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Announcer 1: Yakushev cutting right in front.

Score!

To make it seven to three.

Announcer 2: The best hockey team in the world.

Announcer 3: And the Soviets are still unbeaten.

The progress is almost frightening.

Announcer 4: The Soviet hockey team was proof,

the Soviet system was the best system.

Reporter 1: Top story, Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev

has been removed from power

and there are tanks in the streets of Moscow.

It is not clear what that means.

Yeltsin! Yeltsin!

Reporter 2: Moscow has not witnessed scenes like this

since the Communist Revolution.

Reporter 3: You can't put freedom and democracy

back into a box and keep it contained.

Reporter 4: The Soviet Union no longer exists.

Reporter 5: Boris Yeltsin has taken over

as armed forces chief.

Reporter 6: Communism is out and capitalism is in.

America won the Cold War.

Reporter 7: That poses a question to the West.

Will the world grasp the opportunity

offered by the ending of the Cold War,

or let this truly historic opening slip away?

Reporter 8: The saying goes, "Those who don't learn

from history are destined to repeat it."

Reporter 9: What is happening to Russian hockey?

The money's drying up, the fans are going away,

and so are the players, to the NHL.

Announcer 5: Shot, scores.

Sergei Fedorov, first goal in the National Hockey League.

Announcer 6: Mogilny, a sensational play.

Announcer 7: They shoot better and they skate better.

Thank you very much, I'm very happy.

Announcer 8: The talent is leaving by the thousands.

Reporter 10: The NHL's biggest young stars

are made in the USSR.

Reporter 11: The future of Red Army hockey is in question.

Now in Russia, it's like any other business,

scrambling for a buck.

Will they survive?

Howard: What's that?

Do you want your vodka chilled or not?

- Vodka? - I'm bringing you vodka.

Oh, chilled, because I'll just sip it.

Okay.

If somebody had an idea that was a little... different

or off the wall,

they might reach out to Howard and say,

"Hey, here's a guy that's crazy enough that might do it."

And so I got approached and they said,

"Hey, we got a fun idea for you,"

which was to invest in a team in Russia.

He has an idea, okay, and says, "What do you think?"

And it's my job to tell him if it's too crazy.

If I think it's too crazy, he probably doesn't do it, okay?

If I think it's only a little crazy,

we're probably going to do it.

Tom: The Russians were looking to get a partner

to help them pay the bills.

We couldn't believe that one of the greatest hockey teams

was on the verge of extinction, if that's possible?

This was the Soviet Union.

This was a vast country with a history of hockey,

with an Olympic tradition that went back for decades

of great teams and skills.

Announcer 9: And Kharlamov racing away on a breakaway,

coming in on goal. Scores.

Kharlamov came out of nowhere there.

Announcer 10: Circling back, Fetisov, Larionov.

Makarov. He scores!

Tom: Hundreds of thousands of kids playing all over

the country and being watched and monitored.

And the question was, would one of those players

be able to come and play for the Pittsburgh Penguins?

Announcer 11: Two seconds, the Penguins are going

to win the Stanley Cup, I believe.

Chelios shoots it wide,

the Penguins have won the Stanley Cup!

Tom: All we had to get was one player.

Or be able to trade one player or two players,

that would justify what we were doing.

He saw this as a once in a lifetime opportunity

to own one of the greatest hockey teams.

Howard: When we first met Gushin and Tikhonov,

the primary purpose of the meeting was to make sure

we liked each other.

Tikhonov cared about one thing only.

Play on the ice.

Announcer 12: There's Victor Tikhonov,

one of the most successful coaches of all time.

Not liked by his players,

but that doesn't seem to matter.

Howard: He was a good old hard line communist.

If anybody tells you different, they're wrong.

Tom: He was in the army, Tikhonov.

It's a central sports club of the army.

That's what CSKA means, what we call the Red Army Team.

And in the old days, he would just send, you know,

a request, money would come. Now, money didn't come.

And he just, he suddenly woke up one day

and didn't know how he was going to keep that team going.

Howard: And Gushin was like a GM that was...

Oh, how-- how do I say this politely?

He was well-used, old Gushin was.

Howard: I mean, he'd been around and seen that

and done that, and I liked that.

So it wasn't very hard to make this deal.

Now an American team has a stake in Russian hockey,

rescuing an entire sport from thin ice.

Howard: When we did the deal, I said to Mr. Gushin,

"Trust me, I'll make you a good capitalist."

Hopefully, we will.

Reporter 12: The Red Army Team is 50 percent owned

by the Pittsburgh Penguins,

and a group of investors that includes

NHL star, Mario Lemieux,

and movie and TV star, Michael J. Fox.

Larry: Are you telling me you own a piece

of the Russian hockey team?

You can't really call it owning it

because it's the Russian government's,

but we basically stepped in and took over,

uh, a financial interest of the central Red Army hockey team

in, uh, in-- in Moscow, in Russia.

Larry: And you called them what?

Uh, well, they're called the Russian Penguins.

Good evening.

