1
00:00:06,260 --> 00:00:09,920
MAN: Happened twice, both times
in exactly the same way.

2
00:00:12,780 --> 00:00:14,200
Both times I was in Moscow,

3
00:00:14,260 --> 00:00:16,520
I started feeling really sick
for no reason.

4
00:00:17,660 --> 00:00:19,960
And within the space of
a few minutes,

5
00:00:20,020 --> 00:00:21,320
I was completely incapacitated.

6
00:00:21,380 --> 00:00:23,400
I couldn't breathe,
my heart was racing,

7
00:00:23,460 --> 00:00:25,636
and within hours all of my major
life organs were shutting down

8
00:00:25,660 --> 00:00:26,720
one after another.

9
00:00:26,780 --> 00:00:30,120
I remember both times
very clearly thinking,

10
00:00:30,180 --> 00:00:31,760
"This is it. This is the end."

11
00:00:41,100 --> 00:00:45,000
The official diagnosis give to me
by my doctors in Moscow was

12
00:00:45,060 --> 00:00:48,400
toxic action
by an unidentified substance,

13
00:00:48,460 --> 00:00:51,600
so translated from medical speak
to normal human language,

14
00:00:51,660 --> 00:00:52,760
it means poisoning.

15
00:01:00,260 --> 00:01:02,720
I have no doubt
by the way this was done,

16
00:01:02,780 --> 00:01:03,900
that this was done by people

17
00:01:03,940 --> 00:01:06,156
somehow connected with the Russian
domestic security services,

18
00:01:06,180 --> 00:01:09,800
and I have no doubt absolutely
that this was done as retribution,

19
00:01:09,860 --> 00:01:11,960
for my political activity
in the Russian opposition.

20
00:01:12,020 --> 00:01:14,200
(SIREN WHOOPS)

21
00:01:16,060 --> 00:01:19,000
There's been a strangely high
mortality rate

22
00:01:19,060 --> 00:01:20,160
over these past two decades

23
00:01:20,220 --> 00:01:23,560
among the people who are standing up
against Putin's regime...

24
00:01:26,380 --> 00:01:28,440
..journalists,
human rights activists,

25
00:01:28,500 --> 00:01:29,760
political opposition figures.

26
00:01:30,740 --> 00:01:33,680
A mortality rate that I don't think
can be explained

27
00:01:33,740 --> 00:01:35,560
by any normal statistical model.

28
00:01:41,060 --> 00:01:43,716
We're all products of our experience
we're all products of our background

29
00:01:43,740 --> 00:01:45,180
we're all products of our education.

30
00:01:46,660 --> 00:01:48,760
Vladimir Putin's background
is the Soviet KGB...

31
00:01:49,500 --> 00:01:52,280
..one of the most repressive
organisations

32
00:01:52,340 --> 00:01:53,480
in the history of humanity.

33
00:01:55,060 --> 00:01:57,960
He's doing what he was taught to do.

34
00:02:02,140 --> 00:02:06,280
Manipulate, lie, recruit, repress.

35
00:02:06,340 --> 00:02:09,160
(SHOUTING)

36
00:02:10,780 --> 00:02:13,160
He seems to be quite good at his job.

37
00:02:14,980 --> 00:02:18,040
MAN: Putin was very small,
but he was a fierce fighter.

38
00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:19,960
MAN: There is a vengeful side
to Putin.

39
00:02:20,020 --> 00:02:22,040
He is a man who never forgets
a slight.

40
00:02:22,100 --> 00:02:24,040
MAN: I'm quite clear on
what I think drives him -

41
00:02:24,100 --> 00:02:25,720
to make Russia great again.

42
00:02:25,780 --> 00:02:28,800
He's a convinced patriotic Russian.

43
00:02:28,860 --> 00:02:31,280
MAN: You can't make a president
in a few months, just like...

44
00:02:31,340 --> 00:02:32,836
(CLICKS FINGERS)
..a click of your hand.

45
00:02:32,860 --> 00:02:34,200
It's just impossible.

46
00:02:34,260 --> 00:02:35,920
MAN: This is the code of the spy.

47
00:02:35,980 --> 00:02:38,160
Nothing is forgotten
and nothing is forgiven.

48
00:02:53,020 --> 00:02:54,240
WOMAN: Good evening.

49
00:02:54,300 --> 00:02:56,540
Could this be another example
of a Russian being poisoned

50
00:02:56,580 --> 00:02:57,880
on UK soil?

51
00:02:57,940 --> 00:03:00,840
The man in hospital tonight,
Sergei Skripal,

52
00:03:00,900 --> 00:03:02,560
is in a critical condition.

53
00:03:03,420 --> 00:03:06,480
MAN: Counter-terrorism officers have
take charge of the investigation

54
00:03:06,540 --> 00:03:10,320
into the suspected poisoning
of a former Russian agent

55
00:03:10,380 --> 00:03:12,240
in Salisbury on Sunday.

56
00:03:12,300 --> 00:03:16,760
Sergei Skripal had been convicted
in Russia 12 years ago

57
00:03:16,820 --> 00:03:19,160
of passing secrets to MI6.

