Putin vs. Great Britain, Japan, USA, Germany, France, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland and even Australia As promised, after the President, I started watching foreign projects dedicated to our president. I decided to start with this, because the BBC managed to get into it, whose projects I usually like. I’ll make a reservation right away that I watched in the original with subtitles in order to feel the original context and avoid any censorship. However, almost half of the series, if not most of it, in Russian is a chronicle, interview, etc.
Chapter 1: "Coming to power"
In my opinion, it is rather strange to start a series dedicated to the coming to power of a man with an exorbitant rating (even in 2011, if you look at the statistics throughout the country, he will be in favor of any competitor) with the footage of a rally chanting “Putin resign!” – this is somehow too biased and stupid even for propaganda. However, there was practically no justification for Chechen terrorism, etc. moments - already good.
Criticizing the rigid approach to oligarchs, the authors forget that these oligarchs were indeed criminals who tried to control the government, that is, such an approach is not only correct, but the only possible in the situation. Otherwise, the tone is quite neutral, there are some interesting stories and archival shootings. Rating: 7.
Chapter 2: "Democracy under threat"
The first forty minutes are told about the events in Georgia and Ukraine, which is boring, and today it does not make sense at all. Moreover, neither Georgia nor Ukraine is Putin, nor Russia, nor the West, i.e. it is a rather strange decision to devote more than ten minutes to these events in a specific project. Personally, for me, the information value of the series is close to zero, for this and the assessment.
The remaining twenty minutes are devoted to squalid social movements (both for and against Putin, I don’t see much difference between them) and the like. And to look at some elderly and frankly unpleasant Soviet liberal I was disgusted. Especially given the fact that her organization has no real influence, and all their human rights work is to protect some depressing LGBT people. Shooting with the Nazis will not even comment, because it is an extreme failure – the organization “Nashi” (almost Putin’s personal army, if you believe the authors), including created to fight them (also, apparently, friends of Putin). Rating: 1.
Chapter 3: "War"
The events of 2008 should no doubt be sanctified in a similar film, unlike the theme of the previous series. This is a war, although not very long, but one of the most important in the XXI century. I am pleased that the film acknowledges the fact of the Georgian invasion and murder of Ossetian civilians, keep a neutral position.
In addition, the topics of confrontation between Russia and the United States over American missile defense in Europe and a number of other conflict situations of that time were covered. It is a bit regrettable (against the background of the last series) that too little attention was paid to Serbia and Kosovo, but I do not have any serious complaints about submitting information, the representatives of Russia were allowed to independently speak on almost all issues, for example. Rating: 7.
Chapter 4: "A New Beginning"
The series begins quite positively and talks about a temporary rapprochement between the United States and Russia, but, in my opinion, it is strange to perceive Medvedev as a real competitor to Putin. On the issue of American missile defense discussed here, he said his famous phrase: “I will pass this information to Vladimir” – it explains a lot.
In principle, since 2015, this part is not much different from the second and has already managed to become obsolete. The series ends as it began: a rally of the Russian opposition and populist criticism of the future (at the time) President of Russia. This is understandable and logical, but meaningless. Rating: 6.
In principle, for general development, it is possible to look to have an idea of the view of us from the outside, for example. However, in 2015, this no longer makes much sense and does not represent any information value for a long time, if it was at the time of its release.
5 out of 10