It is one of the great gambles

of our time, the attempt to turn the former Soviet Union

into a new free market economy.

Reporter 13: The risks of doing business in Moscow are obvious.

The opportunities, less obvious, but they're enormous.

The results are out tonight...

Howard: There weren't people lined up to go over there.

There was still people that were apprehensive

about doing anything with Russia.

So I figured if there's ever a time

we might be able to do this, it's now.

And so Howard said, "We're going to need a marketing guy

because this is going to be a whole new world."

Steven: They were looking for a crazy young guy.

Somebody who was willing to pack up and go to Moscow

for a couple of years.

Steven: Who wasn't afraid to die in the new Russia,

not the traditional thinker.

So that's how I got it.

I had this special talent

of creating a firestorm inside arenas.

So Howard said,

"Steven, how would you like to go to Moscow

and work with the greatest hockey team in the world?"

Nothing. I got nothing.

He just seemed like the perfect guy

to send on a venture like this.

Tom: It was the Wild West.

We were going in there and he was a gunslinger

in the Wild West.

Director: But what does that even mean?

That means it could be dangerous...

but I also never worried about that.

You know, at the beginning,

we didn't understand the-- the risks. Okay?

We didn't understand what the country was like

and what have you.

Howard: I mean, if your partner is the Red Army,

you'd think you would be safe.

But he had a lot of guts going over there

and bringing out his bag of tricks

to try to fill the building, and to make us money.

Well, hang on a sec, I just, I haven't done this in a second.

Now hang on. Here we go.

Okay, wait. No.

Steven: Russia was an enigma to all of us.

What went on behind the iron curtain, nobody knew.

And I wanted to know.

So I went.

Al Gore: Take the risk and begin investing in Russia.

We're behind you.

We want you to succeed.

This new relationship has such enormous potential.

Reporter 14: American companies are eager

to bring their products to Russia.

Western companies are investing more and more each day.

Steven: You come into Sheremetyevo Airport...

and there's this smell of death in the airport.

It's, I-- I think Marlon Brando in "Last Tango"

called the ass of death.

That's what it smelled like to me.

Roads were jammed.

Elevators weren't working.

Every aspect was difficult.

We worked on army grounds.

The arena where the team played

was called The Ice Palace, which was a complete misnomer.

It was a dump.

The lights were out.

Everything had been either stolen or broken.

The plexiglass wrapping around the rink,

you couldn't see through it.

And where we would have super boxes,

there were electricians and workers living in there.

They didn't even display their great photos that they had.

There was a small trophy case at the beginning

in the inside of the arena...

but for the most part,

it really looked like a bomb had hit the building.

I expected that the country would be somewhat functioning.

It turned out I was wrong.

Alexander: When we started our first show,

there was one television in the Soviet Union, one station,

serving four or six television channels for the country.

They had a youth programming department.

That's where this show was invented.

We did political journalism,

general, like, exchange of different views.

We were different.

Everybody understood the system is in a deadlock

mentally, emotionally,

economically as well.

And suddenly, this free market economy

comes and, like, spears in their eyes,

and they don't know how to deal with that.

Director: What about... What about the law enforcement?

It was weak. Law enforcement, it was just weak.

Nobody cared... about people.

Everything which was done for people

was in very bad shape.

Everything.

Housing, health care, even nutrition.

Food was very bad... not fresh.

A lack of food.

Steven: I ran the emotion between being very excited

to be there and being part of history,

but at the same time also realizing

that this country had just been crushed.

There was no pride left.

There were medical doctors driving Zambonis

because they made more money

driving a Zamboni than doing surgery.

The idea of an office to them is even foreign.

There was no technology at all.

We had to bring everything in.

Every morning, I would go into work freshly showered,

and wearing a new suit.

Everybody there was hung over

and wiping sleep out of their eyes,

wearing the same clothes from the day before.

It's literally going to another world.

There was a club downstairs called the Red Zone...

where they lowered women in cages that were naked.

I thought it was staged, I couldn't believe this was real.

Right in the hockey arena. Yeah, yeah,

Man 1: Yeah. - Crazy.

Steven: They were the landlords.

This is business to them.

What we were doing was just completely ancillary.

Believe me, they needed money.

Without the government's support, they were nothing.

Tom: They couldn't buy uniforms,

they couldn't buy hockey sticks.

The older kids would take their jerseys off,

and if you've ever seen a hockey jersey

after kids have played in it, they would take them off

and they'd give it to the next group of kids.

And then those kids would play,

and they'd take them off and give them to the next kids.

It was that dire.

Tikhonov, particularly, he had no idea

that there were ways to get money,

to create money with the team and then use that money.

It was just not done. They never had done it.

I mean, literally, they were selling tickets

for what would be a US equivalent of six cents.

So, I'm, uh... Uh...

Yeah. My name is Victor Gusev.

I'm commentator, sports commentator

and anchorman, Channel One which is a number one channel.

Director: We don't mind interruptions.

Victor: The Russian Penguins,

they were impossible in the '60s, '70s, or the '80s,

almost impossible.