58
00:03:19,220 --> 00:03:21,400
MAN: President Putin's spokesman
told me earlier,

59
00:03:21,460 --> 00:03:24,920
"We have no information about
what happened. We cannot comment."

60
00:04:25,660 --> 00:04:28,240
WOMAN: For many people,
Soviet childhoods are pretty grim.

61
00:04:29,300 --> 00:04:33,200
Most people lived in
appalling conditions.

62
00:04:33,260 --> 00:04:35,280
Behind the grandiose architecture,

63
00:04:35,340 --> 00:04:39,200
these dark alleyways and dark
courtyards and street gangs,

64
00:04:39,260 --> 00:04:41,520
and it's... it's pretty filthy.

65
00:04:41,580 --> 00:04:44,240
It's not a very nice place
to be a small boy.

66
00:05:17,900 --> 00:05:20,920
He was a schoolyard thug,

67
00:05:20,980 --> 00:05:24,320
and part of a gang.

68
00:05:24,380 --> 00:05:27,600
He was very small,
but he was a fierce fighter.

69
00:05:29,420 --> 00:05:36,120
He was saved from going into
the crime life by sports.

70
00:05:36,180 --> 00:05:41,320
His coach of judo pulled him out
of this street life,

71
00:05:41,380 --> 00:05:44,720
and he became a very avid fighter.

72
00:05:49,100 --> 00:05:50,960
MAN: The KGB were watching

73
00:05:51,020 --> 00:05:54,480
who was doing this kind of sports
in the Soviet Union.

74
00:05:54,540 --> 00:05:56,960
Putin didn't make any secret
out of the fact

75
00:05:57,020 --> 00:06:01,560
that he wanted to work
for the secret services, with KGB.

76
00:06:01,620 --> 00:06:04,360
He dreamt to become
a kind of Stierlitz,

77
00:06:04,420 --> 00:06:07,920
which is the Russian version
of James Bond.

78
00:06:07,980 --> 00:06:11,440
(JAUNTY MUSIC,
MAN SINGS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

79
00:06:18,340 --> 00:06:20,900
MAN: Asking, you know, "Do you
remember the character Stierlitz?"

80
00:06:20,940 --> 00:06:23,560
it's like asking anybody
in this country,

81
00:06:23,620 --> 00:06:25,800
"Do you remember the character Bond?"

82
00:06:25,860 --> 00:06:27,700
You know, yes, you remember
the character Bond.

83
00:06:29,660 --> 00:06:32,120
The theme of Stierlitz
in Seventeen Moments Of Spring,

84
00:06:32,180 --> 00:06:34,400
the idea of, sort of,
a glorious Soviet spy,

85
00:06:34,460 --> 00:06:35,840
I think is very important,

86
00:06:35,900 --> 00:06:38,840
and this was an extremely important
film to Putin.

87
00:06:41,020 --> 00:06:47,480
He was 21 years old when Seventeen
Moments of Spring was released,

88
00:06:47,540 --> 00:06:50,840
and two years later,
he joined the service.

89
00:06:52,340 --> 00:06:53,680
He joined the KGB.

90
00:06:55,660 --> 00:06:58,560
Now, I can easily talk about that,
you know.

91
00:06:58,620 --> 00:07:02,760
For 20 years,
I was intelligence officer.

92
00:07:02,820 --> 00:07:06,680
My generation of... of kids

93
00:07:06,740 --> 00:07:10,040
were brought up in the sentiments

94
00:07:10,100 --> 00:07:14,960
of very heroic novels
about World War II.

95
00:07:16,660 --> 00:07:21,400
In the heroic of small kids,
who were fighting fascism.

96
00:07:26,100 --> 00:07:30,240
And the heroism of
our intelligence officers.

97
00:07:32,260 --> 00:07:34,680
RAHR: For an agent,
it was very important,

98
00:07:34,740 --> 00:07:36,360
if he wanted to have a good job,

99
00:07:36,420 --> 00:07:38,040
to be married, happily married,

100
00:07:38,100 --> 00:07:41,400
'cause otherwise,
we can't trust you fully.

101
00:07:41,460 --> 00:07:45,080
You could do your own business
with other woman there.

102
00:07:45,140 --> 00:07:46,480
We would dislike this.

103
00:07:49,740 --> 00:07:53,880
Putin's wife, Lyudmila, when
he dated her for the first time,

104
00:07:53,940 --> 00:07:57,320
he never told her
that he working for the KGB.

105
00:07:57,380 --> 00:07:59,520
He was telling her
that he worked for the police.

106
00:07:59,580 --> 00:08:02,040
And he examined her character.

107
00:08:02,100 --> 00:08:06,200
He sent his friends
and they wanted to date her as well,

108
00:08:06,260 --> 00:08:08,440
and she said, "No,
I have already boyfriend.

109
00:08:08,500 --> 00:08:09,960
"I have Vladimir."

110
00:08:10,020 --> 00:08:12,840
And that was enough for him
to be proud of her

111
00:08:12,900 --> 00:08:15,080
and to understand
that she really likes him.

