Correspondent: Who is Putin? Tx Date: 10th February 2001 This script was made from audio tape - any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 00.00.00 Opening Music 00.00.06 Music 00.00.09 Bridget Kendall As the new millennium starts Russia, like the United States, has a new President. 00.00.14 Music 00.00.17 Bridget Kendall Vladimir Putin has been in charge for a year but he's still an enigma. 00.00.21 Music 00.00.24 Bridget Kendall A decade since the Cold War - should we fear new superpower confrontations? 00.00.30 Music 00.00.34 Bridget Kendall What has shaped this former spy and Kremlin bureaucrat? 00.00.41 Bridget Kendall Where is this man taking Russia? 00.00.44 Music 00.00.49 Title Page Who is Putin? 00.00.57 Bridget Kendall A judo club after school in St Petersburg. 00.01.02 Bridget Kendall Instruction is from the veteran coach who thirty years ago trained Vladimir Putin. 00.01.14 Bridget Kendall Putin, he says, was a star pupil who might have made the Olympic team. He was always determined to win, if not by brute force then by outwitting his opponents. 00.01.28 Aston ANATOLY RAKHLIN Putin's Judo Coach Voice over I was always surprised by his amazing power of endurance. In a fight he could exhaust anyone, his stamina was amazing. 00.01.41 Bridget Kendall Putin is still a judo fanatic. He prides himself on keeping fit. He's even co-authored books about it. 00.01.51 Bridget Kendall What could be more different from the embarrassing stumbles of Boris Yeltsin? And his favourite judo tactic is worth noting. 00.02.03 Anatoly Rakhlin Voice over He could throw with equal skill in both directions - left and right. And his opponents, expecting a throw from the right, would not see the left one coming. So it was pretty tough for his opponents to beat him because he was constantly kind of tricking them. 00.02.25 Music 00.02.30 Bridget Kendall A leader to be reckoned with, who can fight for Russia's prestige. 00.02.34 Music 00.02.39 Bridget Kendall All Russia's greatest Tsars were enlightened despots. 00.02.44 Bridget Kendall After ten years of shambolic reforms, no wonder Russians are nostalgic for the autocrats of their past. 00.02.51 Music 00.03.00 Bridget Kendall This bronze horseman has always been seen as a symbol of a strong leader to harness Russia and rein it back from the abyss of anarchy and chaos and even the destructive force of stagnation. 00.03.12 Bridget Kendall And that's why so many Russians have always been convinced that only a ruthless leader with an iron grip can save their country - even if it is at the cost of individual freedom. 00.03.22 Aston BRIDGET KENDALL But the question for Vladimir Putin is - however ambitious he may be, is he really a leader who can make a difference, harness Russia to that destiny? 00.03.34 Bridget Kendall In fact Vladimir Putin seems to have spent his early years making himself unnoticeable. He grew up in St Petersburg or Leningrad as it was called then. A city of western influences but also imperial echoes. 00.03.55 Bridget Kendall On every corner relics of past grandeur bear down on you. 00.03.59 Music 00.04.02 Bridget Kendall But even today, behind the imposing facades, the squalor of the courtyards is indescribable. 00.04.09 Bridget Kendall Putin was brought up in a crowded communal flat. 00.04.13 Bridget Kendall Millions of Russians still live like this. One kitchen and one filthy bathroom for twenty-five people. 00.04.21 Music 00.04.30 Bridget Kendall He even recalls in his autobiography how as a boy he had to fight rats on his staircase. 00.04.36 Music 00.04.40 Actor's voice Voice over Once I spotted a huge rat and pursued it down the hall until I drove it into a corner. Suddenly it lashed out and threw itself at me. It jumped down the landing and down the stairs. 00.04.57 Bridget Kendall As for those who knew him, everyone we met remembered him as clever but self-contained, not someone to put himself forward. 00.05.10 Bridget Kendall Sergei Kudrov was in his class at school. Now he runs a do-it-yourself shop that sells paints and kitchen taps. 00.05.18 Bridget Kendall He remembers Putin stealing a dance with his fiancée at a school disco. But mostly he says Putin tried to avoid attention. 