All language subtitles for Facing.S01E04.Vladimir.Putin.720p.HDTV.x264-CROOKS

ROBERT GATES: I looked
into Putin's eyes,

and I saw a stone-cold killer.

LEON PANETTA: When you look
in Putin's eyes,

what you see is KGB, KGB, KGB.

MASHA GESSEN: People working
to oppose Putin

have made the conscious decision
to sacrifice their lives.

BILL BROWDER: If Vladimir Putin
could have me killed,

and have it done in a way
that doesn't come back to him,

I'd be dead by now.

♪ ♪

GATES: Working on the
National Security Council staff

for four presidents, I had
a pretty good understanding

of how the politics worked at
a very high level in Washington.

There was a period
when it looked like

there were some
real opportunities

between the West and Russia.

Partly it's because, for most
of Bush's administration

Putin was still, I think,

looking for a way
to work with the West.

He was the first leader to call
President Bush after 9/11

and offer help.

I mean, it couldn't have been
scripted better

in the White House.

GEORGE W. BUSH: I looked the man
in the eye,

I found him to be very
straightforward and trustworthy.

I was able to get
a sense of his soul.

GATES: President Bush met
with Putin,

and famously came back and said

that he had looked
into Putin's eyes

and thought he'd seen his soul.

And after my first meeting
with Putin,

I came back and reported
to President Bush,

well, I looked
into Putin's eyes,

and I saw a stone-cold killer.

JOHN SIMPSON: I've traveled the
length and breadth of Russia.

It's a country I love very much.

I'm very fond of Russians,
difficult though they often are.

I first saw and
was aware of Putin

in the office of a man
called Anatoly Sobchak

who was the mayor
of St. Petersburg.

Sitting in a desk
just beside his,

was this smallish,
slightly weasely character

with fair hair
looking very modest,

and it was indeed
Vladimir Putin.

I certainly didn't speak to him.

Why would I?
He wasn't of any importance.

Let's put it this way--
if I had to make a list

of the hundred people

most likely to be prime minister
in Russia,

his name wouldn't have
been on the list.

And I think that was how
a lot of people felt,

I mean, sheer amazement

that Putin would rise
so fast and so quickly.

♪ ♪

[speaking Russian]

♪ ♪

MASHA GESSEN:
Back in the late '70s,

my parents decided to leave
the Soviet Union.

And I remember asking my mother
why they'd made that decision,

and my mother said,
'You know what?

We can either sacrifice our
lives to fighting this regime,

or we can go
have a life elsewhere.

And we're not ready
to sacrifice our lives.'

There were many things
that happened in the 1990s

that were questionably legal.

And at one point
Yeltsin realized

that if the opposition
came to power,

then he ran a high risk
of being prosecuted.

And Yeltsin could certainly
see himself

spending the rest of his days
in a Russian jail.

And the simplest way
to avoid that

would be to anoint somebody
successor,

and make sure that that was
somebody who would guarantee

Yeltsin, personally,
immunity from prosecution.

Within days of Putin's being
appointed prime minister,

a series of terrorist attacks
begins.

NEWSCASTER:
The midnight explosion

collapsed 64 apartments,
one on top of the other.

The living have been rescued,
all that remains is the dead.

GESSEN: Putin positions himself
as commander in chief,

and Yeltsin lets him.

GESSEN:
And his popularity soars.

So this guy goes from having
no name recognition,

to not only being known to
every person in the country,

but being the most popular
politician in the country

in the space of two months.

After the first
apartment building explosion,

I went into my editor's office.

She said, 'Some people are
saying this is an FSB job.'

The FSB is the successor agency
to the KGB.

We laughed, because
it's such a crazy idea.

And then a couple
of weird things happened.

One was that a politician

speaking in
the Russian parliament

referred to the catastrophic
explosion in Volgodonsk.

The only thing is that
that announcement

preceded the actual bomb
by three days.

So in six months,
I went from thinking,

from laughing at the idea that
this could have been an FSB job,

to thinking that that was
the most likely explanation.

That this was somebody's plan

for taking Putin from
no name recognition

to being the most popular
politician in the country.

GATES: Knowing the magnitude
of Putin's ruthlessness,

it would not surprise me
in the least

if the Russian
intelligence services

were behind that bombing.

