In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, state-owned assets and resources of the former world superpower were seized by a tiny group of smart, ruthless, and well-connected businessmen. The group, collectively dubbed the Russian oligarchs, rapidly joined the ranks of the world’s richest people -- and now battle Russian president Vladimir Putin for economic and political control of the country.
In a political climate in which journalists and other critics of the Kremlin face imprisonment and even assassination, Russian Godfathers is a thoroughly up-to-date investigation of the rise and fall of the Russian oligarchs and their ongoing war with Putin’s 21st Century Russian Democracy. Obtaining unprecedented on-camera access to the billionaires who are currently at war with Putin, the three-part series offers unique insight on the ruthless struggle for wealth, power and control over resources.
An Oxford Film & Television Production for the BBC, Russian Godfathers is airing as part of Link TV’s Spotlight series. It won the British Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series.
Part 3: The Politician
Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov has been the mayor of Moscow since 1992, and in that time has accumulated a fortune into the billions. He has won re-election three times, with policies including compulsory bulletproof windows for restaurants, fining weather-people for inaccurate forecasts, and rebuilding the torn-down statue of infamous KGB founder Felix Dzerzhinksy. He is also the last elected opposition to Putin, and neither man has ever forgotten that. It is election year in Moscow, and The Politician chronicles a battle for control of one of the world's great cities.
Kremlin expert Jonathan Sanders (author of Russia 1917: The Unpublished Revolution and, with Heidi Hollinger, The Face of Modern Russia’s Political Opposition) will join Spotlight host Lakshmi Chaudhry to explore the issues raised in each of the three programs. For this section, Margarita Akhvlediani, Caucasus Program Director and regional editor at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in Georgia, also joins the program.
Watch this exclusive in-studio commentary.
LEARN MORE:
Read a special report on Russia from the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper.
The Guardian reviews Russian Godfathers.
ALSO ON LINK TV:
Russian Godfathers: The Prisoner
Russian Godfathers: The Fugitive
International Dateline: Who Killed Alexander Litvinenko?
DW In Focus: To Live and Die for Truth?
RELATED SITES:
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Carnegie Endowment