00.05.30 Aston SERGEI KUDROV Classmate Voice over He was never the centre of attention. He preferred to influence events from a distance, a sort of 'grey cardinal' as the saying goes. So different from Boris Yeltsin. Remember how he climbed on a tank and gestured for everyone to follow him. You just couldn't imagine Putin doing that. He's an introvert; a man of deeds not words. 00.06.04 Bridget Kendall No wonder he developed a romantic desire to become a KGB agent and serve his country incognito. Just the thing for someone who liked to avoid the limelight. 00.06.16 Music 00.06.18 Aston "The Sword and the Shield" 00.06.21 Bridget Kendall By his own admission it was this 1960's Soviet spy film that did it. About a Russian double agent in wartime Germany. 00.06.30 Music 00.06.32 Bridget Kendall Stealing documents to sabotage Nazi operations, all the time posing as a chauffeur. 00.06.38 Music 00.06.44 Bridget Kendall Not unusual to dream of becoming the Soviet equivalent of James Bond. 00.06.52 Gunfire 00.06.55 Bridget Kendall More telling is that Putin never veered from that ambition, right through university and KGB training. 00.07.05 Bridget Kendall Till in 1985 he ended up in Dresden - just like his hero, working as a Soviet spy undercover in Germany. 00.07.14 Bridget Kendall Except this was hardly a glamorous assignment. Provincial Dresden was in East Germany, far removed from the NATO enemy. 00.07.22 Bridget Kendall And what could sound duller than his cover job as Deputy Director of the House of German Soviet Friendship? 00.07.31 Bridget Kendall But he did recruit agents, among them Klaus Zuchold. Now working in commercial security he was then a lieutenant in the East German secret police, the so-called Stasi. 00.07.47 Aston KLAUS ZUCHOLD Former Stasi Agent Voice over Vladimir Putin tried to entice me into secret intelligence work with small tasks. We would meet every other week, usually at his flat. Maybe sometimes on the street. Or we might meet in my garden. 00.08.07 Bridget Kendall He remembers Putin in Dresden as a devoted patriot, a model of self-control and almost Germanic discipline. 00.08.19 Klaus Zuchold Voice over He was very good at conversation. He'd perfected the art in an hour long conversation of letting the other person contribute maybe eighty percent of the information while he added only twenty percent. Vladimir Putin was a very good poker player. He was an outstanding spy. 00.08.41 Bridget Kendall Not everyone agrees he did well in the KGB. Dresden was a backwater of intelligence according to one of his former bosses - hardly a good career move. 00.08.52 Aston OLEG KALUGIN Ex-Chief of Soviet Counter-Intelligence Any assignment to Eastern Europe, East Germany including, was a sign of someone's failing or lack of abilities which would provide for him an opportunity to travel westwards. His record in the KGB is zero, he is a non-entity in the KGB. 00.09.15 Bridget Kendall Certainly once Putin's intelligence skills failed him. The Soviet retreat from Eastern Europe. 00.09.23 Bridget Kendall As the Berlin Wall fell he was in Dresden hurriedly burning so many secret papers the furnace blew up. His East German network was dismantled. He told Klaus Zuchold to lie low. 00.09.40 Klaus Zuchold Voice over He was surprised by the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union. His idea was that the KGB would act as a model for Perestroika, something like democratic socialism with a socialist market economy. He never gave up on socialism, nor on the Soviet Union as a superpower. 00.10.06 Bridget Kendall Putin himself admitted he was shocked by the collapse of the Soviet Empire. But, like any trained spy, he was adaptable. 00.10.15 Bridget Kendall On returning to St Petersburg he went to work for the new mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, a leading reformer. 00.10.24 Bridget Kendall Except Putin hadn't really switched sides. He was still on the KGB payroll. He only finally broke his ties during the 1991 coup attempt. 