BRIAN WILLIAMS: In London today,
authorities revealed

that former KGB spy
Alexander Litvinenko,

who died yesterday,

was killed by a rare and deadly
radioactive poison.

♪ ♪

MARINA LITVINENKO:
Sacha used to work for the FSB

against organized crime.

But then, Sacha realized
something wrong.

Particularly in corruption, what
started to be very big in FSB.

He openly said FSB became
a very dangerous organization.

MAN: He was in charge of
the internal investigation unit

looking into corruption

within the Russian
intelligence service.

He found a lot.

He made a great deal of enemies.

SIR ROBERT OWEN:
I have concluded

that the FSB operation
to kill Mr. Litvinenko

was probably approved
by Mr. Patrushev,

then head of the FSB,

and also by President Putin.

LITVINENKO: Everything started
at midnight.

He started to feel
very, very sick.

He was not able to talk

because all his throat was just
so painful and white,

because all his tissue
inside was damaged.

And then I just tried
to calm him down,

saying, 'Sacha,
it will be fine,'

and I realized all his hair,
and on my gloves.

It was the last two days
of Sacha's life.

For 23 days, it was a torture
from very beginning to the end.

And when they decide to collect
of samples of urine,

they realized it was polonium.

Everybody were shocked.

It was the first time ever
investigated case

of killing a person
by radioactive material.

WILLIAMS: Litvinenko left behind
a death bed statement,

leaving no doubt
who he thought had killed him.

MAN: You may succeed
in silencing one man,

but the howl of protest
from around the world

will reverberate, Mr. Putin,

in your ears
for the rest of your life.

LITVINENKO: It's very important
for people to understand

how he loved life.

He was full of life.

He tried to help people.

But Sacha was a normal person,

and never expecting
maybe to be a hero.

I want all world
will understand--

Russia, it is not Putin,
and Putin is not Russia.

GESSEN: If I were
to try to remember,

off the top of my head,

people who have died under
mysterious circumstances,

whom Putin would have had reason
to want to see dead,

you might start with
Anatoly Sobchak,

died of a mysterious
heart attack.

Sergei Yushenkov,
member of parliament,

shot dead in front
of his apartment.

Yuri Shchekochikhin,

investigative journalist
and member of parliament,

died of a strange
allergic reaction.

Stanislav Markelov, who was
a human rights lawyer,

and Anastasia Baburova,

who happened to be walking
alongside him.

Natalya Estemirova,
Chechen human rights activist,

abducted and found dead.

Anna Politkovskaya,
investigative journalist,

survived one assassination
attempt by poisoning,

was shot dead
in her apartment building.

There have been times
when I've had,

I think my record was
400 death threats in a week.

So, I'd be stupid if I never
thought about risks to my life.

SIMPSON: A country where some
of the leading dissident figures

are killed, is a country where
somebody's got a short fuse.

[gunshot]

♪ ♪

Most people think that Putin
is kind of mujik figure.

Mujik is a kind of
village tough guy.

Not one of these smoothies that
would go off to Paris or London,

but a real proper Russian.

That's what Russian people,
by and large,

want their leader to be.

They want people that
don't do any apologizing.

They want a tough guy
who's perfectly prepared

to punch you in the face
when he meets you.

♪ ♪

BILL BROWDER: When Russia went
from communism to capitalism,

from a business person's
perspective,

the sky was the limit,

and fortunes could be made

instantaneously,

and I saw this
as a big opportunity.

I set up this investment fund
to invest in these companies.

One of the things that we did to
try to understand the situation

was do a stealing analysis
of Gazprom.

We were able to determine that
the management of Gazprom

between 1996 and 1999

had stolen oil and gas reserves
equal to the size of Kuwait.

Once I shared this information,

it created a whole political
firestorm inside of Russia.

[applause]

Everything was going great as an
investor until October of 2003

when Putin arrested the richest
man in Russia, put him on trial,

and allowed the television
cameras to film

the richest man in Russia
sitting in a cage.

And one by one by one, the
oligarchs went back to Russia,

and they sat down with Putin,
and said,

'Vladimir, what do we have to do
to not sit in the cage?'