112
00:08:16,420 --> 00:08:17,960
(BELL DINGS)

113
00:08:25,340 --> 00:08:27,240
KENDALL: He ends up
in Eastern Germany,

114
00:08:27,300 --> 00:08:29,120
and he's not even in the capital,
Berlin.

115
00:08:29,180 --> 00:08:32,520
He's sent to Dresden,
a provincial backwater.

116
00:08:34,780 --> 00:08:37,440
And I think if you've been brought up
in Leningrad

117
00:08:37,500 --> 00:08:41,480
and then you've trained a bit
for the KGB in Moscow,

118
00:08:41,540 --> 00:08:43,440
going to Dresden,

119
00:08:43,500 --> 00:08:46,320
quite the opposite from what
you'd hope from your foreign posting,

120
00:08:46,380 --> 00:08:49,280
to taste the forbidden fruits
of the West.

121
00:08:49,340 --> 00:08:51,800
And I think it probably must've been
a bit of a let-down.

122
00:08:53,180 --> 00:08:54,320
You get a hint of it.

123
00:08:54,380 --> 00:08:56,800
His wife talks about
how they were homesick

124
00:08:56,860 --> 00:08:59,200
and longed for the Soviet Union.

125
00:08:59,260 --> 00:09:02,120
So, it feels as though
they had a comfortable life,

126
00:09:02,180 --> 00:09:04,040
but not a particularly exciting one.

127
00:09:06,060 --> 00:09:10,320
He drank a lot of beer
and there were a lot of pictures

128
00:09:10,380 --> 00:09:16,920
at parties, in restaurants,
or among friends.

129
00:09:16,980 --> 00:09:21,520
You know, if you go there on a very
secret mission and you're a top spy,

130
00:09:21,580 --> 00:09:23,880
no picture exists of you,

131
00:09:23,940 --> 00:09:27,000
not in books, nor in the collections
of your friends

132
00:09:27,060 --> 00:09:28,320
or in family albums.

133
00:09:29,220 --> 00:09:32,040
So, I shouldn't portray him
more than he was.

134
00:09:32,100 --> 00:09:33,640
(SHOUTING, CHEERING)

135
00:09:38,060 --> 00:09:40,840
And then his world collapsed.

136
00:09:40,900 --> 00:09:43,120
His dreams collapsed.

137
00:09:43,180 --> 00:09:46,960
MAN: East Germany has tonight
opened its borders to the West.

138
00:09:47,020 --> 00:09:49,840
28 years after the Berlin Wall
was built,

139
00:09:49,900 --> 00:09:53,360
its people are once more free
to travel anywhere.

140
00:09:53,420 --> 00:09:55,200
I was Moscow correspondent
at the time,

141
00:09:55,260 --> 00:09:59,720
and I wouldn't have said at the end
of 1989, the beginning of 1990,

142
00:09:59,780 --> 00:10:01,160
that I would expect

143
00:10:01,220 --> 00:10:04,440
that within two years, the whole
Soviet Union would collapse.

144
00:10:05,540 --> 00:10:07,320
So, I don't suppose he did either.

145
00:10:08,780 --> 00:10:11,120
I think it must've been a huge shock.

146
00:10:11,180 --> 00:10:12,720
(SHOUTING)

147
00:10:12,780 --> 00:10:14,840
He didn't welcome these changes.

148
00:10:16,820 --> 00:10:21,240
He knew that he had to...
return back from the GDR,

149
00:10:21,300 --> 00:10:25,120
a country which didn't exist anymore
'cause it was reunited as Germany.

150
00:10:27,020 --> 00:10:29,800
He had a wife
and two small daughters.

151
00:10:33,740 --> 00:10:40,000
He had a car, which he took to drive
back from Dresden to St Petersburg.

152
00:10:41,300 --> 00:10:45,280
He didn't know what kind of career
he will have in the new Russia,

153
00:10:45,340 --> 00:10:50,000
what will happen to him,
to his family, to the country.

154
00:10:50,060 --> 00:10:53,880
(SHOUTING, CHEERING)

155
00:11:02,060 --> 00:11:07,000
YAKUNIN: Coming back to '90s
in St Petersburg...

156
00:11:08,220 --> 00:11:11,440
..it was gloomy city.

157
00:11:11,500 --> 00:11:15,840
Despite the fact that there
were some new expectations...

158
00:11:17,020 --> 00:11:21,680
..it was a real trauma
to Soviet society.

159
00:11:22,900 --> 00:11:30,320
They were losing their sense
of belonging to great country,

160
00:11:30,380 --> 00:11:31,520
to great history.

161
00:11:32,900 --> 00:11:35,840
They were losing
the means for survival.

162
00:11:49,900 --> 00:11:54,640
When the institutions
lost the ability to function,

163
00:11:54,700 --> 00:11:57,720
of course criminality is rising.

164
00:11:57,780 --> 00:12:00,120
(SIREN WAILS)

165
00:12:01,180 --> 00:12:04,240
They had contract killings
every single day.

166
00:12:04,300 --> 00:12:07,400
They had bombings
nearly every single day.

167
00:12:09,660 --> 00:12:12,200
There's people being killed
left and right.