00.10.36 Music 00.10.37 Bridget Kendall He now had the reformist credentials for a political career in Moscow. He joined Yeltsin's Kremlin, recommended as bright, decent and ironically a democrat. 00.10.49 Music 00.10.56 Bridget Kendall But how was such a shadowy figure to become first Prime Minister and then Russia's new President? 00.11.03 Music 00.11.06 Bridget Kendall A man seemingly plucked from nowhere. 00.11.10 Music 00.11.17 Bridget Kendall In 1999 Boris Yeltsin's presidency was in trouble. A loyal heir was urgently needed; a new election was looming. So was the threat of prosecution. The President was facing mounting corruption charges. 00.11.31 Music 00.11.33 Bridget Kendall Boris Yeltsin was ailing and unpopular. 00.11.43 Bridget Kendall Among those closely involved was Gleb Pavlovsky, the Kremlin spin-doctor. He says public opinion had never been monitored so closely. They had to find a winning candidate. 00.11.58 Aston GLEB PAVLOVSKY Putin's Campaign Manager Voice over We all realised that in the coming election Yeltsin's candidate had to win. And that was a paradox because Yeltsin's recommendation was probably the worst thing anyone could have. 00.12.17 Bridget Kendall Outside the Kremlin Putin had no public profile to speak of. True, by now he'd been promoted to head of the FSB, the KGB's successor. But he was seen as a bureaucrat, a loyal and efficient servant, hardly a budding world leader. 00.12.40 Bridget Kendall Both he and his colleagues were stunned when he was picked out by Yeltsin. 00.12.45 Anatoly Chubais He was himself not known at all at the moment he was appointed Prime Minister, which was to my mind very risky, very risky. 00.12.56 Aston ANATOLY CHUBAIS Former Privatisation Minister Putin was the first whom I told it and he himself was agreed. So the funny thing is that he was not the one who, who dreaming about finally getting this post. It was not his approach, you know, he was not happy about it and he did not try to find this position by all means, absolutely, absolutely, 00.13.24 Bridget Kendall In August 1999 a group of Chechen rebels invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan. 00.13.32 Bridget Kendall It was Putin's chance to show his inner steel. 00.13.39 Bridget Kendall Russia's security chiefs claimed the lawless Chechens were planning a pan-Islamic state along the length of Russia's southern border with the Caucasus. 00.13.48 Explosion 00.13.52 Bridget Kendall Putin didn't hesitate. 00.13.59 Vladimir Putin Subtitles Russia must defend itself. They attacked us. We must shake off all our past complexes, including our guilt complex. There's no reason to feel guilty. 00.14.16 Music 00.14.20 Bridget Kendall No wonder he sounded angry. A shocking series of explosions had ripped through tower blocks in Moscow and other cities. Hundreds of people were killed as they slept in their beds. 00.14.31 Music 00.14.33 Bridget Kendall No one claimed responsibility but Putin blamed Chechnya. He warned Russia would show no mercy. 00.14.40 Bridget Kendall His aides were against it. They feared, like Yeltsin before him, he'd be blamed for a war that was un-winable. 00.14.46 Music 00.14.49 Aston GLEB PAVLOVSKY Putin's Campaign Manager Voice over We thought it was an enormous risk and he must try to distance himself. This was an unexpected and absolutely unpredictable thing to do. For Putin it was a huge gamble. 00.15.05 Bridget Kendall The advisors miscalculated. Putin was an instant hero. 00.15.11 Bridget Kendall The cost was terrible; thousands killed, Chechnya all but obliterated. But he was in tune with a humiliated nation. 00.15.20 Explosion 00.15.22 Bridget Kendall Some were uneasy. Rumours circulated that the bombs in Moscow and elsewhere were a plot. 00.15.32 Bridget Kendall Perhaps planted deliberately by the KGB to boost Putin's popularity. The Kremlin denied it. 00.15.43 Aston LILIA SHEVTSOVA Moscow Carnegie Center To what extent the Kremlin team participated in all this or prepared these explosions, we don't have any kind of information and my hunch is we'll never know. But for the first time in Russian and Soviet history the leader raced to power on the wave of war. 00.16.07 Bridget Kendall Chechnya made Putin unassailable. 