And from that moment on,

the oligarchs were no longer
Putin's enemies,

they were his business partners.

And from that moment on,

my alignment of interests
with Putin ended,

and he turned against me.

GATES: Putin has, I think,
a very Manichean view

of the people
that he deals with.

Basically, you're for me,
or you're against me.

So you have some oligarchs

that have spent
a lot of time in Siberia,

others who have had
to flee to the West,

a couple who have been killed.

On the other hand, the oligarchs
that have done what Putin said,

there 15 years or so ago,

have remained billionaires,

and remain influential

and powerful and very rich.

So, I mean, Putin has kept
his word to them.

I think Putin's attitude toward
most of the people around him

is, 'What have you done
for me lately?'

BROWDER: November 13, 2005,
I was flying back to Russia,

and I was stopped
at Sheremetyevo 2

in the VIP lounge,

roughly taken down to the
detention center of the airport,

I was locked up for 15 hours,

deported back to London

and subsequently declared
a threat to national security.

My offices were raided.

They seized all
of our corporate documents.

Then those documents were used

to perpetrate a massive,
$230 million tax rebate fraud,

basically stealing the taxes
that we had paid

from the Russian government.

So we went out and hired the
smartest lawyer we could find,

a young Russian man
named Sergei Magnitsky.

Sergei exposed that crime,

and roughly a month after
he testified against them,

the same officials we exposed
came to his home, arrested him,

put him in pre-trail detention,

where he was then tortured

to get him to withdraw
his testimony.

They put him
in an isolation cell.

They chained him to a bed,

and eight riot guards
with rubber batons

beat him until he died.

JOHN McCAIN: I want to recognize
Sergei Magnitsky,

whose remarkable life and
tragic death is the reason,

the catalyst,
that brought us here today.

BROWDER: Putin and his cronies
steal money in Russia,

they travel to the West, they
keep their money in the West,

they send their kids
to school in the West.

So I came up with an idea, which
is to take away their ability

to travel to the West, and to
spend their money in the West.

And this became known as
the Magnitsky Act in America.

Putin said this was the single
largest foreign policy priority,

to stop the Magnitsky Act.

It hit the Achilles' heel
of the Putin regime.

MCCAIN: We are sending a signal
to Vladimir Putin,

and to the Russian kleptocracy,

that these kinds of abuses
of human rights

will not be tolerated.

BROWDER: In retaliation,
Putin held a trial in 2013,

in which he put
Sergei Magnitsky,

who his officials had killed
in prison, put him on trial.

Dead.

They put me on trial in absentia
as his co-defendant.

There were two empty seats
in a cage

in a major Russian courtroom.

There was a judge,
there was prosecution lawyers,

there was appointed
defense lawyers,

there was bailiffs,
there was court reporters,

there was a gallery,
there was journalists.

And they found us both guilty.

This was the first time
in the history of Russia

they'd ever put
a dead man on trial.

They couldn't do
anything more to Sergei

after they found him guilty,

but they sentenced me
to nine years in absentia

in a Russian prison.

If Vladimir Putin
could have me killed,

and have it done in a way
that doesn't come back to him,

I'd be dead by now.

GATES: Putin was
a lieutenant colonel in the KGB,

posted in Dresden
in East Germany.

At least once
I pointed out to him

that when I was
deputy director of CIA

and meeting with his bosses,

that he'd been
a lieutenant colonel in Dresden.

Facing Putin is different
than what one might think.

In all my meetings with him,
he never once raised his voice.

He can be very sarcastic,
he's very matter of fact.

So he's a very serious person.

He doesn't have what I would
call a sense of humor.

LEON PANETTA: When you're
head of the CIA

and head of intelligence,

you get some insight into what
someone who's been involved

with intelligence is all about.

You have a pretty good sense
about how Putin operated,

because they did exactly
the same thing--

engaged in intelligence
operations, engaged in spying,

engaged in trying to
undermine our country

in whatever way they could.

He's operating on the basis

that he can do
whatever the hell he wants.

And when somebody feels they can
do that, they're dangerous.

When you look in Putin's eyes,
what you see is KGB, KGB, KGB.

BROWDER: Vladimir Putin was
the head of the secret police,

and the secret police is
an organization that kills,

that poisons, that assassinates.

