As a Russian speaking attorney, logging many trips to Russia since 1994, I have witnessed first hand Russia's transformation from the tumultuous post-Soviet 90s to a Putin led resurgent Russia.
My goal in this documentary is to depict two Putins. One as seen by the West: a villain, a dictator, and a thug, and one as seen by Russia: a powerful leader with an 85+% approval rating, and considered the catalyst for Russia’s resurgence.
My passion for the subject matter runs deep, over 20 years in fact… and uniquely positions me to lend my voice and eyes to creating an unprecedented rendering of the 15 years that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, has been at the helm of the Russian Federation.
I was born in New York in 1976 to Russian immigrants, who fled the Soviet Union from persecution. I grew to live and understand the Russian language and culture at home, however, at school and after school in the playground I was fully steeped in American culture and the English language.
After finishing high school, I traveled to Russia in 1994, a tumultuous time after the breakup of the Soviet Union. This began my passion to learn as much as possible about Russia, particularly the language, culture and politics. I have made numerous trips since and saw first hand how the country began to change under President Vladimir Putin. I particularly remember when I participated in a Law School exchange program to Moscow and interned at the Moscow office of America’s largest law firm, Baker and McKenzie. At that time I experienced first hand the beginnings of Putin’s reign. In fact, on a law school program field trip, I remember asking the Chief Judge of the Russian Supreme Court, what “power vertical” meant to him, alluding to the phrase used by Putin to begin consolidating power. The judge’s answer echoed Putin’s, in that it was to create an environment of stability and enforcement of laws throughout Russia, a stark difference from the Yeltsin era which I experienced first hand while living in St. Petersburg in the 90s.
Furthermore, during my time in the National Guard, I had the opportunity to interpret for members of the US and Russian military. My perspective includes time as an army attaché to Tbilisi, Georgia prior to Russia entering South Ossetia, Georgia in 2008.
My bilingual/bicultural upbringing, legal, and military background give a perspective on Russia and Putin that few others have. I hope that you share my interest in this subject and contribute what you can for the movie, “Putin: 15 Years Riding the Russian Bear”. Without your contribution this movie will never come to fruition.
This documentary takes the viewer on a journey that begins almost a decade after the Soviet Union collapsed. A time when Russian President Boris Yeltsin would pass the reins of Russia to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Putin would "be able to unite around himself those who are to renew Great Russia in the new 21st century.” From the time that he entered the national scene, Vladimir Putin has become a polarizing figure.
“In the West, politicians and journalists of all stripes have referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "thug", a "tyrant", a "murderer", a "Communist", a "Nazi", the next "Hitler" and more. But amongst the Russian people, his popularity rating has reached levels as high as 85%. There is even a very popular hit 'disco' song about him - 'A Man Like Putin'. So, who's right? Why such hatred for Vladimir Putin? Is it justified? Or has Putin been targeted merely for standing up to the US-EU Axis of Internationalism?” (“The War Against Putin”, by Michael S. King).
In 1999, Vladimir Putin rose to power as Russia was disintegrating. There was a second war in Chechnya boiling and the economy was still a wreck after the ruble collapsed in August of 1998. Putin began his campaign by presenting himself as a strongman and promised to restore order, as conveyed in his first memorable public statement about hunting down Chechen terrorists wherever they may be, even in the outhouse. He was determined to bring Russia back to its previous status as a superpower. As the chaotic 90s wound down, Russians longed for a strong leader that would inject stability. Thus, on March 26, 2000, Russia elected Vladimir Putin as its new leader. In May of that year, President Putin began his 15 year (thus far) ride atop the Russian bear.
Is he the richest man in the world? "Forbes" magazine recognized him as the most powerful person in the world and "Time" magazine named him "Person of the Year". "Putin: 15 Years Riding the Russian Bear" gives a look at how the West views Russia and how Russia views itself in the world.
Don’t know who Paul Klebnikov, Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko, Alexei Navalny, Ksenia Sobchak, Boris Nemtsov, Garry Kasparov, and Mihail Prohorov are? Never heard of Beslan or Nord Ost? Please support this project and be a part of creating the only full featured documentary on Putin’s 15 years in power and you will get the answers to all of the above questions and more. The last part of the movie will cover the Sochi Olympics, Crimean land grab, Eastern Ukraine, killing of Boris Nemtsov and what lies ahead for Putin and Russia.