A joint venture between the Soviet Union

and American like this. No.

So it was like an indication, a very good

indicator of new things happening in my country.

Steven: Victor Gusev was the catalyst

for this joint venture.

He was fluent in Russian, and he was my right arm.

Victor saved my ass so many times

because of cultural mistakes that I was about to make.

He was also very clever and he could drink with Gushin.

Victor: Like any Russian, he becomes

even more friendly when he's drunk.

So it helped a lot when there were some problems.

I mean, everybody's drunk in Russia.

Gushin was shit-faced half the time.

The first thing in doing any kind of branding is,

we had to change the brand.

All you had was CCCP,

and somebody might say, "Well, what is that?

Did somebody...

Did somebody get the typewriter stuck?"

Reporter 15: The hammer and sickle

of the old Soviet uniform

has now been replaced by a smiling penguin.

Steven: A lot was at stake on opening night.

The whole sports world was watching

to see if Russia and the United States

could collaborate.

It was a disaster.

Nobody was there.

They looked like a mausoleum.

We had no idea it was going to be this hard.

I looked at Gushin and then I said,

"We are going to fill this arena by Christmas."

And he looked at me and he said,

"Even Jesus Christ's re-- reappearance..."

Uh, let me, let me tell you again.

What did they call it when He comes back?

Director: Resurrection. - Resurrection. Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

My Jewishness is showing here.

Um, okay. So let me start...

It's an easy story. I'll just start it again. Um...

I looked into Valery Gushin's eyes, and I said,

"We will fill this arena by Christmas."

And he said to me, "Not even Jesus Christ's resurrection

could fill this building."

I'm Leif Peterson in Moscow, Russia,

where some unusual Americans are taking some unusual risks,

all in the name of capitalism.

I'll have that story coming up.

Victor: Yeah, most of Steve's ideas,

uh, really seemed wild to me.

Like, let's say...

Let's bring some strip tease girls on skates.

Howard: They had a nightclub and they had strippers.

So, Stevie figured, "Well, these would make great cheerleaders.

Let's do some cheerleading here and get the crowd excited."

Mm. I told him, "We can't do it.

Gushin and Tikhonov, they would never allow it."

Well, they're not on the stands.

They're in the dressing room during the break.

So they won't even see.

"You mean, we shouldn't tell them?"

"No, we're not telling them. No, we just do it."

Steven: So we did, and we outfitted them

in our uniforms and they would skate behind the Zamboni,

pulling off layers of their gear

until they were left in pasties and a G string.

Victor: The ministry of defense saw it,

and they thought it was like every game, in between periods.

We had nights where we had free beer nights.

We had 14-, 15-, 16-year-old kids drunk,

cheering on the team.

Pittsburgh Brewing Company was our sponsor,

and I was trying to figure out, "What can we do

to get attention for their beer?"

The circus was in town,

so there were bears in our basement.

I talked to the trainers, and I said,

"Is it possible to set up a restaurant cafe

on the ice and have the bears come out as the waiters

and serve the beer?"

"Sure, we can do that."

The bears came out, there was another bear sitting

at the table, that he served,

and the bear took the beer and guzzled the whole beer.

That was the good part of it.

The bad part is that one of the legends of CSKA

was drunk downstairs and was playing with the bear.

He kept saying, plokhoy medved.

"Bad bear, bad bear," until the bear took off

half of his finger.

The fans thought I was some crazy American freak.

They were right.

I was the crazy American freak.

Steven: We're going to have a Gorbachev-Yeltsin

lookalike contest on the ice.

We're going to have bikini contests in January.

Reporter 16: The younger Russians love all of this.

The older Russians are not so sure.

Bryant here's something from Howard Baldwin to you.

- Just so you'll remember. - Thank you so very much.

Good investment, bad investment? Real quick.

Um, he's not going to make much money out of it

but having a lot of fun with it.

Hey, that's half of life.

8:14, we're back in just...

Steven: They thought we were crazy,

but people wanted to see the freak show,

so they came,

and word started to spread.

"What goes on at the ice palace?"

People come out, have a few beers,

laugh, dance, and enjoy themselves.

We are the only arena that has clean bathrooms

and free toilet paper.

They're issued two meters of toilet paper

as they enter the bathrooms.

This is so that they don't steal the rolls.

Tom: He got there, he rolled up his sleeves,

he worked day and night, and we started to see results.

Steven: We just did whatever the hell we wanted there,

and it was a freak show.

Reporter 17: It's becoming hottest ticket in Moscow.

The Russian Army team is on the ice

and Americans staging the show.

Man 2: We've got Russian mini-sticks, Russian lighters,

Russian lapel pins, Russian pennants.

We've got Russian hats, T-shirts, sweatshirt,

pucks, almost anything you could want.

Reporter 18: Baldwin and his Russian counterpart,

Valery Gushin are selling advertising space

on everything but the player's underwear.

Victor: Before the Russian Penguins,

we didn't have advertisements on boards,

they were the first to put it.