And so, I have no doubt that

all the high-profile
assassinations

that have been done in Russia

have been done with
Putin's blessing, for sure,

and perhaps his instruction.

SIMPSON: The Russian state
for hundreds of years, really,

has used poison as a weapon
against its enemies.

GATES: Putin was at
the Munich Security Conference

in February of 2007.

I was on the aisle on one side,
in the front row,

and Putin was on the aisle in
the front row on the other side.

Next to him was Angela Merkel,
chancellor of Germany,

and next to her was
President Yushchenko of Ukraine,

who believed, I think
with some good reason,

that the KGB had tried
to poison him.

And so his face was
all pockmarked

from the results
of this attempt.

So when Merkel gets up

to welcome everybody,

to give the keynote,

for all practical purposes
Putin and Yushchenko

are sitting next to each other.

And the look that
Yushchenko gave Putin

was one of unmitigated hatred.

It was amazing.

[piano playing]

GESSEN: At this point,

people who are working
to oppose Putin at home

are people who have made
the conscious decision

to sacrifice their lives
to fighting this regime.

They're absolute
and total heroes.

And I would certainly include
the women of Pussy Riot

in that number.

[women yelling]

They were the first people
jailed by Putin

for peaceful protest.

Which, at this point,
is impossible to imagine.

That was just four years ago;
now it's like old hat.

NEWSCASTER: It was a mixture
between hard-rock music gig

and prayer vigil
to the Virgin Mary,

who they implored to remove
Vladimir Putin from office.

Several days later,

alleged participants
in this punk prayer protest

were detained.

The young women now face seven
years in jail for hooliganism.

NADYA TOLOKONNIKOVA:
They didn't mention actually

on Russian TV news

that we came to the church
to protest against Putin.

They told the Russian people
that we came to the church

to destroy religion,
which wasn't the case at all.

INTERVIEWER: I'd like to talk
about the trial

and jailing of Pussy Riot.

PUTIN [TRANSLATED]:
Could you please translate

the name of the band
into Russian?

INTERVIEWER:
Pussy Riot the punk band.

I don't know what you call them
in Russian, sir,

maybe you could tell me.

PUTIN: The attacks had
a devastating effect

on all our traditional
religions,

and so, in general, I think
the state has to protect

the feelings of believers.

I will not comment on whether
the verdict is well-grounded,

and the sentence proportionate
to the offense.

GESSEN: I was in correspondence
with them actively,

and visited one of them
while they were in jail.

This is the Gulag as it was when
Solzhenitsyn wrote about it.

I saw what a nightmare it was.

It is slave labor,
it is sleep deprivation,

it is starvation, it is torture.

It is just physical and
emotional humiliation 24/7.

It is very difficult
to remain unbroken.

They did,
they remained unbroken,

although I saw how close
Nadya came to being broken.

TOLOKONNIKOVA:
Russian female prisons

is, is much more severe
than male prisons.

We have just one source of power
in female prison,

and it comes from a prison boss.

We call him Master,

and he's really
master of your life.

We had to work
for 16 hours per day.

They don't allow you to go to
toilet, to go to have a snack,

or to go to smoke.

We have problem with medicine,
we have problems with food,

we have problem with
unofficial punishments.

It was officially prohibited
for people to talk with me,

because I could spread

my political viruses.

But anyway, some of them
pass me notes,

some of them secretly
spoke with me.

I was like, I have to do
something with that.

So I started a hunger strike.

I wrote an open letter,
it was published

in the main independent
Russian media source.

Because I started hunger strike,

I had official right
to be isolated.

So when I'm isolated,
it's just me,

I would face all troubles
and not people around me.

Because of hunger strike,

I started to have blisters
on my skin.

All around my body and behind
my hairs, like between my hairs.

And like, it was painful,
and it was kind of scary,

because I never know, like,
will I have scars after that?

And obviously,
all prison bosses and doctors

are running around me like,
'You will die tomorrow!

You have to finish
your hunger strike!'

MADONNA: They have done
something courageous.

I think they have paid
the price for this act,

and I pray for their freedom.

And I know that everyone
in this auditorium,

if you're here as my fan,

feels they deserve
the right to be free.

