It was said at the time that you were busy courting 587 00:56:45,140 --> 00:56:48,013 or even buying influence in the Duma. 588 00:58:11,836 --> 00:58:15,013 Khodorkovsky invited the head of Exxon mobile, 589 00:58:15,056 --> 00:58:18,016 and said, "Look, my company is open, transparent, 590 00:58:18,059 --> 00:58:19,800 why don't we have a partnership? 591 00:58:19,844 --> 00:58:22,629 We can be a massive player on the world market." 592 00:58:22,673 --> 00:58:23,848 If you are Vladimir Putin 593 00:58:23,891 --> 00:58:26,154 sitting in the Kremlin, at a time when... 594 00:58:26,198 --> 00:58:29,331 the world is going to war over oil, 595 00:58:29,375 --> 00:58:31,638 and you have your least favorite oligarch... 596 00:58:32,596 --> 00:58:34,162 saying to the Americans, 597 00:58:34,206 --> 00:58:35,468 "I've got lots of oil. Do you want to come and share it?" 598 00:58:35,512 --> 00:58:37,383 You know, it's like a slap in the face. 599 00:58:59,623 --> 00:59:02,234 The struggle for power surfaced with an oil deal. 600 00:59:03,365 --> 00:59:05,150 Small company Northern Oil, 601 00:59:05,193 --> 00:59:08,457 paid seven million dollars for the rights to an oil field. 602 00:59:08,501 --> 00:59:10,024 Which had sold soon after, 603 00:59:10,068 --> 00:59:11,678 for 600 million dollars. 604 00:59:12,940 --> 00:59:15,595 to a government company, Rosneft. 605 00:59:15,639 --> 00:59:18,467 The man at the center of the deal was Igor Sechin, 606 00:59:18,511 --> 00:59:20,295 a close friend of Vladimir Putin. 607 00:59:21,253 --> 00:59:23,516 Were kickbacks involved? 608 00:59:23,560 --> 00:59:25,649 Khodorkovsky wanted to make an issue of the deal 609 00:59:25,692 --> 00:59:29,087 at an upcoming nationally televised forum on corruption. 610 01:00:28,973 --> 01:00:31,671 Putin had asked Russia's biggest businessmen 611 01:00:31,715 --> 01:00:34,326 to a round table discussion on television on the theme 612 01:00:34,369 --> 01:00:35,980 on the theme of corruption. 613 01:00:36,023 --> 01:00:38,330 Most of the guys who took part 614 01:00:38,373 --> 01:00:40,201 had the wisdom to figure out 615 01:00:40,245 --> 01:00:42,116 that it was a little bit of a fig leaf. 616 01:00:50,385 --> 01:00:51,517 But Khodorkovsky, he came 617 01:00:51,560 --> 01:00:53,258 under the whole pile of slides 618 01:00:53,301 --> 01:00:57,131 which reported that Russians felt that corruption existed 619 01:00:57,175 --> 01:00:59,481 at the highest levels of government. 620 01:01:24,376 --> 01:01:26,117 And they then got into the discussion 621 01:01:26,160 --> 01:01:28,685 what Khodorkovsky thought was a dodgy deal. 622 01:01:33,690 --> 01:01:35,517 This Northern oil deal, 623 01:01:35,561 --> 01:01:36,693 was Putin happy that you mentioned it? 624 01:02:41,540 --> 01:02:44,848 You saw it from the facial expression of Putin, 625 01:02:44,891 --> 01:02:47,981 he was really, really angry. 626 01:02:48,025 --> 01:02:50,984 Especially coming from Khodorkovsky. 627 01:03:27,238 --> 01:03:29,153 There were all these warning signs. 628 01:03:29,196 --> 01:03:31,111 Many of his people were arrested. 629 01:03:44,603 --> 01:03:46,126 It was hard for me to understand 630 01:03:46,170 --> 01:03:48,259 why Khodorkovsky was smiling 631 01:03:48,302 --> 01:03:49,956 or how he could say that what was happening 632 01:03:50,000 --> 01:03:52,698 is standard practice. 633 01:03:52,741 --> 01:03:55,483 Just four months after the TV battle with Putin, 634 01:03:55,527 --> 01:03:57,659 the top security official of Yukos, 635 01:03:57,703 --> 01:04:00,924 Alexey Pichugin, was arrested and tried in secret 636 01:04:00,967 --> 01:04:03,883 in connection with the series of contract killings. 637 01:04:03,927 --> 01:04:06,668 Which would include the murder of Mayor Petukhov 638 01:04:08,235 --> 01:04:09,802 That was strange, 639 01:04:09,846 --> 01:04:11,630 because five years earlier, the case have been dropped 640 01:04:11,673 --> 01:04:14,807 when the likely killers, two Chechen gangsters, 641 01:04:14,851 --> 01:04:15,852 have been murdered. 642 01:04:17,679 --> 01:04:21,335 Now the Kremlin was pushing a fresh story. 