168
00:12:12,260 --> 00:12:17,560
I mean, it's, like, pretty much
comparable to Chicago in the 1930s.

169
00:12:19,820 --> 00:12:22,360
And probably Chicago was not
as violent as Russia.

170
00:12:28,140 --> 00:12:31,200
PUTIN:

171
00:13:02,940 --> 00:13:05,000
MAN: Just now President Putin denied

172
00:13:05,060 --> 00:13:07,760
having anything to do with
the election interference in 2016.

173
00:13:07,820 --> 00:13:11,240
Every US intelligence agency
has concluded that Russia did.

174
00:13:11,300 --> 00:13:12,920
Who do you believe?

175
00:13:12,980 --> 00:13:15,880
People came to me,
they said they think it's Russia.

176
00:13:15,940 --> 00:13:21,480
I have President Putin.
He just said it's not Russia.

177
00:13:21,540 --> 00:13:24,040
I will say this - I don't see
any reason why it would be.

178
00:13:25,740 --> 00:13:29,640
I have great confidence
in my intelligence people

179
00:13:29,700 --> 00:13:32,440
but I will tell you that

180
00:13:32,500 --> 00:13:37,600
President Putin was extremely strong
and powerful in his denial today.

181
00:13:37,660 --> 00:13:38,960
Thank you.

182
00:13:39,020 --> 00:13:40,440
Thank you very much.

183
00:13:51,260 --> 00:13:53,880
SEDELMEYER: Well, Vladimir Putin
came into my life

184
00:13:53,940 --> 00:13:57,440
through a problem that I had
with my investment at the time.

185
00:13:59,940 --> 00:14:03,360
Through my activities as a supplier
for law enforcement equipment,

186
00:14:03,420 --> 00:14:04,720
I ended up in Russia.

187
00:14:08,380 --> 00:14:12,080
One of the deputy police chiefs
thought it was a good idea

188
00:14:12,140 --> 00:14:13,920
to try to take over my investments.

189
00:14:16,780 --> 00:14:20,560
So, I want to the US consulate
and someone there said,

190
00:14:20,620 --> 00:14:23,356
you know, "The guy you should...
you should confront with this problem

191
00:14:23,380 --> 00:14:25,640
"is really Vladimir Putin."

192
00:14:27,660 --> 00:14:30,040
(MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN)

193
00:14:32,100 --> 00:14:36,120
Putin is a guy that became sidekick

194
00:14:36,180 --> 00:14:40,080
to the first democratically elected
mayor of St Petersburg,

195
00:14:40,140 --> 00:14:41,400
Anatoly Sobchak.

196
00:14:52,820 --> 00:14:55,640
And so I went to see him.

197
00:14:55,700 --> 00:15:03,640
Vladimir Putin was a very dry,
obviously very humourless man

198
00:15:03,700 --> 00:15:07,280
of rather small stature.

199
00:15:07,340 --> 00:15:10,120
You could see it was very important
to give you a good handshake,

200
00:15:10,180 --> 00:15:11,760
to look you straight into the eyes.

201
00:15:13,860 --> 00:15:16,800
He basically says,
"No, I'm not gonna get involved.

202
00:15:16,860 --> 00:15:19,400
"I'm busy enough protecting my mayor.

203
00:15:19,460 --> 00:15:22,000
"I don't need
an additional headache."

204
00:15:22,060 --> 00:15:23,360
That's exactly what he said.

205
00:15:24,660 --> 00:15:26,920
I didn't understand what...
what that meant

206
00:15:26,980 --> 00:15:29,520
until I went out and I learned

207
00:15:29,580 --> 00:15:33,760
that Mayor Sobchak was completely
corrupt, corrupt to the bone,

208
00:15:33,820 --> 00:15:37,760
and one of Putin's main functions was
to keep him out of trouble.

209
00:15:38,980 --> 00:15:42,040
RAHR: There were no real rules,
there were no real laws.

210
00:15:42,100 --> 00:15:46,240
Of course, people bribed in order
to get certain privileges.

211
00:15:46,300 --> 00:15:49,360
I was told by people
who were close to Sobchak,

212
00:15:49,420 --> 00:15:53,320
"You have to pay $100,000

213
00:15:53,380 --> 00:15:56,800
"in order to have a soup with him."

214
00:15:59,780 --> 00:16:02,720
But they didn't manage to keep
the city running as it should be.

215
00:16:04,100 --> 00:16:06,200
The city was collapsing.

216
00:16:06,260 --> 00:16:08,120
People were searching for food.

217
00:16:08,180 --> 00:16:10,400
Everything was dark.

218
00:16:34,500 --> 00:16:38,640
Sobchak needs someone
who is, sort of the interface

219
00:16:38,700 --> 00:16:41,920
between what they call
the organs of state,

220
00:16:41,980 --> 00:16:47,200
that is the KGB, the police,
anybody of executive power

221
00:16:47,260 --> 00:16:49,720
that he could potentially get
into a conflict with.

222
00:16:51,340 --> 00:16:55,640
For a simpler term, I would call
Putin a fixer in the day.

223
00:17:01,140 --> 00:17:03,480
He was always in the shadows.