00.16.11 Bridget Kendall On New Year's Eve Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly announced he was resigning. 00.16.21 Bridget Kendall His last gesture was to give Putin his presidential pen. 00.16.28 Bridget Kendall Putin's first act was to sign a decree giving Yeltsin immunity from prosecution. 00.16.35 Music 00.16.39 Bridget Kendall Only then did he set about getting elected. His wife and daughters were kept away from the cameras but forty-seven year old Putin was the campaign star. Promoted as Yeltsin's opposite - a man of action. 00.16.52 Music 00.17.08 Gleb Pavlovsky Voice over Most of all people liked it when he was spontaneous. These weren't publicity stunts. He simply went about his business and we showed what he did. 00.17.17 Music 00.17.25 Aston GLEB PAVLOVSKY Putin's Campaign Manager Voice over We built up a vast system to monitor public reaction to him round the clock. We were sure that Putin was going to win. 00.17.42 Bridget Kendall No other candidate could match the Kremlin machine. 00.17.47 Bridget Kendall He'd won a competitive election. But the inauguration felt more like a coronation. 00.17.53 Music 00.18.00 Lilia Shevtsova This is an appointed monarchy. The successor was appointed and we, ordinary people, were also appointed to be his electorate. 00.18.11 Aston LILIA SHEVTSOVA Moscow Carnegie Center Mr Putin was Mr Nobody, he had no political biography, no political past, no political inclinations and ambitions and he wasn't tied to any political group. And he was perceived, at least by major part of the society, as the person who would close Yeltsin's chapter. The chapter that was connected with degradation of power. 00.18.34 Music 00.18.37 Bridget Kendall NTV is a rarity in Russia - an independent television channel. 00.18.43 Bridget Kendall The only national news to dare question the war in Chechnya. 00.18.47 Music 00.18.50 Bridget Kendall For Putin, determined to strengthen the Kremlin's ebbing authority, such criticism was a betrayal. 00.18.56 Music 00.19.02 Bridget Kendall Yevgeny Kiselyov, general director and star presenter, was in the direct line of fire. 00.19.13 Bridget Kendall Pressure on NTV's parent company, Media Most, had in fact begun earlier. 00.19.20 Aston YEVGENY KISELYOV General Director, NTV A year before Mr Putin's election, managers and editors of Media Most were invited to a number of meetings with top Kremlin officials and they made it clear that either we support the candidate that the Kremlin was going to choose or we have trouble. So we took a decision that we're not going to side up to the Kremlin. 00.19.51 Bridget Kendall Such defiance left Kiselyov and his NTV colleagues vulnerable. The free for all after Communist rule collapsed had been chaotic. 00.20.07 Bridget Kendall Now everyone was a potential target of Putin's dictatorship of law as he called his corruption crackdown and NTV more than most. 00.20.19 Bridget Kendall The Channel's owner was one of those accused of exploiting Russia's reforms to amass a personal fortune - Vladimir Gusinsky. 00.20.29 Aston ALEXEI ARBATOV Opposition MP Gusinsky has not been violating law more than other high oligarchs or tycoons. He was doing like everybody but he proved to be politically un-loyal and so he is going to suffer. 00.20.47 Bridget Kendall An armed raid on NTV's offices was the first sign of trouble. Gusinsky fled into exile and was arrested in Spain on fraud charges. In Moscow NTV presenters were interrogated. 00.21.01 Bridget Kendall Putin insisted the prosecutor's office was just enforcing the law but it felt like political intimidation. Maybe not a full-scale clampdown on descent but something more subtle - manageable democracy. 00.21.15 Alexei Arbatov For him manageable democracy envisions manageable mass media. He is willing to establish clear boundaries within which mass media has freedom and beyond which it should pass only at high risk to its independence, its well being and functioning. That's the signal he is sending. 