643 01:04:21,379 --> 01:04:23,685 The Chechens were replaced with new killers 644 01:04:23,729 --> 01:04:25,731 who suddenly confessed and testified 645 01:04:25,774 --> 01:04:27,559 that Pichugin ordered the hit. 646 01:04:27,602 --> 01:04:30,562 When Pichugin refused to implicate Khodorkovsky, 647 01:04:30,605 --> 01:04:34,131 Pechugan claimed he was dosed psychotropic drugs. 648 01:04:34,174 --> 01:04:36,089 When that didn't work, the new triggerman 649 01:04:36,133 --> 01:04:37,917 claimed that the order to kill the mayor 650 01:04:37,961 --> 01:04:40,964 come from Pichugin's boss, Leonid Nevzlin. 651 01:08:12,914 --> 01:08:15,656 The richest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky 652 01:08:15,700 --> 01:08:18,572 seized at gunpoint by Russian Special Forces. 653 01:08:18,616 --> 01:08:19,791 Khodorkovsky is locked up 654 01:08:19,834 --> 01:08:21,445 in an overcrowded Russian prison. 655 01:09:15,194 --> 01:09:16,848 Did your hunger strike succeed? 656 01:09:16,891 --> 01:09:19,024 Was Lebedev let out of the dungeon? 657 01:09:34,909 --> 01:09:36,433 I remember calling my editor. 658 01:09:36,476 --> 01:09:38,739 I said, "They just arrested Khodorkovsky." 659 01:09:38,783 --> 01:09:41,089 And the response from London was, 660 01:09:41,133 --> 01:09:43,440 "Well, it couldn't have happened to a better man." 661 01:09:43,483 --> 01:09:45,659 I don't want to paint Khodorkovsky 662 01:09:45,703 --> 01:09:47,226 as an angel if he wasn't. 663 01:09:47,270 --> 01:09:49,402 But I was rather horrified 664 01:09:49,446 --> 01:09:52,884 when I saw Vladimir Putin holding a copy of my stories, 665 01:09:52,927 --> 01:09:56,366 saying, "Look, even the Western press outside, 666 01:09:56,409 --> 01:09:57,671 he was a terrible man." 667 01:10:00,108 --> 01:10:04,374 It was very clear that this is not about finding the truth, 668 01:10:04,417 --> 01:10:06,637 or finding what happened. 669 01:10:06,680 --> 01:10:08,247 It was about putting papers together, 670 01:10:08,291 --> 01:10:11,511 so that it looks like it's a real case. 671 01:10:11,555 --> 01:10:13,252 But, in fact, it's not a real case. 672 01:10:23,219 --> 01:10:25,395 As someone with a legal background in Russia, 673 01:10:25,438 --> 01:10:26,918 I had to try to interpret 674 01:10:26,961 --> 01:10:29,790 and explain this to American lawyers. 675 01:10:29,834 --> 01:10:32,402 Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were put in a cage 676 01:10:32,445 --> 01:10:36,623 to show everyone who is the boss here. 677 01:10:36,667 --> 01:10:37,972 Khodorkovsky was accused 678 01:10:38,016 --> 01:10:39,757 of tax evasion, embezzlement. 679 01:10:39,800 --> 01:10:40,975 All these things. 680 01:10:41,019 --> 01:10:44,675 But it's this particularly hard to say 681 01:10:44,718 --> 01:10:46,285 whether or not he's guilty. 682 01:10:46,329 --> 01:10:49,767 Because the law was in such a fluid state in those years. 683 01:10:49,810 --> 01:10:53,161 All the other oligarchs did exactly the same things. 684 01:10:53,205 --> 01:10:56,034 And they were free to keep doing it. 685 01:10:57,992 --> 01:11:00,299 During the first trial, the Russian attorneys 686 01:11:00,343 --> 01:11:01,909 were trying to pretend like 687 01:11:01,953 --> 01:11:03,476 they're defending an ordinary case. 688 01:11:17,360 --> 01:11:18,665 The Russian prosecutors think 689 01:11:18,709 --> 01:11:20,319 the more papers they put together, 690 01:11:20,363 --> 01:11:21,973 the more it looks legitimate. 691 01:11:22,016 --> 01:11:24,976 They wrote like hundreds of volume of material 692 01:11:25,019 --> 01:11:27,065 of basically nothing. 693 01:11:27,108 --> 01:11:30,286 For example, the used company telephone directory. 694 01:11:30,329 --> 01:11:32,853 As an evidence of the criminal enterprise. 695 01:11:53,831 --> 01:11:57,051 Yukos as a company was accused of not paying taxes 696 01:11:57,095 --> 01:11:59,140 for six years. 697 01:11:59,184 --> 01:12:02,361 Khodorkovsky was discussing payment of back taxes 698 01:12:02,405 --> 01:12:05,495 that would settle Yukos's 699 01:12:05,538 --> 01:12:07,584 debts to the State. 