224
00:17:03,540 --> 00:17:06,040
You know, if there were pictures
being taken

225
00:17:06,100 --> 00:17:08,480
of Sobchak doing something,

226
00:17:08,540 --> 00:17:11,600
even if Putin was there,
he wasn't gonna be in the picture,

227
00:17:11,660 --> 00:17:13,540
or if he was, he was gonna be off
in the corner.

228
00:17:16,860 --> 00:17:17,960
Sobchak trusted him,

229
00:17:18,020 --> 00:17:21,080
because Putin proved, first of all,
to be very loyal.

230
00:17:23,300 --> 00:17:25,080
Loyal to Sobchak.

231
00:17:25,140 --> 00:17:26,640
He's a bulldog.

232
00:17:27,500 --> 00:17:29,200
He grabs on and he gets something.

233
00:17:33,860 --> 00:17:36,880
1992, there is
a documentary film director

234
00:17:36,940 --> 00:17:39,440
who wants to make
a series of short films

235
00:17:39,500 --> 00:17:45,120
to introduce those people working
in the St Petersburg administration

236
00:17:45,180 --> 00:17:47,240
to the public, the whole team.

237
00:17:51,500 --> 00:17:55,080
And for the film,
he decides to set the scene.

238
00:17:55,140 --> 00:18:00,440
And Putin, sitting behind the wheel
of the Soviet Volga he's driving,

239
00:18:00,500 --> 00:18:03,280
and in the background,
there is music,

240
00:18:03,340 --> 00:18:06,480
there is a theme tune from
Seventeen Moments of Spring playing.

241
00:18:06,540 --> 00:18:09,800
(JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS)

242
00:18:17,260 --> 00:18:19,280
Putin is not an accidental man.

243
00:18:22,020 --> 00:18:24,040
The idea to bring this tune

244
00:18:24,100 --> 00:18:26,880
and bring out this association
with Stierlitz

245
00:18:26,940 --> 00:18:28,640
was... was clearly very important.

246
00:20:14,900 --> 00:20:17,120
Power, power,
more and more influence

247
00:20:17,180 --> 00:20:19,000
in St Petersburg connections,

248
00:20:19,060 --> 00:20:21,600
with Western politicians.

249
00:20:21,660 --> 00:20:26,200
He made himself indispensable
for Sobchak.

250
00:20:35,420 --> 00:20:38,200
Until 1996...

251
00:20:41,220 --> 00:20:44,560
..when Sobchak lost
the governors elections.

252
00:20:47,420 --> 00:20:50,600
He lost everything. He had no money.

253
00:20:50,660 --> 00:20:54,440
He was again in a situation
where he had nothing.

254
00:20:55,500 --> 00:20:59,280
SEDELMAYER: The lesson
from Sobchak's loss was that

255
00:20:59,340 --> 00:21:02,960
you cannot leave
the democratic process to elections

256
00:21:03,020 --> 00:21:05,880
and you cannot leave the elections
to ordinary people,

257
00:21:05,940 --> 00:21:10,040
in the sense that someone
could vote you out of office.

258
00:21:22,020 --> 00:21:23,640
WOMAN: I would like to make
a statement

259
00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:26,440
about the death of
Alexander Litvinenko.

260
00:21:27,660 --> 00:21:30,760
Mr Litvinenko suffered
a cardiac arrest

261
00:21:30,820 --> 00:21:33,760
caused by his ingesting polonium 210

262
00:21:33,820 --> 00:21:38,040
while drinking tea at the Pine Bar
of the Millennium Hotel.

263
00:21:40,100 --> 00:21:43,600
Mr Litvinenko was
deliberately poisoned

264
00:21:43,660 --> 00:21:46,960
by Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun

265
00:21:47,020 --> 00:21:49,600
acting on behalf of others.

266
00:21:49,660 --> 00:21:51,480
There is a strong probability

267
00:21:51,540 --> 00:21:53,440
that they were acting
under the direction

268
00:21:53,500 --> 00:21:55,640
of the Russian domestic
security service,

269
00:21:55,700 --> 00:21:59,320
the Federal Security Service,
or FSB,

270
00:21:59,380 --> 00:22:01,200
and the inquiry has found

271
00:22:01,260 --> 00:22:05,240
that the FSB operation
to kill Mr Litvinenko

272
00:22:05,300 --> 00:22:08,600
was probably approved
by President Putin.

273
00:22:56,660 --> 00:22:59,160
MAN: There's a very famous word
in Russia, 'poryadok',

274
00:22:59,220 --> 00:23:00,960
which means 'order'.

275
00:23:01,020 --> 00:23:03,196
If you ask Russians
what they want out of their leaders,

276
00:23:03,220 --> 00:23:04,300
what they want is poryadok.

277
00:23:04,340 --> 00:23:06,080
What they want is order.

278
00:23:07,700 --> 00:23:10,360
At that time,
the president was Yeltsin,

279
00:23:10,420 --> 00:23:12,920
who was visibly very unhealthy,
kept on humiliating himself.