1. Equipment $18,778.95 with tax: The preponderance of the costs are to procure the necessary hardware, software and miscellaneous tools for film editing, storage, security and publishing. Because I intend to develop this movie into an interactive movie at a later date using the Intuiface software and incorporate 4k footage when feasible, a high end Mac Pro is necessary to efficiently produce this film by the end of May. The configuration below allows for the requisite, power, speed, storage to seamlessly edit enormous amounts of video into a final product. Here is the configuration that gets me to the figure above. • 2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache • 64GB (4x16GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC • 1TB PCIe-based flash storage • Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each • Apple USB SuperDrive • Sharp 32" PN-K321 - 4K Ultra HD LED Monitor • Magic Trackpad • Apple Wireless Keyboard - English • User's Guide (English) • AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro - Auto-enroll • One to One membership — 1 year • Final Cut Pro X • Apple Thunderbolt Cable (0.5 m) - Black • Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter • PROMISE Pegasus2 R8 24TB (8 by 3TB) Thunderbolt 2 RAID System -Additionally, a portable 4k camera, microphone, memory and batteries will be needed to conduct interviews on the road. Estimated cost $1,000.
2. Website Registration and maintenance: I have already registered www.putin15.com and www.putindocumentary.com as placeholders to develop these websites as marketing platforms for the movie. These sites are not yet live and will come online in the weeks to come. Each will cost approximately $40/month to maintain, or $960 per year.
3. Travel for interviews-I will be traveling to interview Russophiles in Washington D.C., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other locations as necessary. I am budgeting $2500 for travel costs.
4. Production and publication of movie on iTunes, Google Play Store, and Amazon.
5. Rewards fulfillment- T-shirt printing and distribution and other reward fulfillment such as dinner costs at the DC, NYC, California locations. The remainder of the proceeds will go towards rewards fulfillment. This is a very tight budget, and thus I will contribute out of pocket if costs go above the funding levels to ensure fulfillment.
The biggest challenge to the success of this documentary will be for some of the most prominent Russophiles to grant us an interview for this documentary.Without their support, it is unlikely that the project will succeed.Specifically, we are seeking interviews with the following passionate Russophiles having a uniquely biopic American and Russian perspective of the period of Putin’s reign.
Bill Browder, Founder of Hermitage Capital, the largest investment fund manager in Russia prior to his expulsion.Author of “Red Notice”, and the man behind the Magnitsky Act which punished those involved in the death of Russian attorney Sergei Magnitsky.
Mark Galeotti-Professor at NYU, author of the blog In Moscow’s Shadows, regular contributor to the Foreign Policy website and co-host of the Kremlin focused Podcast “The Power Vertical”.
Brian Whitmore-Co-Host of the “Power Vertical” podcast and author of the “Daily Vertical”
Fiona Hill-Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and co-author of the recently updated book, “Mr. Putin”
Ryan Chilcote-Bloomberg reporter who focuses on Russia and presented a 12 part series on Russia entitled “Ryan’s Russia”.
Sean Guillory-Professor at the University of Pittsburg’s Center for Russian and East European Studies and author of Sean’s Russia Blog and new “SRB” podcast that focuses on Russian politics.
Masha Gessen-Author of “The Man Without a Face, The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin”
Karen Dawisha-Director of the Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and the Author of “Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Own’s Russia”.
Michael McFaul- Former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation.Currently he is a professor of political science at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Peter Zwack- Brigadier General (Retired), former U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer and Defense Attaché to Russia and served during a period of peaceful time during the Sochi Winter Olympics to the deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia to their lowest point since the Cold War at the time of the Ukraine crises.
Mark Schrad-Assistant Professor at Villanova University, and author of the book Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State
Michael S. King-offers a different perspective on Putin and Russia in his book “The War Against Putin: What the Government-Media Complex Isn't Telling You About Russia”.
Garry Kasparov-World class chess grandmaster and Russian opposition political figure.
Richard Haass-President of the Council on Foreign Relations
Yuri Felshtinsky-Author
of the book with Alexander
Litinenko “Blowing
up Russia”; “The
Age of Assassins:The Rise and Rise of
Vladimir Putin”; “The
Corporation. Russia and the KGB in the Age of President Putin”; and “The KGB
Plays Chess: The Soviet Secret Police and the Fight for the World Chess Crown”.
My biggest challenge, as mentioned above, will be to obtain support from the Russophile community to spread the word about this documentary on such a polarizing figure.
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