The Putin System - film review
The subject matter of Vladimir Putin's rise from a KGB Lieutenant-Colonel stationed in East Germany at the time of the fall of the Berlin wall could have made for a fascinating film. Archive photographs, news footage, and interviews with contemporaries, journalists, political technologists, academics and commentators provides a wealth of material covering Putin's career in the KGB, his appointment as deputy mayor of Leningrad, his transition to become Yeltsin's #2, and eventual succession to the presidency. Along the way the film touches on the war in Chechnya, terrorist incidents in Russia, the rise of the oligarchs and their subsequent elimination or subjugation, the pivotal role of Gazprom in the Russian state, control of the media, the use of energy policy as a political tool, Russian involvement in the Ukraine 'orange revolution' and its aftermath, and evolution of the political system in Russia from totalitarianism via a brief flirtation with the illusion of democracy back to authoritarianism.
Fitting all the above into a coherent 95 minutes would be a Herculean task and director Jean-Michel Carre falls short by some distance. The result of his efforts is a poorly organised assembly of interviews and footage that skates over a huge amount of material, leaving only the impression that Putin is an ex-KGB man who continues to utilise the methods he learned from his former employer.
Inessential viewing. Disappointing.