280
00:23:12,980 --> 00:23:15,680
(ANTHEM PLAYS)

281
00:23:22,420 --> 00:23:23,680
For the ordinary Russian,

282
00:23:23,740 --> 00:23:25,476
who thinks of himself as a citizen
of a proud country,

283
00:23:25,500 --> 00:23:26,680
this was just intolerable.

284
00:24:12,180 --> 00:24:14,120
(ALL SHOUT)

285
00:24:17,340 --> 00:24:19,880
KENDALL: A lot of the people
who were around Yeltsin at the time

286
00:24:19,940 --> 00:24:22,600
were looking for someone
who could take a grip.

287
00:24:23,740 --> 00:24:27,120
Russia had spent ten years
sliding into anarchy

288
00:24:27,180 --> 00:24:29,000
with hyperinflation,

289
00:24:29,060 --> 00:24:32,240
trying to cope with the loss
of all the Soviet republics.

290
00:24:32,300 --> 00:24:34,480
It had defaulted on its debts.

291
00:24:34,540 --> 00:24:36,680
It had, sort of, lost its way.

292
00:24:36,740 --> 00:24:39,720
And society seemed to be
out of control.

293
00:25:20,660 --> 00:25:26,240
MAN: Putin moved to Moscow
from St Petersburg in 1996...

294
00:25:29,500 --> 00:25:35,000
..as a... (SCOFFS)
..low-mid-level bureaucrat,

295
00:25:35,060 --> 00:25:39,920
whom they found a position
inside the Kremlin apparatus.

296
00:25:41,860 --> 00:25:43,560
Very quickly he starts growing.

297
00:25:50,900 --> 00:25:53,640
In a year, year and something,

298
00:25:53,700 --> 00:25:57,040
he becomes the head of Russian FSB,

299
00:25:57,100 --> 00:25:59,280
the Russian special forces.

300
00:26:21,860 --> 00:26:23,800
This is an incredible career.

301
00:26:23,860 --> 00:26:28,120
MAN: When Putin was installed
as director of the FSB in 1998...

302
00:26:29,220 --> 00:26:32,680
..corruption had become
so pervasive,

303
00:26:32,740 --> 00:26:35,320
FSB assets were just simply
there for hire

304
00:26:35,380 --> 00:26:37,960
for any gangster or businessman
who wanted to use them.

305
00:26:40,380 --> 00:26:42,440
GOLDFARB: When Putin came in,

306
00:26:42,500 --> 00:26:46,200
everybody expected that he would
start cleaning the stables...

307
00:26:47,700 --> 00:26:50,560
..ridding the FSB of corruption.

308
00:27:01,940 --> 00:27:04,280
So, that's how it all started.

309
00:27:06,860 --> 00:27:09,320
I've never met Putin in my life,

310
00:27:09,380 --> 00:27:13,320
but he's the subject of my obsession
in a way,

311
00:27:13,380 --> 00:27:18,120
since he ordered the killing
of my friend Litvinenko.

312
00:27:23,420 --> 00:27:28,320
Sascha Litvinenko's conflict
with Putin was not political.

313
00:27:28,380 --> 00:27:31,560
It was a conflict of...

314
00:27:31,620 --> 00:27:36,640
..an honest cop with
corrupt superiors, essentially.

315
00:27:56,900 --> 00:27:58,440
They met,

316
00:27:58,500 --> 00:28:02,120
and Sascha Litvinenko
started explaining to Putin

317
00:28:02,180 --> 00:28:04,880
that this one should be removed
and that one should be removed

318
00:28:04,940 --> 00:28:07,920
and that is a crook and so on,
and Putin listened to him.

319
00:28:09,860 --> 00:28:13,000
Then ordered him out of the FSB,

320
00:28:13,060 --> 00:28:15,320
because he was making
too much trouble.

321
00:28:16,220 --> 00:28:20,640
That's how Sascha Litvinenko's
conflict with Putin started.

322
00:29:02,300 --> 00:29:04,960
The stakes were very high.

323
00:29:05,020 --> 00:29:06,320
Yeltsin could be prosecuted.

324
00:29:09,500 --> 00:29:15,400
The danger comes in the figure
of the prosecutor general,

325
00:29:15,460 --> 00:29:16,460
Skuratov.

326
00:29:17,660 --> 00:29:21,040
Skuratov already started
investigation

327
00:29:21,100 --> 00:29:23,720
in Yeltsin's financial dealings,

328
00:29:23,780 --> 00:29:28,040
with huge political support of
Russian parliament behind him.

329
00:29:31,380 --> 00:29:36,720
Behind Yeltsin is Putin
as the head of FSB

330
00:29:36,780 --> 00:29:44,040
and... and... and... and...
and a willingness to... to fight.

331
00:29:48,340 --> 00:29:50,360
So, what they do?

332
00:29:50,420 --> 00:29:55,920
They expose this prosecutor general
on television.

333
00:30:05,940 --> 00:30:13,240
They have this footage of him
having sex with some ladies

334
00:30:13,300 --> 00:30:15,400
in some apartment in Moscow,

335
00:30:15,460 --> 00:30:18,640
and they air this footage
on television.

336
00:30:20,380 --> 00:30:21,680
After that...

