A month ago, we brought you the news that Oliver Stone would be releasing a series of interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an upcoming Showtime special cleverly titled The Putin Interviews. The meeting of the minds was teased in that previous bit of news, but the first clip from the extensive bit of dialogue has just now been released.
As if Stone and Putin weren't controversial enough already, this first clip delves into the Russian leader's thoughts on Edward Snowden and his (in)famous whistleblowing activity. Putin's responses appear candid, or at least as candid as any answers from a former KGB officer and career politician can be. It's certainly an intriguing glimpse of what's to come in the full series later this month.
Check out the first clip from Showtime's The Putin Interviews below:
In one of multiple interviews over the course of two years, Oliver Stone interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin while he is driving, where Putin discusses his point of view on Edward Snowden. Don't miss The Putin Interviews, a four-night event beginning June 12th at 9PM ET/PT, only on SHOWTIME.
Granted unprecedented access to both Putin’s professional and personal worlds, Oscar®-winning writer and director Oliver Stone (Platoon, Snowden), with the help of his longtime documentary producer Fernando Sulichin, interviewed the Russian leader more than a dozen times over the course of two years, most recently in February following the U.S. presidential elections. Since first becoming the president of Russia in 2000, Putin has never before spoken at such length or in such detail to a Western interviewer, leaving no topic off limits. In scope and depth, THE PUTIN INTERVIEWS recalls The Nixon Interviews, the series of conversations between David Frost and Richard Nixon that aired in the spring of 1977, 40 years ago.
The project joins an esteemed list of documentaries under the Showtime Documentary Films banner, many of which focus on the lives and legacies of culture-defining figures, including the Emmy®-nominated film LISTEN TO ME MARLON, WEINER and ZERO DAYS. Other upcoming Showtime Documentary Films that will debut on the network include RISK, the latest documentary from Oscar winner Laura Poitras (CITIZENFOUR), giving viewers an inside look at WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and those who surround him; WHITNEY. “CAN I BE ME,” exploring the incredible career and complicated life of Whitney Houston; and a feature-length documentary about the extraordinary life and times of comic legend John Belushi.