And when people came, they didn't know what to say

because the empty boards were covered with advertisement.

Reporter 19: Companies pay $12,000 each

to advertise on the boards.

$48,000 to be on the team Jersey.

- Nice uniform. - Wild, isn't it?

Reporter 20: You can even put your logo on the ushers,

the concession stand attendants,

or even the security guard.

Reporter 21: It'll cost you $5,000.

For another $5,000 you can be the exclusive sponsor

of the Gorbachev-Yeltsin lookalike contest.

Steven: We would give away way chocolates, Gillette razors,

Panasonic stereos.

You're getting real value to come to a game.

We were this Petri dish.

We were a science project.

We had no idea it was going to take off so quickly...

nor did the Russians.

We became a phenomenon.

"What's going on?

What's this hip bird in Russia?

Why are these jerseys selling all over the place?"

Tom: It was very optimistic.

The whole country was optimistic.

I'm telling you, the U.S.-Russian partnership

was going to be the model for the future.

Steven: And that's how Disney got involved.

Announcer 13: Now please welcome the Professional Hockey League

All-Stars, Sergei Fedorov!

Steven: During the All-Star game in Madison Square Garden.

Howard came up to me and said...

"How would you like to have dinner with Michael Eisner

tonight at the 21 Club?"

Naturally...

And we knew Michael Eisner from the film business,

and he just came into the league with the Mighty Ducks.

Mickey: Come on, Michael. Follow me.

Steven: Michael kept saying to me,

"Steven, what's going on over there?"

And I told them one crazy story after the other,

and he started to fall in love with this whole concept.

Mickey: Oh, Michael. Oh, boy!

He pulled a notepad out of his jacket

and he said, "I got the plot for "Mighty Ducks 5.""

"American team goes over to Moscow,

American player falls in love with Russian girl,

visas expire, governments step in, love story.

Mighty Ducks 5." Puts his paper back in.

And then he said to me, "How much merchandise you selling?"

I said, "We're actually doing really well.

We're out-selling a few NHL teams."

And he looks at the logo, he says,

"That's cute, but I think it needs to be more bellicose.

Let Disney Imagineering have a shot at it,

and we'll get back to you."

In a week, I got a stack of logos.

Eisner realized this is a great way to expand their brand

into Russia as well.

He said, "We're looking at a $100 million

licensing property here."

Mickey: Oh, boy! I'm gonna be rich!

You can imagine how excited we were

with this little tiny team, and now Disney had a big interest.

So, I remember on the way out, Howard said to me,

"Stevie, do you think it's going to be $100 million?"

And I said, "If he's off by $90 million,

it's still a hell of a year."

Announcer 14: Esteemed hockey fans,

the National Hockey League and the Mighty Ducks

celebrate a new era in sports entertainment!

Steven: Eisner talked about doing a Saturday morning show.

We were going to tour every year.

They were going to put us in the Disney stores.

They were offering Gushin and Tikhonov

a $100,000 a year salary,

trips to the All-Star game every year,

trips to Anaheim every year.

Living the good life.

Man 2: It's a Disney World, isn't it, Michael?

I can't help myself. I'm just a salesman at heart.

Howard: And Stevie sending him an email saying,

"Dear Comrade Eisner, Comrade Warshaw here."

And Michael is probably wondering,

"Who the hell is he?"

And I did say, "Now look, Steve, we got to cut this crap out.

Not everybody gets you."

They said you're a weird little bastard.

He just had a personality that you couldn't squash,

but it got Disney thinking of investing.

Steve was joking, he was joking with everybody.

He'd have problems joking with people

from Ministry of Defense and patting them on the back,

and Gushin and Tikhonov took his eccentricity

for a desire to become bigger.

Patting a big general on the back

meant to Gushin that Steve wants to take his place.

But no, it was the nature of Steve.

That's it.

My nickname with the team that was actually given to me

by Viktor Vasilievich Tikhonov was Zhopa S Rootchkoi.

Which translates to "Asshole with a handle..."

Which is nonsensical even in Russian.

And it was this weird kind of a relationship.

One night I was drinking with him

and we had too many vodkas

and he started bearing his soul to me

and he said, "We love you, Zhopa S Rootchkoi,

but we can never trust you because you're an American."

And with that, I noticed he's got blood

dripping into his canned meat

offering me canned meat with his bloody hands.

We were two totally different people.

For some insane reason,

they were so paranoid

that the Americans were trying to screw them.

Then, all of a sudden,

a beautiful sauna popped up right in the arena

with marble that was imported from Italy,

and it was about $100,000.

How did all this money come in?

They were stealing from us, $100 here, $200 here.

And this became a trend.

We had partners that we didn't trust completely, yes.

You know, the complications start to set in,

the fact that they don't do business the way we do.

But eventually, we thought we could stop that.

Howard: And so I figured, okay, I'm going to punish him.

We need to have a command meeting.

So, I don't know how long it took him

to come from Moscow to LA.

It had to be 24 hours,

and I figured will his punishment will it be

he's exhausted.

So, it's Saturday morning...

