Robert Amsterdam

Below are three parts of a documentary titled "The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchs" produced by the program Human Edge for Canadian television. The documentary vastly simplifies the Khodorkovsky case, and commits many of the common mistakes and misinterpretations of the facts seen elsewhere (for example, they seem to believe that there are no longer any powerful private businessmen in Russia). Much is lost when one tries to bring this story of contemporary Russia to a broad audience, and anyone who reads this blog probably already knows much more than is shown here. Although it is a significantly flawed doc, it's worth checking out for some terrific archival footage. See the beginning of the third part for a strikingly different image of Vladimir Putin in his first campaign (videos after the jump).