[cheering]

TOLOKONNIKOVA:
We expected to be in prison,

like, around three years.

So when we only got two years,
it wasn't so bad, relatively.

And probably
we had this two years

because of all this
media attention,

like, a lot of people
were helping us,

and we're really thankful
to them.

Ultimate boss is Vladimir Putin.

I'm sure that he knows
about our situation

which is going on
in Russian prisons,

and moreover, it's super
comfortable for him,

because people should be afraid.

It's formula which work
for every dictator,

and for Putin, too.

ZHANNA NEMTSOVA: Putin is
a person who values two things

in his life--

money and power.

People's lives are not
a value for him.

NEMTSOVA: My father was
the leader of the opposition,

and he believed that his mission
was to fight with Putin.

Not with those people who
actually worked with Putin,

but directly with Putin.

Facing is confronting,
and my father faced Putin

because he wanted our country

to be based not
on the word of Putin.

His favorite words were
'Russia without Putin.'

NEMTSOVA: My father experienced
increasing pressure.

He was kept in custody two times
for taking part in protests,

and this protest was approved
by the city council.

They launched lots of slandering
campaigns against my father.

NEMTSOVA: He was attacked
in the streets

by some pro-Kremlin
youth movements.

His cell phone was overheard,

and once his private
conversations were published.

My father was depicted
as a national traitor.

It was a big stress for him,
because he thought of himself,

and it was very true,

that he was a very
pro-Russian politician.

He wanted the best for Russia,
and he fought for better Russia,

and he sacrificed lots of things
for this, and finally, his life.

NEWSCASTER: There is more
breaking news tonight.

One of Vladimir Putin's
top opponents,

who just last week was
quoted in Russian media

saying, quote, 'I'm scared
that Putin will kill me,'

has been gunned down in Moscow,
shot in the back.

NEMTSOVA: It was a big shock
I think for all people.

No one could have imagined,
honestly,

that that might have happened
to my father.

BROWDER: The only way that
anyone could have conducted

an assassination in front
of the Kremlin,

against the most beloved
Russian opposition politician

would be with the formal
blessing and instructions

from Vladimir Putin.

SIMPSON: Putin may be
a very tough

and, and possibly
nasty character.

But of all the stupid places
to have Nemtsov shot,

under the walls of the Kremlin

is, you know, going to be
right up there with them.

[people shouting]

♪ ♪

PLATON: Someone told me recently
that I'd photographed

more world leaders
than anyone in history.

I don't know if that's true, but
I'm very familiar with power,

and I'm fascinated by it.

Nothing is like Putin.

Nothing.

It's different.

It's not trying too hard,
it just is.

And it has this quiet,
calm chill

that leaves you really humble.

I got the call about four weeks
before the shoot was to happen.

And it was for TIME Magazine,

and they were preparing
person of the year.

They flew me to Moscow, I wasn't
sure when it's gonna be.

So I was put in this hotel
and just told to wait.

And it went on and on and on,
forever,

and it got more
and more painful.

And then one day,
I got the call,

'Tomorrow morning,

you will be picked up
by a black Kremlin BMW.'

We drove through
the streets of Moscow,

approaching this imposing
building of the Kremlin.

And then we went past
the Kremlin,

into a dark, bleak,
gothic forest.

And I, I thought I was
gonna get whacked.

no one knows where I am.

It felt like intimidation.

Eventually we arrived

at probably the most
imposing building

I've ever seen in my life.

And it's not that it was big,
it was just mean.

You're confronted by
a one and a half or two stories

security wall on the outside
that's covered in snipers.

And I looked up,

and I see, like, all the snipers
turned to me.

It was like snow up to here,
and I'm just in a suit.

And at gunpoint,
out in the trunk of the car,

I had to open all my equipment,

and I remember this guy was
using the barrel of his gun

to point to every lens,
and he said, 'Open! Open! Open!'

And, I mean, I didn't have
a coat, I was shivering,

my nose was dribbling, this is,
I'm not James Bond, man.

I'm not cool.

And this was so intimidating.

And then at gunpoint
I'm led into the building.

I was led into a small room,

and kept in this room for
about seven, eight hours.