We lived up on the Hollywood Hills here.

And the doorbell rings, and it's Gushin with his bag

and says, "I'm here."

Director: What was he like when he was at your house?

Oh. He sat by the pool the whole day.

We lived right next to Madonna. He loved that.

And I said, "Look, you got to, we got to watch the dollars.

You've got to respect us as partners."

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm sorry, Howard,

from now on, that'll be different," you know.

And he was exhausted. "Oh, sit down."

Here we turn on the TV, and the White House

back there in Moscow's being bombed.

Reporter 22: On the streets of Moscow, Russians are watching

events unfold with disbelief.

Thick clouds of smoke were billowing out

the Parliament building after the pounding

from Yeltsin's tanks,

as those inside contemplated surrender...

All watched by thousands of bystanders risking their lives.

Reporter 23: Yeltsin dissolved Congress Tuesday

after months of political infighting

over who should rule, the President or the Parliament?

Reporter 24: With tanks surrounding the White House,

Yeltsin's troops stormed the building again on camera.

Reporter 25: Okay, look, I can see men going into

the Russian White House now.

It appears to be a show of force

by President Boris Yeltsin

against his conservative opponents in Congress.

Our state, he had no administration.

Everybody started to defend themselves.

Everywhere people were doing what they wanted.

Some of them took guns, some of them just stayed away.

Jungle.

Reporter 26: If there is good news in Russia tonight,

it is that it can't get much worse.

Reporter 27: The country has gone from extreme control

to virtually no control.

Chaos and freedom have taken

its toll on the Russian people.

Stability is what people want.

Alexander: And that night I-- I was on television saying,

"Stay in your houses.

Don't go to the streets because there are fights,

and there is fire.

Or you're going to be killed."

They didn't like it, and they abandoned me

for-- for half a year, I think.

And since then, they didn't let me make a show, uh, on politics.

Yeah, I was there for that.

We drove down to see what was going on,

and it was right out of a third world takeover.

Director: Did you feel scared a little?

Steven: You know I was a young, crazy kid

with a big old head of curls and no care in the world,

and, um, I didn't think twice about it.

♪ So yeah start wearing purple

♪ Wearing purple

♪ Start wearing purple for me now ♪

♪ All your sanity and wits they will all vanish ♪

♪ I promise it's just a matter of time ♪♪

Well, as you know, there's no rules in Russia.

That's our slogan, and, uh, we get away

with everything except murder.

Steven: It's a crazy world, and we took advantage of it.

Director: But were you guys worried about the health

of Russia or were you worried about the Pittsburgh Penguins?

Neither. I was just...

All I wanted to do was to create something beautiful in sport.

♪ So Vio-- Vio-- Violetta!

♪ Etta!

♪ So yeah hu haa hu haa

♪ Start wearing purple wearing purple ♪

♪ La la la la la

♪ Start wearing purple for me now ♪

♪ All your sanity and wits they will all vanish I promise ♪

♪ It's just a matter of time ♪

It's complete chaos.

I would always talk to him, not when anybody was around.

I'd say, "Steve, you know, should we be worried?

Should we be doing something?" and he would say,

"I think it's okay, but I'll let you know."

And I said, "Please, for God's sake, if you're at any point

if there's really a risk, you got to let us know

because this is not what this is all about."

Yeah.

Steven: When Howard flew over to Moscow

to check on his investment,

he came with a Disney representative, Kevin Gilmore.

We-- we were told that we had to be very careful to go over,

and we even went to the length of renting a plane.

We didn't wanna fly commercial.

So, we had the pilot in a hotel right by the airport,

and the idea was he was gonna call

in case we had to get out of there fast.

Howard hired a Special Forces guy to protect him for the trip,

who actually walked out onto the windowsills

of his fifth floor hotel room to make sure no one could come in

during the night. Howard loved this intrigue.

It was sort of like a Russian spy novel for him.

You know, for me, it was just going to work every day.

Tom: You know, our drivers, because we had drivers

didn't want to stop at lights or whatever,

and they told us, you can't stop at lights

because you're most likely going to get kidnapped.

Or, if you did get stopped by the police,

you wouldn't be kidnapped, but you had to pay them immediately.

And so we just reached into our wallets

and gave him $100 and moved on.

Steven: I would ask my driver, "What was the charge?"

"You're an asshole." That was the charge.

They didn't need a charge, they would just pull you over

and arrest you.

People want to be rich.

They fight for resources.

You fight for what you have around.

Wild days.

Tom: It's a culture and it's a culture that's 1000 years old

in whatever period of time.

If we think we're gonna change that culture business-wise

overnight, we're sadly mistaken.

And we saw the kind of people. I mean...I don't know.

We went to a restaurant one day

and I thought I was in a 1930s movie.

Everybody else in the place had bodyguards

and, literally, you could see weapons.

You weren't supposed to have a weapon there.

Howard and I kinda looked around and thought,

what is this all about?

They brought out a sturgeon, a gigantic sturgeon,

then they, they auctioned it off.

