Watching part one now. Putin always came off like the calculating KGB technocrat, and so far this interview series does not alter that perspective. Putin has been talking about a return to geopolitical multipolarity for several decades now, and seems like his nationalist position has not changed either. He clearly stated that he thinks NATO exists basically to continually frustrate Russia. He seems to perceive the US as a kind of irrational state with its hands on the levers of global power, but I think Putin is just skeptical about how long this can last. His objective seems to be to maintain and solidify Russian power as a counter-weight to the Western bloc.
Part two is even more revealing, focusing more on domestic politics and Putin's position on Eastern Europe. There's an interesting scene where Putin and Stone watch Dr. Strangelove together, apparently Putin had never seen the movie, which I find hard to believe considering the rumours of
the Russian Deadhand system.Putin repeatedly states that he, and the other political technologists who work for him, are looking at the global situation in the 2050-2075 timeframe and are proceeding accordingly. Putin reiterates that he believes the US and NATO are behind the domestic upheaval in Ukraine and that this is part of a Western plot to prevent Russian-Ukrainian "rapprochement". Putin cited the dismantling of the ABM treaty by President Bush as the beginning of the present conflict between Russian and the US, with Russia now dedicating itself to re-armament, but ultimately he feels that the withdrawal from the ABM treaty was a mistake that will cost the US more than Russia (in absolute terms) in the long run.
Putin talks briefly about his machismo, and there some interesting sequences of Putin playing hockey, working out- the 63 year old claims he works out everyday- and talking about his Judo "mastery". Putin states that he feels legal action is necessary to keep the influence of the homosexual lobby to a minimum as Russia needs to increase its birthrate for the future, not reduce it.
In Part three, Putin argues that the toppling of Yanukovych was orchestrated by the CIA in conjunction with the US State Department- basically the model for the Egyptian coup in 2013- claiming that the Yanukovych government never ordered to fire on protestors, rather, Putin hints at a third force that was operating, shooting both police and protestors to create chaos. He blames the Ukrainian government for taking a hardline in Donbass and Donetsk, where another ceasefire agreement was
recently arranged. Putin tries to argue that the annexation of Crimea was to protect Russian nationals which isn't believable at all, and they certainly don't mention the huge military maneuvers Russia was conducting on the Ukrainian border in 2014.
There is a particularly interesting sequence in part three where Putin uses Skype to chat with some generals in Syria. But in the background you can clearly see video-loop footage, and Oliver Stone notices this as well, a strange Putin-esque Potempkin village. Stone points out that by the numbers Saudi Arabia spends more on defence than Russia, and asks how that could be possible. Putin doesn't really explain anything, but it seems obvious that someone is lying somewhere.
Putin claims in February 2016 that Russian aircraft were carrying out 70 to 120 strikes a day in Syria, which is a lot of strikes; the CJTFOIR will conduct 10 or 20 a day, although lately that number has been increasing as ISIL is destroyed. Putin shows Stone some footage of Russian aircraft bombing ISIL on his phone, describing the targets dispassionately as "international terrorists".
As the documentary continues it becomes more surreal. In Part Four Putin goes into detail about his feelings regarding the US election, and again denies that Russia had any involvement. On the otherhand, Obama's actions kicking out the spys in December suggests the Obama administration thought Russian intervention was legitimate enough to warrant a response. No doubt Putin would argue this was just natural consequences for US intervention in Ukraine or some such other perceived disruption of the balance of power that Putin cites repeatedly throughout the series.
It seems clear that Russia probably was involved in the DNC hack, no doubt Putin denies this, but it clearly fits with his pattern of though and KGB stlyings. When Obama expelled the spies in December 2016, that was pretty clearly in response to Russian opposition to Clinton, which itself likely stemmed from the sanctions that the Democrats had imposed on Russia after they annexed Crimea. Putin also cites US intervention in Russia's elections, both in 2000 and 2012, the latter which Putin describes as particularly intensive. When Stone presses him on this, Putin becomes defensive, stating that "really it doesn't matter" and that the hackers had merely exposed the underlying corruption in the US political system- conveniently for Putin's perspective on US-Russian relations.
As the series wraps up, Putin reveals that he felt betrayed by the US, who continued to operate on a cold-war footing throughout the 1990s and really never stopped. He once again argues that the global community is merely reacting to US abuses, and that once those abuses are more well known, real change in the US political establishment will take place. As part four wraps up, Oliver Stone notes that Putin looks "like the fox who just got out of the hen house" and that he's clearly sitting on information he doesn't want to reveal due to national security reasons. Stone paints a pretty convincing case for the motivation behind the ongoing cyberwar, and is highly critical of both Russia and the United States for continuing the conflict. Putin states that there had been some debate in Autumn 2015 about
regulating the cyberwar but it was not pursued.
In the final part of the interview they discuss the meaning of the Russian Revolution 100 years later. They discuss Stalin's legacy, and lastly talk about Putin's anti-corruption campaign and the rise of the oligarchs. Putin doesn't answer Stone's question about the plans for the 2018 elections. Putin says his goal is to "reinforce" Russia, and I believe it.