00.21.46 Bridget Kendall What depressed NTV's journalists was the reaction of ordinary people. Many welcomed Putin's scapegoating of oligarchs. 00.21.56 Bridget Kendall The crash of the rouble three years ago plunged millions into poverty. Political and economic reform had lost its lustre. 00.22.09 Yevgeny Kiselyov The people are interested in getting their wages paid in time; their pensions paid in time. They want hot water running. They want electricity back into their homes. Many of them are disillusioned in democratic values, don't care about freedom of speech, freedom of press, many other freedoms. 00.22.36 Bridget Kendall And that's even more true if you go into the provinces. 00.22.38 Music 00.22.46 Bridget Kendall Playing the accordion isn't the only talent of Leonid Panov. His ambition is to run a theme park. 00.22.53 Bridget Kendall Instead the run down village of Izborsk and its medieval castle rarely see a tourist. 00.23.01 Bridget Kendall So when President Putin turned up here last summer he was treated like royalty. Hidden away on Russia's border with Estonia, Izborsk was suddenly the centre of attention. 00.23.12 Music 00.23.22 Bridget Kendall Now each step of Putin's route is lovingly retraced for visitors. 00.23.30 Bridget Kendall The point he stopped to look at the view. 00.23.37 Bridget Kendall His pause at the local wishing tree. 00.23.48 Aston LEONID PANOV Director, Izborsk Museum Voice over The President came up and stood here for a good half a minute. I could see the President was lost in thought. Then he made a wish and I'm sure it will come true. 00.24.03 Bridget Kendall A secret wish, of course, but everything else is documented for posterity. The spot he bought a gherkin from a village girl. The path to the sacred spring where he refreshed himself. 00.24.23 Leonid Panov Voice over This spring gives you energy. You must definitely drink the water. The President took off his jacket. He walked up to the spring. He scooped up some water. He washed his face. Then he dried his hands and face on a towel. He took back his jacket and off we went. 00.24.53 Bridget Kendall Ask about politics here and there's little enthusiasm for private enterprise. Life is hard - everyone worries about unemployment. Even the entrepreneurial Mr Panov is nostalgic. 00.25.09 Leonid Panov Voice over I think we should perhaps reverse the process of privatisation. The state should own the nation's strategic resources then everything would be totally different. 00.25.24 Bridget Kendall And Putin's KGB past is even a bonus - proof he's equipped to fight sabotage from oligarchs and other enemies. 00.25.35 Leonid Panov Voice over People believe that Russia can get better and they think he's leading us towards a better life. We believe in our President. 00.25.44 Music 00.25.57 Bridget Kendall Back in Moscow, a new type of businessman also accepts Putin's need to be tough to bring order to Russia's economy. 00.26.06 Bridget Kendall Peter and Kirill are on a mission. Western educated, top of their class at prestigious US universities, they've left high-flying careers on Wall Street to come back and start a business in Russia. 00.26.20 Aston PETER PANOV IBS Business Systems I believe that the country needed new blood, young blood and the country got young blood right now. I think that you need to clear the mess before you build something on top of it. 00.26.36 Bridget Kendall The fact these two have chosen to come home to invest in Russia is a hugely positive sign for the President. 00.26.45 Aston KIRILL DMITRIEV IBS Business Systems Putin has such a tremendous opportunity right now and that is comparable to Alexander the Great or Caesar or Stalin and I hope very sincerely that he would recognise and that he recognises that opportunity and he will do the right thing. 00.27.03 Bridget Kendall They've even created a web site to encourage other Russians to return. 00.27.08 Bridget Kendall But Putin can't take them for granted. The last time émigrés flocked back to Russia seventy years ago, Peter's grandfather was killed in Stalin's purges. 