So Howard turned to me, I'm the guy about the numbers, and said,

"You know, should we be bidding on this?"

I said, "No, no, we keep a low profile.

Those boys want the sturgeon, those boys get the sturgeon."

We don't understand the rules here.

We have to be a little bit careful."

And when we were there, we were getting good press,

we were on TV and what have you.

And we get an invitation from the army

to come and visit.

It was an invitation, but it was not one

we really could turn down.

So, Howard and I went with Billy, our bodyguard,

and Paul, our bodyguard.

Howard: Gushin and Tikhonov prepped us

for the meeting, and we went in.

It was like going into a vault, within a vault, within a vault.

Tom: As we come into the room, all the doors close

and at each door is a guy with a machine gun.

And we weren't sure if they were protecting us or keeping us in,

but there we were.

And in walks the General.

And he was not a... He just seemed like he's in a bad mood.

And then, I said, "It's an honor to be here."

I gave him my little speech and there's a deadly silence.

All of sudden, he takes his fist.

I think, this guy might be hitting me.

And he took his fist and he pounded it on the table.

Howard: I look at Tom and he's ready to go home.

Tom: He was telling us that maybe there was American money

and what have you, but this was the army's team

and it was always gonna be the army's team.

And then he looks at Tikhonov, who still was

a full bird Colonel, or whatever the equivalent is over there...

Tom: And said that if they didn't do what they were

supposed to do, they could still be

shipped off to someplace else.

Howard: Then, he looks at Gushin, and he said,

"Gushin, you're so drunk all the time."

He said, "It's about time that you served in the army."

Now, Gushin couldn't as much laced up a boot,

much less serve in the army.

And then, at some point, he sort of dismissed us.

The guys at the door with the machine guns

opened the doors and we left.

Howard: So now we go back to their office

and these guys start lacing down the vodka

like you couldn't believe.

"Oh, thank God, that's over!" they said.

That was our meeting with the Minister of Defense.

The rest of the trip was great.

Steven: During the break in the Russian season,

we took our team on a 14 city marketing tour

to play the International Hockey League.

We took these young kids, that had never even been out

of their own hometowns, into America.

We took them to Disneyland.

They were, literally, having the greatest time in the world.

At the same time, they didn't know the cultures, the customs.

They didn't know how to act.

It was just a comedy of errors.

Steven: I remember one day, one of the kids showed up

without his jacket, $200 beautiful

Russian Penguins jacket that I made for the team.

I asked him what happened to his jacket and he told me,

"Well, I traded it for a sexual favor after the game."

Announcer 15: The Russian Penguins are not looking good.

Victor: The team wasn't the CSKA of the past.

Announcer 16: They're looking more and more like an army

of penguins.

USA! USA! USA!

Announcer 16: Another loss for the Russian Penguins.

Viktor Tikhonov looks like somebody kicked his dog.

He's not used to this.

Victor: Viktor Tikhonov was very disappointed

with the players he had.

By that time, Russia's Soviet best players,

they moved to the NHL already.

It was upsetting to Tikhonov and Gushin.

They felt like they had been raped by the NHL.

Director: If the team was bad,

then why was Disney interested in investing?

Eisner didn't care about the hockey.

Eisner's a marketing guy, we were marketing guys.

And so he was really

not concerned with the quality of play on the ice.

They wanted to have a royalty deal and they wanted

to have a deal that if a movie was made, how that would work.

That was just going to be a good thing for hockey,

a good thing for us. More money.

Male narrator: Order the jersey or the cap and receive

a free Russian Penguin mini hockey stick by calling now.

Join the revolution.

Uh, the idea was that, yes, you don't have star players,

but we have to make the stars.

We need the stars for the sponsors,

for the media, for the press.

You have Sasha Kharlamov, who is the son of Valeri Kharlamov,

a hockey hero.

And Tikhonov and Gushin were saying,

but he's not a good hockey player.

But Steven Warshaw said, "Who cares? He's Kharlamov.

We have to do, we have to make him a star."

And the Russians side they couldn't understand it,

but he doesn't play very well. Well, he's great.

He is the great player. Let's start with this.

Tikhonov kept talking about the essence of it.

That the essence is hockey and if there's no hockey,

no sense doing something around it.

They didn't want any of this, they didn't want

any of the madness. They wanted pure hockey.

Victor: And sometimes he was even irritated, like I said,

with all this American Western farce around nothing.

We had to convince him that it's the only way

for CSKA to survive.

So we created the world's first endorsement for a Russian.

Viktor Tikhonov for Vick's Cough Drops.

Vik for Vick's, obviously.

Steven: And that television commercial ran

thousands of times.

Director: Did he like the commercial?

- At the end of the day? - He did.

He needed a makeover and this was

a great thing for his reputation.

Steven: Without us, he didn't have players

and he didn't have ice and he didn't have equipment

and he didn't have jerseys and he didn't have tours.

Al Gore: While you can't anticipate the obstacles,

they can be overcome

if you have imagination and persistence.

Attendance for the new Moscow Penguins is up 400 percent.

