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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with journalists after a live broadcast nationwide call-in in Moscow, April 16, 2015.
Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
In the last days of April, Russian television aired a 150-minute documentary about Vladimir Putin’s decade and a half as the leader of Russia. Shown around the anniversary of his first inauguration (May 7, 2000), the movie offered a blunt message: in the 15 years of Putin’s rule, he had saved Russia from the forces of destruction, both internal—Chechnya and the oligarchs—and external—insidious Western influence. He, the movie repeatedly reinforced, is the only thing holding the country together.
According to the film, moreover, Putin is not just a political savior: his leadership has also been important for the