700 01:12:07,627 --> 01:12:09,194 And when Yukos agreed to that, 701 01:12:09,237 --> 01:12:10,369 then another demand would come in. 702 01:12:10,413 --> 01:12:12,284 A new demand will be higher this time. 703 01:12:12,328 --> 01:12:14,417 So it wasn't a case of wanting 704 01:12:14,460 --> 01:12:16,549 to recoup the taxes that haven't been paid. 705 01:12:16,593 --> 01:12:19,552 It was a case of wanting to destroy Yukos. 706 01:12:22,555 --> 01:12:24,470 There was a bankruptcy auction. 707 01:12:25,558 --> 01:12:28,039 And I was denied access to it 708 01:12:28,082 --> 01:12:30,041 with no basic or any legitimate reason. 709 01:12:41,574 --> 01:12:43,837 A mysterious, newly-created company 710 01:12:43,881 --> 01:12:45,622 Baikal Finance Group 711 01:12:45,665 --> 01:12:47,363 suddenly emerged to bid for Yukos. 712 01:12:48,668 --> 01:12:50,322 But Baikal had no assets. 713 01:12:50,366 --> 01:12:52,803 And its headquarters turned out to be a vodka bar. 714 01:12:52,846 --> 01:12:54,805 Two hours outside of Moscow. 715 01:12:59,331 --> 01:13:00,767 When Baikal won the auction, 716 01:13:00,811 --> 01:13:03,727 it sold Yukos to the government-controlled Rosneft. 717 01:13:04,858 --> 01:13:07,426 Rosneft is the state oil company, 718 01:13:07,470 --> 01:13:11,387 and it is run by one of Putin's closest friends, 719 01:13:11,430 --> 01:13:12,475 Igor Sechin. 720 01:13:14,259 --> 01:13:16,522 Sechin was Putin's man. 721 01:13:16,566 --> 01:13:20,439 And when Putin renationalized a lot of companies, 722 01:13:20,483 --> 01:13:22,049 he created a new clause. 723 01:13:23,137 --> 01:13:25,575 Oligarch 2.0. 724 01:14:13,753 --> 01:14:15,451 In most countries in the world, 725 01:14:15,494 --> 01:14:17,496 oil companies are owned by the state. 726 01:14:17,540 --> 01:14:21,631 Nothing wrong with that. Good news for the Russians. 727 01:14:21,674 --> 01:14:24,329 You know? That's how 99 percent of the people saw it. 728 01:14:56,579 --> 01:15:00,931 The fact that the oligarchs were so reviled and resented 729 01:15:00,974 --> 01:15:03,281 by the Russian people 730 01:15:03,324 --> 01:15:07,633 was a fantastically useful tool for Putin. 731 01:15:07,677 --> 01:15:10,114 Putin very famously and publicly declared 732 01:15:10,157 --> 01:15:13,813 "I'm going to destroy the oligarchs as a class." 733 01:15:13,857 --> 01:15:16,642 And every Russian would know where the quotation came from. 734 01:15:16,686 --> 01:15:18,949 Because Stalin said very famously, 735 01:15:18,992 --> 01:15:23,649 "I'm going to destroy the rich, peasants as a class." 736 01:15:23,693 --> 01:15:26,478 And when he did bring the oligarchs to heel, 737 01:15:26,522 --> 01:15:27,871 it was incredibly popular. 738 01:15:33,485 --> 01:15:36,270 What he says to Khodorkovsky and to the country 739 01:15:36,314 --> 01:15:38,490 is that nothing belongs you. 740 01:15:38,534 --> 01:15:41,580 That you have no legitimate rights to it. 741 01:15:41,624 --> 01:15:44,583 We control everything and we can take away everything from you 742 01:15:44,627 --> 01:15:46,542 if you cross us. 743 01:19:17,578 --> 01:19:20,016 Do you think that being in prison 744 01:19:20,059 --> 01:19:22,932 gave you special insight to Putin and the people around him? 745 01:22:18,150 --> 01:22:20,674 Former oil tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky 746 01:22:20,718 --> 01:22:24,156 who was jailed for embezzlement and tax evasion in 2003 747 01:22:24,200 --> 01:22:25,810 is back in court. 748 01:22:25,853 --> 01:22:28,204 New charges brought against him, could see his term extended 749 01:22:28,247 --> 01:22:29,945 until 2017. 750 01:22:37,039 --> 01:22:38,344 The second trial was announced 751 01:22:38,388 --> 01:22:40,825 when Khodorkovsky was coming up 752 01:22:40,868 --> 01:22:42,392 to the point that he might get through. 753 01:22:42,435 --> 01:22:44,960 It seems very clear, Putin did not want him 754 01:22:45,003 --> 01:22:46,483 to get through. 755 01:23:10,463 --> 01:23:12,770 The second trial was a sequel in black comedy. 756 01:23:13,684 --> 01:23:14,902 In the first trial, 757 01:23:14,946 --> 01:23:16,774 the government convicted Khodorkovsky 758 01:23:16,817 --> 01:23:19,429 for not paying taxes on the oil HE sold. 759 01:23:19,472 --> 01:23:20,952 In the second, 760 01:23:20,996 --> 01:23:22,606 the government claimed he had never sold the oil. 761 01:23:22,649 --> 01:23:24,434 He'd stolen it. 762 01:23:24,477 --> 01:23:27,219 But if he had stolen it, where did he put it? 763 01:23:27,263 --> 01:23:30,353 And if he never sold it, why did he owe the taxes? 