Life

TV Review: Putin documentary reminds us of his danger to the world

Billy Foley

Billy Foley

Billy has almost 30 years’ experience in journalism after leaving DCU with a BAJ. He has worked at the Irish Independent, Evening Herald and Sunday Independent in Dublin, the Cork-based Evening Echo and the New Zealand Herald. He joined the Irish News in 2000, working as a reporter and then Deputy News Editor. He has been News Editor since 2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, Russia last month. Pic by Alexei Nikolsky, Kremlin Pool Photo
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, Russia last month. Pic by Alexei Nikolsky, Kremlin Pool Photo Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, Russia last month. Pic by Alexei Nikolsky, Kremlin Pool Photo

Putin: A Russian Spy Story, Channel 4, Monday at 9pm

While we fret and fear about Donald Trump, we tend to forget that the one-time inspiration for the US president is more dangerous than any populist.

Vladimir Putin, now 20 years as the Russian president, is the undisputed ruler of one of the world’s sub superpowers and is likely to be around long after Trump has gone.

The early part of his leadership was about cementing his power at home and wounding his internal enemies.

Then he moved on to halting the decline of Russian influence in its traditional sphere, as he sees it (Chechnya and Crimea) and most recently it’s been about reflecting his country’s power international, such as in the Middle East and cyber-attacks on western democracy.

Putin: A Russian Spy Story is a serious attempt to understand the man who transformed from an unknown KGB agent to one of the most significant people on the planet.

After the first episode traced his poor upbringing in Leningrad and positioning himself to replace Boris Yeltsin, episode two (of three) this week focused on his simple but brutal philosophy on enemies and traitors.

While developing his strongman political image, Putin needed to make an example of the Russian elite who refused to play his game.

Arkady Ostrovsky, Russian Editor of The Economist, explained it best: “For Putin there are enemies and there are traitors. Enemies are something you can live with, but the traitors are a totally different kettle of fish. Betrayal is one thing he absolutely doesn’t tolerate”

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of the original oligarchs and Russia’s richest man, was the first to ‘betray’ him. Worse, he sought to humiliate Putin publicly by challenging him at a televised Kremlin meeting about corruption amounting to about 15 per cent of GDP.

Putin immediately challenged Khodorkovsky about whether all his companies had correctly paid their taxes and then the real attacks on him began. In 2003 Khodorkovsky was arrested on his private jet and charged with tax evasion and fraud.

Following a show trial he was sentenced to eight years and the message to the rest of the powerful was clear. Make money and stay out of politics or you will end up in a cage.

“He was trying to get rid of the oligarchs because he wanted to be the biggest oligarch of all,” said one commentator.

Others would get even more severe punishment. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in 2016 because she was making trouble and then Putin set about making a group of Russian dissidents in London feel uncomfortable.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer of the Russian FSB secret service who stood up to Putin, was poisoned on British soil and in 2013 Boris Berezovsky was found dead in an apparent suicide.

It's perfect lockdown viewing and is available on 4oD.

***

EastEnders, Coronation Street, BBC 1 and ITV

How strange to see the soaps continuing on with their traditional business while the world fights the coronavirus.

It’s understandable that there is a lag in their filming, and I’m not being critical of the decision of EastEnders and Coronation Street to keep running, but it is incongruous to see people gathering in pubs and life continuing as normal.

In the East End of London, Sharon buried her son with a horse drawn carriage and a packed pub of mourners.

While in Manchester’s Coronation Street, Gemma and her four babies are still going to their various help groups and Yasmeen and Geoff continue to run the restaurant despite his coercive control.

It’ll be over soon enough though. Production ended a couple of weeks ago and despite the rationing of episodes there can't be many left in the can.