00.27.21 Kirill Dmitriev We would not stay in this country if this country becomes a police state where our conversations are being listened to; we do not have access to free television and free information and when there are no good laws and no business practices. So the fact that we are here indicates we believe that is not going to happen and that's again a test for Mr Putin. 00.27.43 Band Music 00.27.46 Bridget Kendall So what is Putin's vision for Russia? Is he taking the country backward or forward? 00.27.54 Bridget Kendall Not long after his inauguration he presided over a Red Square parade - the fifty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. 00.28.02 Band Music 00.28.06 Bridget Kendall The massive military display astonished Moscow. It was like being back in the Soviet Union. 00.28.14 Bridget Kendall And Putin's speech was an unapologetic celebration of Soviet victories. 00.28.18 Band Music 00.28.23 Vladimir Putin Subtitles We defended our great Soviet motherland... and kept our independence. We are used to winning. It is in our blood. It is not just the way to win wars. In peacetime it will also help us. Hurrah! 00.28.56 Bridget Kendall Words of enormous resonance for a nation whose international prestige had plummeted. 00.29.05 Aston LILIA SHEVTSOV Moscow Carnegie Center Putin is using in his interest this nostalgia over the Soviet past because probably he believes that with Soviet means he would create a new Russia. But we have as a result Russia stuck between the floors, between past and future, without possibility to get out. 00.29.23 Music 00.29.25 Bridget Kendall Soviet statues still stand abandoned. 00.29.29 Music 00.29.32 Bridget Kendall But the KGB is back in the heart of government. 00.29.35 Music 00.29.38 Bridget Kendall Five of the seven super-governors who oversee Russia's unruly regional leaders are military or security men. 00.29.46 Music 00.29.48 Bridget Kendall The KGB now even runs Chechnya. 00.29.51 Music 00.29.56 Aston OLEG KALUGIN Ex-Chief of Soviet Counter-intelligence What he has been doing since he became the President, he has been trying hard to restore the image, the respectability and the power of the old organisation. His nostalgia for the old KGB is obvious. 00.30.11 Naval Cadets 00.30.20 Bridget Kendall Obedience and patriotism seem to be what the KGB means to Putin. Just the qualities being instilled in the boys here at the Nakhimov (phon) Naval Cadet School. 00.30.34 Bridget Kendall Values Putin wants extended to all Russian school children. He's reintroduced compulsory military training. 00.30.42 Bridget Kendall The aim: to erase the entire last eighty years and end Russia's century of turbulence. 00.30.57 Aston GLEB PAVLOVSKY Putin's Campaign Manager Voice over Putin thinks we are ending not the decade but the whole period that started in 1917. He sees no essential difference between the last decade and the previous seventy years - it's all part of one revolution. 00.31.16 Bridget Kendall Discipline and order instead of constant revolution. 00.31.20 Bridget Kendall The goal is greater prosperity. 00.31.24 Bridget Kendall But it's only ten years since totalitarian rule was toppled. Some told us they already feel more afraid. 00.31.32 Bridget Kendall Which is why when Putin reshuffled Russia's official symbols, instead of uniting the country it caused uproar. 00.31.41 Band Music 00.31.45 Bridget Kendall He kept the white, blue and red Russian flag and the Tsarist double headed eagle. But in place of Yeltsin's anthem he restored the old music of the Soviet Union. 00.31.56 Band Music 00.31.58 Bridget Kendall In parliament delighted Communists stood to attention. But others were appalled. 00.32.04 Band Music 00.32.08 Aston ANATOLY CHUBAIS Former Privatisation Minister I don't want it. I don't want it at all. I hate all these things. I spent all my life stopping it, that's the only goal of my life. And I succeed. There is no Communist president in Russia and there will be no Communist president of Russia. But suddenly I see; 'well OK, let's sing this song'. 00.32.33 Band Music 00.32.39 Anatoly Chubais It's absolutely crazy; it's absolutely crazy for me. And not only for me, I am not the only one in the country. 