337
00:30:22,660 --> 00:30:24,760
..Prosecutor General Skuratov
was dismissed.

338
00:30:35,340 --> 00:30:38,480
It was the first time,
probably, when

339
00:30:38,540 --> 00:30:40,120
we saw that you can achieve...

340
00:30:41,220 --> 00:30:43,360
..a very important political outcome

341
00:30:43,420 --> 00:30:46,320
through some kind of
special operation

342
00:30:46,380 --> 00:30:50,640
by exposing your opponent
with kompromat.

343
00:30:52,260 --> 00:30:53,920
Yeltsin won this fight.

344
00:30:55,940 --> 00:30:59,520
And of course we know
Vladimir Putin played huge role

345
00:30:59,580 --> 00:31:01,360
in this special operation.

346
00:31:34,260 --> 00:31:39,800
When Yeltsin appointed Putin as
active prime minister in August '99,

347
00:31:39,860 --> 00:31:43,200
he immediately said,
"This is my successor.

348
00:31:43,260 --> 00:31:45,360
"He will be Russia's president."

349
00:31:45,420 --> 00:31:47,560
And that was impossible to believe.

350
00:31:47,620 --> 00:31:51,680
That was just simply impossible
to... to sort of grasp,

351
00:31:51,740 --> 00:31:54,840
because we just didn't know
his face.

352
00:31:56,060 --> 00:31:59,000
Even those who supported Yeltsin
were thinking that,

353
00:31:59,060 --> 00:32:01,120
"Hey, this is crazy.
He can't make it.

354
00:32:01,180 --> 00:32:03,000
"You can't make a president
in a few months,

355
00:32:03,060 --> 00:32:05,120
"just like a click of your hand.

356
00:32:05,180 --> 00:32:06,560
"It's just impossible."

357
00:32:07,860 --> 00:32:09,800
He would definitely lose,

358
00:32:09,860 --> 00:32:13,440
and everything that had been
achieved by then

359
00:32:13,500 --> 00:32:14,640
would be destroyed.

360
00:33:52,460 --> 00:33:55,880
I have to admit, I don't remember
my first feeling of,

361
00:33:55,940 --> 00:33:57,240
"What is Putin, who is Putin?"

362
00:33:57,300 --> 00:34:00,080
You remember this famous question,
"Who is Mr Putin?"

363
00:34:00,140 --> 00:34:02,320
We didn't know who he was.

364
00:34:03,340 --> 00:34:07,240
But what definitely changed
everything was...

365
00:34:07,300 --> 00:34:08,760
..the war.

366
00:34:41,180 --> 00:34:43,800
WOMAN: Rescue workers are searching

367
00:34:43,860 --> 00:34:45,680
through the remains of
a block of flats

368
00:34:45,740 --> 00:34:48,560
destroyed by a huge bomb blast
early today.

369
00:34:50,820 --> 00:34:53,440
MAN: There were reports that

370
00:34:53,500 --> 00:34:56,440
an apartment building in Moscow
had been blown up.

371
00:34:56,500 --> 00:35:01,000
About 100 people were killed
and many, many more were injured.

372
00:35:02,060 --> 00:35:04,280
Then several days later,

373
00:35:04,340 --> 00:35:07,320
another apartment building
was blown up in Moscow.

374
00:35:09,500 --> 00:35:12,800
MAN: This is number six
Kashirskoye Avenue,

375
00:35:12,860 --> 00:35:14,280
or what's left of it,

376
00:35:14,340 --> 00:35:17,720
home until today to 120 people.

377
00:35:17,780 --> 00:35:21,200
The eight-storey building
collapsed in on itself,

378
00:35:21,260 --> 00:35:23,440
pulverising all who lived inside.

379
00:35:25,940 --> 00:35:28,720
It was clear that what
we were dealing with was

380
00:35:28,780 --> 00:35:30,960
a series of terrorist acts.

381
00:35:34,420 --> 00:35:37,800
This is when fear came to Moscow.

382
00:35:39,700 --> 00:35:44,240
This was something very new
feeling in the air.

383
00:36:23,140 --> 00:36:28,000
The authorities said that this was
the work of Chechen terrorists.

384
00:36:28,060 --> 00:36:29,640
No proof.

385
00:36:29,700 --> 00:36:33,520
But the aggressivity
of the population was such

386
00:36:33,580 --> 00:36:36,760
after so many years of hardship
under Yeltsin...

387
00:36:38,140 --> 00:36:42,000
..and the anger against the Chechens
was so great

388
00:36:42,060 --> 00:36:44,040
after an unsuccessful war

389
00:36:44,100 --> 00:36:46,960
that was fought in the middle
of the 1990s,

390
00:36:47,020 --> 00:36:50,760
in which Russia suffered
serious defeats,

391
00:36:50,820 --> 00:36:54,360
that no-one waited for evidence.

392
00:37:03,300 --> 00:37:08,240
Ryazan is a city south-east
of Moscow, about 100 miles.

393
00:37:10,300 --> 00:37:18,300
One night, a resident of a building
saw a car pull up to the building,

394
00:37:18,820 --> 00:37:20,720
and he witnessed people going down

395
00:37:20,780 --> 00:37:25,480
and taking sacks of some mysterious
substance into the basement.