764 01:24:12,786 --> 01:24:14,614 Is it not clear? 765 01:25:52,973 --> 01:25:57,761 It's very important for me how this trial will finish because 766 01:25:57,804 --> 01:26:00,590 according to that, I'll know which country in the end 767 01:26:00,633 --> 01:26:02,461 my children will live in. 768 01:26:02,505 --> 01:26:06,552 Putin is very afraid of Khodorkovsky. 769 01:26:06,596 --> 01:26:09,555 And he wants him to be in the prison forever. 770 01:26:10,643 --> 01:26:13,211 This is against Russia. 771 01:26:13,255 --> 01:26:15,605 This is against Russia's future. 772 01:26:15,648 --> 01:26:20,349 And it means that this is not a country of law. 773 01:26:20,392 --> 01:26:22,133 This is a country of dictatorship. 774 01:27:34,988 --> 01:27:36,990 When he was in jail, he suddenly gained 775 01:27:37,034 --> 01:27:39,297 through his stamina, through his calm, 776 01:27:39,341 --> 01:27:40,777 through his resolution 777 01:27:40,820 --> 01:27:43,301 that moral authority and respect of people. 778 01:27:43,345 --> 01:27:44,650 I wouldn't say he has legitimacy 779 01:27:45,521 --> 01:27:46,957 as a political figure. 780 01:27:47,000 --> 01:27:48,611 But I think the perception of him 781 01:27:49,264 --> 01:27:51,309 has... 782 01:27:51,353 --> 01:27:53,355 made sort of a 180 degree turn. 783 01:29:55,172 --> 01:29:57,087 There was a period when Putin 784 01:29:57,130 --> 01:29:59,132 because of the constitution had to step down as president 785 01:29:59,176 --> 01:30:01,265 and become prime minister. 786 01:30:01,308 --> 01:30:02,919 And his colleague, Dmitry Medvedev 787 01:30:02,962 --> 01:30:04,181 became president. 788 01:30:04,224 --> 01:30:05,617 There was a lot of talk at that time 789 01:30:05,661 --> 01:30:09,404 that perhaps Medvedev might be a rival 790 01:30:09,447 --> 01:30:12,711 power base to Putin's. 791 01:30:12,755 --> 01:30:14,452 Turned out to be completely incorrect. 792 01:30:14,496 --> 01:30:17,499 Because at the end of Medvedev's term as president, 793 01:30:17,542 --> 01:30:21,590 he simply stepped down and Putin came back into power. 794 01:30:36,561 --> 01:30:41,044 Till 2008, I think Russia was on the right track. 795 01:30:41,087 --> 01:30:42,437 And Putin was okay. 796 01:30:43,960 --> 01:30:49,574 Then Putin decided to become more authoritarian. 797 01:30:49,618 --> 01:30:53,056 He also decided that the country could not live without him. 798 01:30:54,492 --> 01:30:56,494 That's what power does to you. 799 01:30:56,538 --> 01:30:59,628 You think you are the country, and the country thinks 800 01:30:59,671 --> 01:31:03,066 without Putin, there is no Russia. 801 01:31:07,592 --> 01:31:09,638 More than a 100 thousand protesters 802 01:31:09,681 --> 01:31:11,727 flooded Moscow's Bolotnaya Square 803 01:31:11,770 --> 01:31:15,426 to protest Putin's return to the presidency. 804 01:31:15,470 --> 01:31:19,474 The protesters at least could imagine Russia without Putin. 805 01:32:03,213 --> 01:32:06,564 The only way we could potentially get him out of jail 806 01:32:06,608 --> 01:32:09,567 is not through judicial system in Russia. 807 01:32:09,611 --> 01:32:12,309 But through some sort of negotiations 808 01:32:12,352 --> 01:32:15,704 involving Western leaders putting pressure on Putin. 809 01:32:40,859 --> 01:32:42,513 The host nation of Russia 810 01:32:42,557 --> 01:32:45,168 is continuing a well-timed release 811 01:32:45,211 --> 01:32:47,997 of high profile prisoners. 812 01:32:48,040 --> 01:32:49,781 We see a riot band member, 813 01:32:49,825 --> 01:32:52,218 Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been freed 814 01:32:52,262 --> 01:32:54,569 as part of president Putin's amnesty. 815 01:32:56,353 --> 01:32:57,876 Putin really wanted to see 816 01:32:57,920 --> 01:33:00,444 Western leadership coming to Sochi 817 01:33:00,487 --> 01:33:03,447 and the pardon was his gesture 818 01:33:03,490 --> 01:33:05,667 in anticipation of 819 01:33:05,710 --> 01:33:07,712 gesture back from the Western leaders. 