00.32.49 Bridget Kendall Actually the small protest rally we found in St Petersburg was greeted by indifference or even amusement by shoppers. 00.32.59 Bridget Kendall Once again Putin was in tune with the majority. Intellectuals and ex-political prisoners, who disapproved, he could simply ignore. 00.33.11 Bridget Kendall But from the safe haven of exile, one estranged ally thinks what Putin is doing is dangerous. 00.33.20 Bridget Kendall We tracked down Boris Berezovsky in London. Once Russia's most notorious oligarch, a king-maker who helped fund Putin's rise to power, he then fell out with him. He used to think Putin would preserve Russian democracy. Now he's not so sure. 00.33.39 Aston BORIS BEREZOVSKY I think that he's sincere. And it's the most tragic point. He's not as independent as I thought, he's under pressure of, under power of other people because he's really weak, he's weak. 00.34.02 Boris Berezovsky Putin follows majority. It's a big mistake. He need to follow minority, those people who realise what means freedom. And Putin think that not. We discuss with him about that and he said; 'Boris, Russia is not prepared to democracy, we need to push Russia to democracy'. 00.34.25 Boris Berezovsky First of all we create the economy which will be effective and then we allow people to be independent. It doesn't work, it doesn't work. He lost the support of intellectual part of society. 00.34.39 Aston ANATOLY CHUBAIS Former Privatisation Minister He will need these people much more than the millions of others. The support of these people could become absolutely crucial. Now he undermined the trust of these people to himself. That's why I think that he made a very big historical mistake. 00.34.57 Bridget Kendall Last August for the first time Putin lost the support of the majority. 00.35.03 Bridget Kendall The Kursk was the pride of the Russian Fleet. So when an unexplained explosion ripped through its nose, it was a blow to Russian naval pride as well as a terrible tragedy. 00.35.14 Music 00.35.17 Bridget Kendall Below the surface of the icy Barents Sea, the water poured in, the massive nuclear submarine sank to the bottom. 00.35.26 Bridget Kendall Trapped inside, possibly still alive, were a hundred and eighteen submariners. Among them Dmitri Kolesnikova. He was only three months married. 00.35.42 Bridget Kendall Yet from the start the authorities gave his wife no information. It was as though the families didn't matter. 00.35.49 Music 00.36.00 Aston OLGA KOLESNIKOVA Voice over I am convinced that the governmental commission and the navy know what happened. But will we ever learn the truth? I don't think so. Because from the start there were tricks and lies. 00.36.31 Bridget Kendall The rescue mission should have been a race against time. 00.36.36 Bridget Kendall Instead it looked like a bungled disaster. It took days for foreign help to be grudgingly accepted. 00.36.44 Bridget Kendall Meanwhile as the full horror unfolded, Putin inexplicably kept his distance, continuing his summer vacation at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. 00.36.54 Bridget Kendall It was behaviour typical of a Soviet leader, not a Russian President. 00.36.58 Music 00.37.07 Olga Kolesnikova Voice over Our President made a big mistake. He should have been out at sea supervising the rescue operation. And he should have come straight away to give moral support to us relatives and loved ones. That's what we were all expecting. 00.37.38 Bridget Kendall When finally he did fly north, his meeting with furious relatives was a public relations disaster. They felt what he said was inappropriate. 00.37.53 Olga Kolesnikova Voice over I was waiting for words of condolence and sympathy. What we got was talk about the compensation we'd be paid. It was disgusting, painful. 00.38.10 Music 00.38.14 Bridget Kendall None of the crew survived. It was weeks before Dmitri's body was retrieved so he could be buried. 00.38.21 Bridget Kendall A needless sacrifice and a stark reminder that behind the vague boasts about making Russia great again was a country collapsing under the weight of its crumbling infrastructure. 