And then suddenly there's
a knock at the door,

and they said, 'You can go
into his office to set up.'

So I grabbed all my equipment,

and they said,
'You got 15 minutes.'

And at one point
in my mad scramble,

I realized I needed power
for my strobe light.

I was watched by
a gang of bodyguards,

and I saw one power socket,

but there was already a plug
in it, it was near his desk.

So I went to pull that one out,
to put mine in.

I remember them screaming,
'Nyet! Nyet!'

And then one of them
pointed to the wire,

and he followed the wire,
which went onto his desk,

into the back of a red phone

in a glass case with
a single button on it.

So, I mean, that just added

to the insanity
of the whole situation.

It felt like I'm going rogue
in Putin's office.

The swing doors open.

Putin enters the room.

He's flanked by, I think
it was two translators

who'd constantly whisper
in his ear.

He had a group of probably
political advisors,

and then he had a whole gang
of tough guys, heavies.

You know, just kind of,
they have shaved heads,

one had a scar,
it was that kind of thing.

They all come up to me,
and I said, 'Mr. President,'

you know, I nervously said,

'It's such an honor
to be in Russia,

and I have a question
to ask you, if I may.

It's got nothing to do
with politics.'

So the translators
whispered in his ear,

and they all look, turn around
and look at me, and they say,

'What is the question?
We have to be quick.'

So I said, 'Well, I'm a massive
Beatles fan, um, are you?'

So they translated the question.

And then he looked at the
translators and his advisors,

and I guess in Russian

he just ordered them all
out the room immediately.

It was very abrupt, and it was
almost as if, 'Get out!'

So it was me, Putin,
and a gang of heavies.

And, again, I didn't know what's
about to happen now, you know.

Have I done something terrible?
Should I not have been human?

Should I not have been
an ordinary citizen,

and just asked what the question

that I was quite interested
in asking?

Then he looks at me, and
in pretty much perfect English,

he says, 'I love the Beatles.'

So I said, 'I didn't know
you spoke English.'

And he kind of nods,
very quietly,

he's not, he doesn't say a lot,
you know, he's very quiet.

But there's sort of this
crystally charisma in his eyes.

And he says, 'What do you want?
Let's do it.'

I remember as
I'm focusing my camera,

trying to stop my hand shaking.

I ended up an inch and a half
away from his nose.

I could feel his breath on my
hand as I focused the camera.

Now, from that view,
when I looked into his eyes,

I just saw power.

And it was cold, it was calm,

it was power that
I've never felt before.

And to me, it felt like,
'Russia first, at all costs.'

GATES: Putin technically can
remain president of Russia

until 2024.

I think he will bend
every effort

to remain president of Russia

for the rest of his life.

He will somehow change
the constitution

that allows him to continue
to be re-elected,

very much like elections took
place in the Soviet Union,

where the outcome was
a forgone conclusion.

GESSEN: He came to rule
a great country

at a very painful moment
in its development.

It had not recovered
from totalitarianism,

it had not recovered from
communist rule,

it had not reckoned
with its memory.

He destroyed the culture

by returning it
to a totalitarian state.

And I don't know whether Russia

will ever recover
from this period.

PANETTA: He moves quickly.

He sees an opening, he decides
to move into that opening.

He believes that
by asserting power,

that he can control,
ultimately, what happens.

But he isn't thinking about
where this is all headed.

I think he's engaged
in a mission

that is not going to
have a good outcome.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

BROWDER: Putin has created
this myth of himself,

that if he's not in power,
if he's not the strong man,

then the whole country
will disintegrate.

The Russian people
deserve better than that,

and Russia deserves
better than that.

♪ ♪

TOLOKONNIKOVA:
Getting rid of Putin

will be just the beginning
for Russia.

GATES: He became president

because he was able to promise
Boris Yeltsin

that he would protect
the Yeltsin family

and all the money
the Yeltsin family stole.

And he's kept his word.

There is nobody in Russia today
who can make that promise,

realistically,
to Vladimir Putin.

My personal belief is he will
leave that office feet first.

♪ ♪

Over time,
Putin convinced himself

that he was not just
a Russian president,

but that he had been chosen.

That this was
a God-given mission

that he had to restore Russia
to greatness.

[applause]