820 01:33:10,889 --> 01:33:13,022 How did you find out that you were going to be released? 821 01:35:28,113 --> 01:35:30,768 I haven't met him until he was released from prison. 822 01:35:32,552 --> 01:35:35,033 -We had some vodka. 823 01:35:35,077 --> 01:35:37,993 Um, it was really unreal. 824 01:36:29,392 --> 01:36:32,351 He was really thinking what his next public step 825 01:36:32,395 --> 01:36:33,918 in that fight should be. 826 01:36:33,962 --> 01:36:37,052 And then he said that "I'm ready to make the public move." 827 01:36:37,095 --> 01:36:39,968 And he wanted to go to Kyiv. 828 01:36:40,011 --> 01:36:43,145 In Kyiv, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators 829 01:36:43,188 --> 01:36:44,842 demanded the government resign 830 01:36:44,886 --> 01:36:47,366 for rejecting closer ties with the EU 831 01:36:47,410 --> 01:36:49,760 in favor of better relations with Russia. 832 01:36:51,893 --> 01:36:53,633 Demonstrators pulled back 833 01:36:53,677 --> 01:36:56,985 under a hail of bullets fired by government forces. 834 01:37:51,343 --> 01:37:54,520 In 2014, Khodorkovsky moved to London 835 01:37:54,564 --> 01:37:56,218 and founded Open Russia. 836 01:37:56,261 --> 01:37:58,481 An umbrella group that funds anti-Putin efforts 837 01:37:58,524 --> 01:38:02,877 and invests in long-range visions for democracy in Russia. 838 01:38:02,920 --> 01:38:06,097 The money for Open Russia comes from Khodorkovsky. 839 01:38:06,141 --> 01:38:09,796 Somehow, even while serving hard time in Siberia, 840 01:38:09,840 --> 01:38:13,061 he or his friends managed to protect some of his fortune. 841 01:38:31,775 --> 01:38:35,300 While in Moscow, I spent a bit of time with Open Russia. 842 01:38:35,344 --> 01:38:39,217 On the ground, their efforts were less than effective. 843 01:38:39,261 --> 01:38:41,480 Volunteers didn't have strong enough glue 844 01:38:41,524 --> 01:38:43,308 to paste up their posters. 845 01:38:43,352 --> 01:38:45,397 And open Russia teleconferences 846 01:38:45,441 --> 01:38:48,183 in which Khodorkovsky beamed himself into Moscow 847 01:38:48,226 --> 01:38:51,751 only attracted the interest of a few dozen supporters. 848 01:38:51,795 --> 01:38:55,103 Khodorkovsky is not a forgotten figure. 849 01:38:55,146 --> 01:38:57,322 But you can't touch him 850 01:38:57,366 --> 01:39:01,805 so he becomes more and more TV image. 851 01:39:01,848 --> 01:39:04,286 Okay, not TV, he's not shown on TV. 852 01:39:04,329 --> 01:39:06,897 Computer generated image, okay? 853 01:39:06,941 --> 01:39:08,681 And it's not good, of course... 854 01:39:10,683 --> 01:39:13,469 -for a politician.... - Virtual Khodorkovsky. 855 01:39:13,512 --> 01:39:15,166 Virtual Khodorkovsky. Exactly. 856 01:39:16,298 --> 01:39:18,169 Being outside of Russia, 857 01:39:18,213 --> 01:39:22,913 he really cannot influence situations here. 858 01:39:22,957 --> 01:39:25,785 He wants to be Jesus Christ, but, you know, he has a past. 859 01:39:34,055 --> 01:39:38,276 Over time, complicated stories become more simple. 860 01:39:38,320 --> 01:39:42,193 Shades of gray separate in the pools of black and white. 861 01:39:42,237 --> 01:39:45,196 That simplicity can serve a political purpose. 862 01:39:46,371 --> 01:39:48,721 In 1998, there were many suspects 863 01:39:48,765 --> 01:39:51,246 in the brutal killing of Mayor Luzhkov. 864 01:39:51,289 --> 01:39:55,032 From Chechen gangsters, to Mayor's wife. 865 01:39:55,076 --> 01:39:57,817 Today in Nefteyugansk, there is only one. 866 01:41:39,223 --> 01:41:43,923 Khodorkovsky's story marks the beginning of a journey 867 01:41:43,967 --> 01:41:46,404 which ultimately will result 868 01:41:46,448 --> 01:41:47,927 in violence. 869 01:41:47,971 --> 01:41:49,755 And this is where we are today. 870 01:41:49,799 --> 01:41:52,584 Where violence is the only truth. 871 01:41:52,628 --> 01:41:57,285 At your disposal for resolving social contradictions 872 01:41:57,328 --> 01:41:58,460 or political conflicts. 873 01:42:32,058 --> 01:42:34,235 In England, over the past 15 years, 874 01:42:34,278 --> 01:42:35,671 there have been a growing 875 01:42:35,714 --> 01:42:38,761 number of mysterious deaths related to Russia. 