I went to a hockey game, they do an excellent job

of presenting the game to the audience.

Reporter 28: We are Penguins now, he says,

but in our souls, we are Russian Bear.

Howard: It's like anything else...

Something you do and it works

and it gets a lot of attention,

everybody then wants to get in on the act.

Victor: Some small Russian companies,

they started coming in,

because they saw the success and they wanted to have

some part of it.

Tom: They were all companies that were buying boxes

and stuff like that, but we weren't quite sure

who owned the companies.

This-- this was the mob.

Guys would come into the arena with long trench coats

and sawed off shotguns under them.

Steven: One night, we made an announcement

that one fan is gonna drive away

in a Jeep... guaranteed tonight.

And the place went crazy.

Finally, we were down to two guys after a shootout.

One of the keys would open the door, the other wouldn't.

And the kid on the passenger side pops the door open,

starts going crazy. The fans went nuts.

He was so scared that he was gonna be robbed that night

and have his car stolen, that he negotiated a deal

with the dealer on the ice and actually got $10,000 cash

instead of a $30,000 car.

One day, we got a phone call that the tax police

were in their offices. And we said, w-- what does that mean?

And he said, well,

there were literally guys with machine guns

in there and they wanted money.

Steven: And if you didn't pay them, they would hijack

your trucks, they'd steal your product,

and they would destroy your business.

And so we said, well, what can we do?

We can't... You know, we'll try to help out,

but we just can't ship money to you, you're in a room,

a closed room with guys with machine guns.

Director: Was it part of the government or was it,

maybe, some other entity here?

Who-- who knows.

Reporter 29: There are so many troubles here on so many fronts,

including a new degree of fear about corruption and crime.

Reporter 30: Guns are being sold in increasing numbers.

Reporter 31: The underworld now controls

40 percent of the nation's economy.

Reporter 30: Nearly 60 major figures

have been victims of contract killings in the past year.

It got dangerous.

I mean, one of the concessions guys was machine gunned

outside our building.

This doesn't happen, typically, in, you know, New York

or Chicago or Montreal.

You don't usually have your concession guy shot down.

Steven: All the Russian hockey players told me.

They said, you know, you wanna be friends

with these mafia guys.

You want to win them over.

Tom: We became concerned.

One of the things we were concerned about was,

literally, you know, his safety

and the safety of our people there.

We always would say the same thing to him,

"Are you in danger?"

Victor: Friends of Gushin, they started coming in,

saying that you are being cheated by the Americans.

They even approached me, saying that,

"You are getting this small amount of money

and you should be getting three times as much.

And if we take over, everything would be different

for all of us." They even managed to talk Gushin into it.

Uh, Gushin had very big influence on Tikhonov,

in terms of things around hockey.

And if they convinced Gushin,

he immediately would convince Tikhonov.

Steven: I'll never forget, we had Nike coming in

from all over the world.

And it was a Nike night and we had Nike promotions.

Tikhonov and Gushin cut Nike's logo out of the ice

and tore their signs up and their rink boards,

and replaced it with Adidas.

And I got in the next morning and I looked at them and I said,

"Why would you do this? They're paying us $100,000 a year.

Why would you take money out of your own pockets?"

And they said, "Because it's our fucking team."

He did it to prove his power.

It was serious business.

And when people are doing serious business,

they show different sides of their characters.

They had a guy from the mafia who worked for a company

called Mikrodin, sit in my office every single day,

watching everything I did,

photocopying everything I sent out.

I once asked Valery Gushin,

"Who are they? What do they do?"

He said, "Don't ask questions or you'll be hanging

from your thumbs by the top of the arena."

What I loved about Gushin is, he had a contagious laugh.

He had a great laugh, despite being a real vicious guy.

He had this really soft side about him.

The same with Tikhonov.

But they tried to destroy us,

so it's hard to be in love with somebody

that's trying to kill you all the time.

Director: Did you know that there was sort of

mafia around the building?

No, not 'til the end. I wasn't paying that much attention.

We were doing the movie in Pittsburgh

called "Sudden Death."

Male narrator: Tonight, 17,000 hockey fans

have been taken hostage, but only one of them knows it.

I'm gonna try to stop you.

Male narrator: Now he has more to lose than anyone.

"Sudden Death."

Yeah, it was a little crazy, especially when we, you know,

got introduced to our future partners.

Howard and I had one particular meeting

with, uh, Gushin and Tikhonov.

They came to New York and we got introduced to somebody

who, we were told, was their partner.

See, everything was 50:50.

So we had our 50 percent was the Pittsburgh Penguins,

theirs was supposed to be Gushin and Tikhonov.

And all of a sudden, they introduced us to somebody

who they said was now their partner, on their piece.

To me, these guys, they weren't telling me

that there would be three parts in it.

No, no, they were telling me that now Pittsburgh was out.

They did their job. They played their role.

We thank them very much for arranging everything for us,

but now they're cheating us,

because they're getting all the money from it.

And I knew it was a lie, because Pittsburgh was not getting

any money from it. They were paying, they were losing money.