396
00:37:25,540 --> 00:37:29,240
He called the police, they came,
they went down into the basement

397
00:37:29,300 --> 00:37:31,840
and they bolted back up
the stairs and they said,

398
00:37:31,900 --> 00:37:33,220
"There's a bomb in the basement."

399
00:37:37,460 --> 00:37:42,520
Shortly afterwards, those who were
responsible for placing the bomb

400
00:37:42,580 --> 00:37:43,880
were arrested.

401
00:37:46,740 --> 00:37:50,280
But they produced
FSB identification.

402
00:37:53,980 --> 00:37:58,320
And an order came from Moscow
saying to release them.

403
00:38:03,660 --> 00:38:07,280
Short time later,
the head of the FSB

404
00:38:07,340 --> 00:38:10,520
got on national television
and said that

405
00:38:10,580 --> 00:38:14,840
the events in Ryazan were not
an attempted terrorist attack.

406
00:38:14,900 --> 00:38:16,680
For two days,
they had been saying that

407
00:38:16,740 --> 00:38:18,720
this was an attempted
terrorist attack

408
00:38:18,780 --> 00:38:22,560
and the vigilance of the citizens
of Ryazan had prevented it.

409
00:38:22,620 --> 00:38:27,000
Now, with the FSB agents arrested,
caught red-handed,

410
00:38:27,060 --> 00:38:29,760
they changed their story
and said that

411
00:38:29,820 --> 00:38:31,840
this was a training exercise.

412
00:38:31,900 --> 00:38:35,560
What was taking place
was a test of vigilance.

413
00:38:37,660 --> 00:38:39,800
Well, I personally have no doubt

414
00:38:39,860 --> 00:38:43,120
that is could not have been
a training exercise.

415
00:38:43,180 --> 00:38:45,360
It could not have been
a test of vigilance.

416
00:38:47,660 --> 00:38:50,840
I consider it
as a conspiracy theory.

417
00:38:50,900 --> 00:38:53,200
I can't take it.

418
00:38:53,260 --> 00:38:54,320
I can't believe...

419
00:38:55,660 --> 00:38:59,120
..that Russia's government
or special forces

420
00:38:59,180 --> 00:39:02,160
were able to orchestrate
a terrorist...

421
00:39:02,220 --> 00:39:03,680
..terrorist attacks like that.

422
00:39:03,740 --> 00:39:08,200
If you talk about forensic evidence,
it's an open question.

423
00:39:08,260 --> 00:39:09,920
Who blew up the houses?

424
00:39:09,980 --> 00:39:13,600
But there is lots of
circumstantial evidence

425
00:39:13,660 --> 00:39:17,960
pointing at some group in FSB,

426
00:39:18,020 --> 00:39:22,360
engaged again of Chechens
to blow up these houses

427
00:39:22,420 --> 00:39:25,520
to provoke the invasion of Chechnya.

428
00:39:25,580 --> 00:39:28,120
(HELICOPTER WHIRRS)

429
00:39:32,660 --> 00:39:37,600
And two weeks after the explosions,
after these bombings,

430
00:39:37,660 --> 00:39:41,080
the assault on Chechnya started.

431
00:39:42,220 --> 00:39:45,440
That's when the real war started.

432
00:39:57,220 --> 00:40:01,400
There was a demand to restore
Russia's pride...

433
00:40:02,380 --> 00:40:04,560
..some self-esteem...

434
00:40:08,660 --> 00:40:10,200
..and to win the war.

435
00:40:10,260 --> 00:40:14,840
That was the primary demand,
not people's lives.

436
00:40:31,540 --> 00:40:33,960
He used criminal slang.

437
00:40:34,020 --> 00:40:37,440
He used the word 'mochit',
which in Russian is...

438
00:40:37,500 --> 00:40:38,780
It's what Russian gangsters use.

439
00:40:38,820 --> 00:40:42,120
It means 'turn into liquid',
'liquidate',

440
00:40:42,180 --> 00:40:45,040
but it's..it's a very crude word.

441
00:41:13,540 --> 00:41:16,280
Putin's popularity rating soared,

442
00:41:16,340 --> 00:41:19,960
and he immediately became
the saviour of the country.

443
00:41:20,020 --> 00:41:23,600
Suddenly, he was the defender
of the homeland.

444
00:44:41,420 --> 00:44:45,600
Kind of curtain of silence
fell over Russia

445
00:44:45,660 --> 00:44:48,520
on the issue of
the apartment bombings.

446
00:44:57,340 --> 00:45:00,560
The phrase "The less you know,
the better you sleep",

447
00:45:00,620 --> 00:45:05,520
in Russian, if you'd like it...
(SPEAKS RUSSIAN)

448
00:45:05,580 --> 00:45:08,440
It means,
"better not to know too much".

449
00:45:08,500 --> 00:45:10,480
It's dangerous to know too much.

450
00:45:10,540 --> 00:45:13,280
(MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN)

451
00:45:56,420 --> 00:46:01,920
Subtitles Diego Moraes(oakislandtk)
www.opensubtitles.org