876 01:42:38,804 --> 01:42:42,156 Khodokovsky's lawyer was killed in a helicopter crash. 877 01:42:42,199 --> 01:42:45,507 The anti-Putin Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko 878 01:42:45,550 --> 01:42:46,899 was poisoned to death. 879 01:42:46,943 --> 01:42:49,554 Six months after he delivered an affidavit, 880 01:42:49,598 --> 01:42:51,208 the Russian's Secret Services 881 01:42:51,252 --> 01:42:53,645 have paid for the murder of the mayor of Nefteyugansk 882 01:42:54,864 --> 01:42:57,171 Boris Berezovsky was found dead. 883 01:42:57,214 --> 01:43:00,913 His neck suspended by his own cashmere scarf. 884 01:43:00,957 --> 01:43:03,177 But the coroner was unable to conclude 885 01:43:03,220 --> 01:43:06,832 whether the hanging was a suicide or a murder. 886 01:43:06,876 --> 01:43:10,836 Berezovsky became consumed by this obsession 887 01:43:10,880 --> 01:43:13,012 that he was gonna bring down Putin 888 01:43:13,056 --> 01:43:14,492 from London. 889 01:43:16,059 --> 01:43:17,408 I would be very sad 890 01:43:17,452 --> 01:43:20,194 if Khodorkovsky went the same way Berezovsky did. 891 01:43:23,980 --> 01:43:27,331 I mean your life may be at risk in London. 892 01:43:27,375 --> 01:43:29,333 Did you have a conversation with your wife 893 01:43:29,377 --> 01:43:31,205 about continuing to speak out? 894 01:44:37,488 --> 01:44:39,055 I can't speak of Russia too much. 895 01:44:39,098 --> 01:44:41,144 One of the top Kremlin political aids, 896 01:44:41,187 --> 01:44:44,365 uh, said publicly, "There's no Russia without Putin." 897 01:44:44,408 --> 01:44:45,888 End of quote. 898 01:44:45,931 --> 01:44:48,456 Probably the most insulting thing I've ever heard said 899 01:44:48,499 --> 01:44:50,545 about my country. 900 01:44:50,588 --> 01:44:53,199 Vladimir Kara-Murza is a former journalist 901 01:44:53,243 --> 01:44:54,940 and anti-Putin political warrior. 902 01:44:56,290 --> 01:44:57,943 He was close to John McCain 903 01:44:57,987 --> 01:45:01,033 who asked him to be among those who carried his coffin. 904 01:45:01,077 --> 01:45:03,819 Kara-Murza was poisoned twice while on assignment 905 01:45:03,862 --> 01:45:05,908 for Khodorkovsky and Russia. 906 01:45:05,951 --> 01:45:09,346 He played a key role in passing the Magnitsky act 907 01:45:09,390 --> 01:45:11,261 which sanctions certain Russian individuals 908 01:45:11,305 --> 01:45:13,524 for human rights abuses. 909 01:45:13,568 --> 01:45:15,483 Kara-Murza now works with Khodorkovsky 910 01:45:15,526 --> 01:45:17,746 to provide research and offer advice 911 01:45:17,789 --> 01:45:19,530 to those considering sanctions 912 01:45:19,574 --> 01:45:21,315 on members of Putin's inner circle. 913 01:46:44,398 --> 01:46:48,184 We do have a new project of Open Russia called Dossier. 914 01:46:48,227 --> 01:46:51,317 It takes the investigative journalist 915 01:46:51,361 --> 01:46:55,496 down in Russia or outside of Russia and builds on that. 916 01:46:55,539 --> 01:46:58,063 A key focus is the circle of new oligarchs 917 01:46:58,107 --> 01:46:59,804 surrounding Putin. 918 01:46:59,848 --> 01:47:02,067 One of them is Yevgeny Prigozhin, 919 01:47:02,111 --> 01:47:04,592 nicknamed Putin's chef. 920 01:47:04,635 --> 01:47:06,507 Following a recipe of covert ops, 921 01:47:06,550 --> 01:47:09,988 the chef cooks up missions for Putin all over the world. 922 01:47:10,032 --> 01:47:12,730 Special Counsel Robert Mueller accused Prigozhin 923 01:47:12,774 --> 01:47:14,384 of launching cyberattacks 924 01:47:14,428 --> 01:47:17,474 during the 2016 presidential election. 925 01:47:17,518 --> 01:47:18,867 Others accused him 926 01:47:18,910 --> 01:47:20,738 of running off-the-books military operations 927 01:47:20,782 --> 01:47:23,045 from Ukraine to Africa. 928 01:47:23,088 --> 01:47:25,351 When Khodorkovsky funded a group of journalists 929 01:47:25,395 --> 01:47:27,963 to look into the matter, they were murdered. 930 01:47:28,006 --> 01:47:30,356 Reportedly by people working for the chef.. 931 01:47:39,670 --> 01:47:41,933 Back in Russia, state-controlled TV 932 01:47:41,977 --> 01:47:43,413 turns the story upside down, 933 01:47:43,457 --> 01:47:45,763 blaming Khodorkovsky for not doing more 934 01:47:45,807 --> 01:47:47,112 to protect the journalists. 