Director: Did you get a bad feeling from them of--

Yes. Um...

There is no question

that you were in there at your own risk,

if you weren't going to play their game of paying people off.

And there is no question, they were there looking for a payoff.

Steven: We felt like we were losing control.

Tom: And we were concerned about the safety of our money.

You know this was a big investment.

Steven: I said to Valery Gushin,

we're expecting you to steal $100,000, $200,000 a year.

But you stole a million from us last year,

and our fears were that Disney,

uh, would be the next victim.

Our last resort was to, was to ask

for help from the Russian army.

We needed them to protect Disney,

to make Disney certain that there was no risk involved.

Director: But I mean, if you're protected by the army, why--

See the point was we weren't.

What we realized is we thought, you know,

that they would take care of us. No.

The system there, there were

the army took care of itself,

and then there was this other group of people,

you know, which I don't know, we identify as,

what we would call the Mafia.

And businessmen, or is what they call businessmen.

So, the army was not gonna protect us from them.

- And we thought that-- Director: Why?

Director: I mean, they're the law enforcement.

Well, it's not, this isn't like we have here.

Steven: The Mafia, they were the banks.

They were everything.

It was the business structure.

Director: Dmitry.

Director: Are they telling us I've got to get out of here...

Director: Dmitry, are we alright?

Producer: Keep on walking. They think it might be a bomb.

Director: Jesus Christ. That's scary, dude.

Producer: Yeah. I know...

How you control people? There're two ways of controlling them.

Greed and fear.

If you, if you don't have greed, like generally

as your way of control,

fear is the one, the only one you have.

Alexander: The show was banned very many times.

Every week was a fight.

Director: Did you ever feel threatened?

Yeah, I was threatened. I felt threatened all the time.

I was attacked.

They opened criminal cases against me.

Director: Who is they opened criminal cases?

The state.

Steven: I don't think the Russians really ever got it.

They didn't get it, 'cause if they got it,

they would have become commercial

and they would have ridden our coattails

to, you know, as-- as Michael said, $100 million.

Um...

Well, I can call Michael for you. He may...

I don't know why he would have said that

because he would remember this.

He would remember this.

So on one hand, our major economic reason, you know,

was being taken away from us.

And then we had on the other hand, the strange partner

getting introduced to us and so we said,

"Well, this is not... We have to stop this."

Remember, at this point looming was the fact that we thought

we'd be getting players and what have you.

By the way, that stopped.

That was the other reason we had to get out.

All the teams complained because they were worried that the--

Director: All of which teams? - The National Hockey League.

They said to the commissioner and said "You can't let these

guys do it." Because they suddenly realized we were gonna

get all the good Russian players.

And what happened of course is

Stevie was so successful that they wanted to hire him.

Steven: They came to me and said,

"Why don't you come and work with the Mafia?

You don't need Pittsburgh. We'll take care of you."

Offering me women and drugs and an apartment.

And I asked them how much they were going to pay me.

And it was actually less than the Penguins.

So I said, "You idiot, I can get my own women, my own drugs.

Why would I take less money and work for you

when I can enjoy my life and get more money with the Penguins?"

And they said, "Well if you don't, we'll kill you."

And I said, "Really? How much is a hit on my life?"

He said, "$6500."

It was enough to tell me to get the hell out of Russia.

Not too long after we left,

four major figures in our hockey sphere were killed.

Our team photographer took a photo of a table,

but behind that table was a big mobster

who thought he was in the frame.

So the next day, on his way to work,

he got five bullets in his head.

Alexander Osadchi was a San Jose draft pick.

Found him in his apartment dead one morning.

No trace, no bruises, nothing.

Just dead.

Steven: The Mafia actually killed

one of our assistant coaches one day.

They were laying in wait in the parking lot

and they put five bullets in his head right in front of his wife.

The head of the Russian Hockey Federation, Valentin Sinch

was also gunned down.

Who knows what would have happened if we had stayed?

That could have been us.

Alexander: Vladislav Listyev.

It's an awful story for me.

Director: Were you a close friend of his or...

Right.

Still not understanding why that happened.

Because I don't know.

Victor: If you compare these business killings

to the killings under Stalin,

you cannot compare it.

This criminality and...

all the things you mentioned.

I just accepted them as something inevitable,

but, but we have to live with it and I was so happy

that the whole thing with the Soviet Union

and communism was over.

That I was ready to accept anything.

The pre-eminent mission of our new government

is to give all Americans an opportunity.

Director: Did you get any, last night, did you sleep much?

I n-- I never sleep. So it's a normal night. Yeah.

Director: You never do?

I told you this condition is killing me, too. Yeah.

Look, here's a guy. Oh, shit, no light on.

Although I can't prove it, I'm quite certain that

I got a toxic multi-nodal goiter in my neck that's choked

my thyroid from my stint in the former Soviet Union.

And, uh, I'm suffering to this day.

Steven: It's the most ambivalent feeling

I've had in my life because I fell in love with somebody

that didn't love me back.

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