The Putin System

The Putin System is a documentary made by film makers Jean-Michel Carré and Jill Emery for French TV. The documentary investigates the journey of Vladmir Putin from his initial Czarist and Stalinist influences to his dreams of restoring Russia’s glory. The filmmakers interviewed a range of people, from Putin’s former school teacher Vera Gurvich to his harshest critics, like world chess champion Gary Kasporov as well as many Kremlin and KGB workers.

The film begins with Nina Kurucheva a New York based Historian giving an account of Putin’s policies. The whole movie focuses on how each and every move by Putin is a step towards restoring Russia’s place on the world stage, let it be the war on Chechnya, the control over resources like oil, gas (Transneft), control of media to recreate his image among Russians,
special relations with Iran etc. As a boy he spent hours at the local cinema watching a Stalinist classic where a heroic agent single handedly saved the nation. At the age of 16 Putin knocked the doors of the KGB but he was told that the KGB independently decided who and when to recruit. He was told to study law and languages and sent away. Four years later the KGB officials contacted him. Yuri Andropov was the head of the KGB at that time. It was under his that Putin developed his vision of the state, economic objectives which eventually influenced his politics. Yuri still continues to pay homage to his mentor Andropov. He was posted in East Germany, with the East German secret service his mission is to recruit informers with Andropov’s objectives he had developed a network of business contacts. During the fall of the Berlin wall he was still in Germany. He felt helpless and asked for help but the KGB failed to respond. Putin felt that he and his country have been betrayed, he then returns back to St.Pertersberg.

On May 1990, he joined Sobchak’s election campaign and helps him become Mayor of the city. He was appointed as Antoloy Sobchak’s advisor on international affairs. During the fall of the Soviet Union, Putin decided to leave KGB as many others and stay on the side of the reformers in order to protect himself from being arrested. At the end of 1991 Boris Yeltsin declared the sovereignty of Russia and the USSR is dismantled, the Soviet republic becomes independent. Later Putin was appointed as Deputy Mayor by Sobchak and his job as deputy Mayor was privatization. Foreign banks like the BNP Dresdner Bank and Lyonnais were the first foreign banks to open in St. Petersberg. During the winter of 1991 St. Petersberg was on the brink of famine, at this time most of the humanitarian aid came from Germany. It was completely organised by Putin with the help of his business network he developed years ago. He had used his network of friends in Germany to create a system of barter, oil was exchanged for food. He knew the importance of energy as a tool for power. Thus money went directly into the pockets of officials and agents who organised the barter. “He considered the economy as a permanently controllable process…” says Alexander Belayev, Economist and former town councillor of St.Petersberg. During his term as Deputy Mayor he was known to have been involved in defence scams and companies accused of cocaine networks and money laundering. Having knowledge of law and contacts with organised crime networks he could do as he pleased. As his influence increases he gets his old KGB colleagues to work with him. Before the fall of the Soviet Union promising businessmen who came to be known as oligarchs. They were given State assets to be managed. They were the first ones to benefit from the new system of privatization after the fall of the Soviet Union. This went against the communist policies of the Soviet Union and people of Russia started protesting.

Yeltsin the new president sent in tanks and more than 150 people were killed. It was then that Putin realized that from now in Yeltsin’s democracy the rules were going to be dictated. Democracy never translated into its true meaning under Yeltsin. Under Yeltsin, Putin used various opportunities to prove himself capable and trustworthy. On 9th August, 1999, Putin was appointed as one of the three Deputy Prime Ministers.He later became the acting Prime Minister of the Russian Federation led by Boris Yeltsin. After serving two terms Yeltsin then announced Putin as his successor. On the 26th March Putin won the first round of Presidential elections and on 7th May 2000 he was appointed as president of the Russian Federation. Putin was re-elected on 14th March 2004 for the second term as President.