935 01:47:56,382 --> 01:47:58,515 Open Russia also helped to expose a plot 936 01:47:58,559 --> 01:48:02,301 to kill a Russian double agent in Salisbury, England. 937 01:48:02,345 --> 01:48:05,043 The attack deployed a military chemical weapon 938 01:48:05,087 --> 01:48:06,697 which badly poisoned two people 939 01:48:06,741 --> 01:48:09,526 and killed an innocent bystander. 940 01:48:09,570 --> 01:48:11,746 Two members of the assassination team 941 01:48:11,789 --> 01:48:13,748 were spotted by British surveillance cameras 942 01:48:13,791 --> 01:48:15,706 and traced back through their driver's licenses 943 01:48:15,750 --> 01:48:17,795 to the GRU. 944 01:48:17,839 --> 01:48:19,971 Russian military intelligence. 945 01:48:20,015 --> 01:48:22,234 With a perfume bottle full of Novichok, 946 01:48:22,278 --> 01:48:23,975 a deadly nerve agent, 947 01:48:24,019 --> 01:48:26,674 they travelled to Salisbury on the day of the attack 948 01:48:26,717 --> 01:48:28,502 and then fled quickly back to Russia. 949 01:49:35,438 --> 01:49:36,831 That interview 950 01:49:36,874 --> 01:49:39,790 was sort of a double message saying, nothing is true. 951 01:49:41,531 --> 01:49:43,446 And of course we're lying. 952 01:49:43,489 --> 01:49:45,970 And two fingers up to the West. 953 01:49:46,014 --> 01:49:47,624 But we're still doing it. 954 01:49:47,668 --> 01:49:49,713 And it's okay to lie. 955 01:49:49,757 --> 01:49:52,498 It's negation of facts and negation of truth. 956 01:49:52,542 --> 01:49:53,761 Negation of reality. 957 01:50:06,121 --> 01:50:07,992 What kind of campaign is Sobchak running? 958 01:50:08,036 --> 01:50:09,341 Have you met her? And what do you think of her? 959 01:50:39,720 --> 01:50:41,983 How's the campaign going? 960 01:50:42,026 --> 01:50:44,855 -Smooth as it can be. -I understand. 961 01:50:44,899 --> 01:50:49,773 Miss Sobchak just advises me to take part in her campaign. 962 01:50:53,429 --> 01:50:54,778 She's doing things 963 01:50:54,822 --> 01:50:58,173 which make her a very few friends in the Krem, 964 01:50:58,216 --> 01:51:00,697 When there's a fence, we should understand, 965 01:51:00,741 --> 01:51:02,612 that all we see 966 01:51:02,656 --> 01:51:05,049 all this so-called campaign 967 01:51:05,093 --> 01:51:07,312 is a, is a criminal game. 968 01:51:36,777 --> 01:51:39,301 After years in prison, Khodorkovsky had learned 969 01:51:39,344 --> 01:51:40,563 how to play the long game. 970 01:51:43,653 --> 01:51:45,568 During the run of election theater, 971 01:51:45,611 --> 01:51:48,310 he wasn't trying to 972 01:51:48,353 --> 01:51:51,748 He was offering support to a number of political actors 973 01:51:51,792 --> 01:51:54,838 who could amplify democratic principles over time. 974 01:52:10,724 --> 01:52:12,595 Khodorkovsky wanted to speak by proxy 975 01:52:12,638 --> 01:52:14,162 to a younger generation 976 01:52:14,205 --> 01:52:16,991 and be ready for Russia after Putin. 977 01:52:17,034 --> 01:52:19,036 They don't watch so much TV. 978 01:52:19,080 --> 01:52:22,387 They surf the web, a domain the State is either been unwilling 979 01:52:22,431 --> 01:52:24,433 or unable to control. 980 01:52:24,476 --> 01:52:26,827 One web warrior, Alexei Navalny 981 01:52:26,870 --> 01:52:28,785 is supported by Khodorkovsky. 982 01:52:28,829 --> 01:52:32,267 Navalny is banned from TV or running for office. 983 01:52:32,310 --> 01:52:34,269 But he can get more than 20 million views 984 01:52:34,312 --> 01:52:35,444 on his YouTube channel. 985 01:52:48,022 --> 01:52:49,458 Why do you think 986 01:52:49,501 --> 01:52:51,416 that Putin finds you so dangerous or threatening? 987 01:53:35,983 --> 01:53:37,419 During election season, 988 01:53:37,462 --> 01:53:39,769 there is a march in honor of Boris Nemtsov, 989 01:53:39,813 --> 01:53:41,858 an opposition politician who'd been murdered 990 01:53:41,902 --> 01:53:44,730 by mysterious gunmen in front of the Kremlin. 991 01:53:44,774 --> 01:53:47,821 Just a few days before he was to release evidence 992 01:53:47,864 --> 01:53:50,214 of Russia's involvement in violence in Ukraine. 