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'Putin is Back'

Docs watched by failedevolution.blogspot at the 17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, 13-22 March 2015

Short description:

Vladimir Putin’s mandate ended in 2008, after he had been in power for eight years. Putin Is Back draws on news reports, opinions and interviews to demonstrate how Putin is now more firmly in the saddle than ever. In 2008, he endorsed Medvedev, who was utterly committed to him.

It was during Medvedev’s presidency that Putin planned his return to power by boosting state control, monopolizing oil and gas, stimulating corruption and jailing dissenting lawyers and journalists.

A wide variety of voices have their say about the subsequent presidential administration, including former advisors to Putin and Gorbachev, Putin’s right-hand man Sergey Markov, and a member of Pussy Riot.

In addition to many opposing views, we also get to see things from the perspective of Putin, who envisions a Eurasian bloc, a USSR without communism but with a strong identity.

The film focused on the "dark side" of Vladimir Putin, presenting him as an authoritarian leader who seeks various ways to increase his concentrating power. Medvedev is being presented, more or less, as Putin's puppet who was deposed from presidency, as being more "flexible" and "moderate" in many issues.

During the discussion with the director, Jean-Michel Carre, the blog had the chance for one or two questions. The first question was how the director himself sees Putin, as it seems that he worked extensively on the "Putin phenomenon". He actually blamed Putin as being responsible for a genocide in Chechnya, eliminating also his political opponents. However, he admitted that before Putin come to power, Russia was actually governed by mafia.

The second question was, how the political spectrum in his country, France, and especially the French Left, sees Putin. Apparently, the French nationalists, the Greek nationalists and nationalists in other European countries, express a direct admiration for Putin. The answer was that the Left in France with Jean-Luc Mélenchon also respects Putin, and the director was keen to learn why the Left in Greece, now in power with SYRIZA, seeks closer approach with Putin. The blog answered that Tsipras is not necessarily an admirer of Putin. He only tries to use the Russian card against lenders' pressure, showing that Greece has an alternative towards the fast developing economic system by BRICS.

Generally, the documentary was interesting but one-sided. What would be also interesting to see, is whether the opposition inside Russia and demonstrations against Putin, are triggered by the American factor, as we saw many times in other places with US organizations organizing "color revolutions" and other activities to throw a non desirable government from power.

Read also:

The big barrier called Putin

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