993 01:54:15,065 --> 01:54:17,198 Preparations in government rules for the march 994 01:54:17,241 --> 01:54:20,027 made it more protest theater than protest. 995 01:54:20,070 --> 01:54:21,985 Only certain signs were allowed. 996 01:54:22,029 --> 01:54:24,161 And the tiny contention from Open Russia 997 01:54:24,205 --> 01:54:26,250 is not permitted to bring along it's posters. 998 01:54:36,391 --> 01:54:39,394 All the politicians showed up in the bitter cold. 999 01:55:18,912 --> 01:55:22,480 Ksenia Sobchak's family history haunted her campaign. 1000 01:55:22,524 --> 01:55:24,439 Her father was the mayor of St. Petersburg 1001 01:55:24,482 --> 01:55:26,136 who first hired Putin. 1002 01:55:26,180 --> 01:55:29,270 Many believe Ksenia is a secret agent of the Kremlin. 1003 01:55:29,313 --> 01:55:31,098 Maybe even Putin's goddaughter. 1004 01:55:33,883 --> 01:55:35,798 In Russia, where visions of the future are blocked 1005 01:55:35,841 --> 01:55:38,932 by an unchanging present under Putin, 1006 01:55:38,975 --> 01:55:41,499 conversations turn quickly to the past. 1007 01:55:41,543 --> 01:55:44,024 Putin looks back to days of empire 1008 01:55:44,067 --> 01:55:45,764 and wants to make Russia great again. 1009 01:55:47,418 --> 01:55:49,029 Russian liberals are nostalgic 1010 01:55:49,072 --> 01:55:52,032 for the democratic freedoms of the 90s. 1011 01:55:52,075 --> 01:55:54,599 But it's hard for them to argue in favor of the time 1012 01:55:54,643 --> 01:55:57,341 when a handful of men control the economy 1013 01:55:57,385 --> 01:55:59,256 and so many lived in fear of hunger, 1014 01:55:59,300 --> 01:56:01,345 violence, and economic chaos. 1015 01:56:02,129 --> 01:56:03,782 In such a past, 1016 01:56:03,826 --> 01:56:07,047 wouldn't most people settle for a present under Vladimir Putin? 1017 01:58:35,369 --> 01:58:37,197 In Russia's election theater, 1018 01:58:37,240 --> 01:58:39,895 everyone knows how the story will end. 1019 01:58:39,938 --> 01:58:43,116 Some actors play along and others improvise off a script. 1020 01:58:44,552 --> 01:58:47,207 But for now, outside of the big cities, 1021 01:58:47,250 --> 01:58:49,078 audiences seem happy enough 1022 01:58:49,122 --> 01:58:51,167 with the fairytale promoted by Putin. 1023 01:59:17,324 --> 01:59:18,977 And far off Krasnokamensk 1024 01:59:19,021 --> 01:59:21,502 where Khodorkovsky spent so many years in prison, election 1025 01:59:21,545 --> 01:59:24,505 theater has the folksy flair of a high school musical. 1026 01:59:25,941 --> 01:59:28,117 Everyone roots for a happy ending. 1027 01:59:28,161 --> 01:59:31,381 In a story scripted by the self-appointed man of the moment 1028 01:59:31,425 --> 01:59:33,862 who claims to have saved them from the villains of the past. 1029 02:00:31,572 --> 02:00:32,660 After Putin's next term, 1030 02:00:32,703 --> 02:00:34,923 can you imagine that he will step down? 1031 02:00:34,966 --> 02:00:36,838 Or do you think he will just keep going forever? 1032 02:00:37,708 --> 02:00:38,753 Who knows? 1033 02:00:42,974 --> 02:00:50,068 -Russia! Russia! Russia! -Russia! Russia! Russia! 1034 02:00:50,112 --> 02:00:53,071 Putin is now 18 years in power. 1035 02:00:53,115 --> 02:00:55,813 He has this group of friends around him 1036 02:00:55,857 --> 02:00:57,946 who are now feverously rich 1037 02:00:57,989 --> 02:01:00,253 and of course they don't wanna see him go. 1038 02:01:01,341 --> 02:01:03,647 Their whole wealth 1039 02:01:03,691 --> 02:01:05,432 comes only from him. 1040 02:01:08,043 --> 02:01:09,523 It's very hard to get out of this. 1041 02:01:17,357 --> 02:01:18,836 What do you think is Putin's worst nightmare? 1042 02:02:29,646 --> 02:02:31,431 I wondered how Khodorkovsky could think 1043 02:02:31,474 --> 02:02:34,695 that Putin was weak or fearful. 1044 02:02:34,738 --> 02:02:36,653 After all, on the struggle between the two men, 1045 02:02:37,611 --> 02:02:38,829 Khodorkovsky had lost. 1046 02:02:40,614 --> 02:02:42,746 But while in prison, Khodorkovsky learned 1047 02:02:42,790 --> 02:02:44,269 that you can sometimes win 1048 02:02:44,313 --> 02:02:46,010 when you're willing to lose everything. 1049 02:02:47,447 --> 02:02:49,144 The darker the night, 1050 02:02:49,187 --> 02:02:50,450 the brighter the stars.