00.38.35 Bridget Kendall Found on Dmitri's body was a note he'd scribbled in the dark for Olga. 'There are twenty three men left', he wrote, 'none of us can reach the surface'. 00.38.51 Olga Kolesnikova Voice over Dmitri's body had been burnt. Only his legs were left unharmed. Everything above the hip was gone. I saw only bones and decomposing tissue. 00.39.12 Bridget Kendall The Kursk episode was a turning point. Ordinary Russians had hoped this Kremlin leader cared about their fate. But faced with a national crisis he seemed aloof and indifferent. 00.39.24 Aston LILIA SHEVTSOVA Moscow Carnegie Center For the first time population saw Putin as a naked king. In moment of truth, in moment of crisis, he appeared to be absolutely unable to deal with the situation and it shocked the people. He was absolutely insensitive to grief. 00.39.56 Lilia Shevtsova Putin couldn't understand that it was his time, his time to become a leader and he missed this opportunity. 00.40.07 Bridget Kendall A year since he emerged as leader, Putin's honeymoon is over. 00.40.13 Bridget Kendall The creators of this puppet show on NTV say it's more scathing of him than it ever was of Yeltsin. 00.40.21 Bridget Kendall His ratings are still high but the show's satire is blacker. The joke here is that all Putin's actions seem aimed at making himself more powerful, perhaps to become a permanent President. 00.40.37 Putin puppet Subtitles Boris Nikolayevitch, I want to ask you officially... to become my father. 00.40.44 Yeltsin puppet Subtitle What's the point? 00.40.49 Putin puppet Subtitles The law only gives immunity to ex-Presidents. I am the current one. 00.40.55 Yeltsin puppet Subtitle So what? You too will be an ex-President one day. 00.40.59 Putin puppet Subtitles But who knows when that will be? Besides, I will never step down. 00.41.08 Bridget Kendall By all accounts the show has seriously annoyed the President. Whether its independent spirit survives could be an important test of Putin's attitude to democracy. 00.41.21 Bridget Kendall NTV's Yevgeny Kiselyov thinks the role of the international community will be crucial. 00.41.29 Yevgeny Kiselyov He likes very much when he is invited to Windsor to have tea with Queen Elizabeth or to be part of informal meetings of the G8 heads of states and governments. 00.41.41 Aston YEVGENY KISELYOV General Director, NTV But maybe the leaders of the west will some day explain to Mr Putin that there are certain rules of the democratic world to abide and in the next few years the future of Russian democracy lies mainly without Russia, not within our country. 00.42.02 Bridget Kendall Maybe it's too soon to finish Putin's portrait. He's been President for less than a year. And though he's prone to denounce criticism as betrayal, he is quick to adapt to changing circumstances. 00.42.16 Aston OLEG KALUGIN Ex-Chief of Soviet Counter-intelligence He is not the finished product. And this is where I entertain hope that Mr Putin will prevail the nostalgia, prevail the prejudices and the mindset which shaped his character over the decades. 00.42.33 Bridget Kendall The problem is, if critics are sidelined or exiled, who will advise him? He shot to prominence from nowhere. His support could evaporate just as quickly given, say, another financial crisis. How would he react then? 00.42.49 Aston ANATOLY CHUBAIS Former Privatisation Minister The only way to minimise this risk is just not to keep silent when you disagree with Putin. Even with risk that tomorrow Putin will dislike it, the only way to prevent these huge fundamental risks is just to say what you think. That's the only way and fortunately we are able to do it. 00.43.13 Music 00.43.19 Bridget Kendall For the moment - but for how long? The outside world should be on its guard. What if relations between the superpower rivals were to ice over again? After all President Bush's missile defence plans have already brought a new chill. 00.43.35 Bridget Kendall Then Putin could withdraw into Kremlin isolation and Russia's old habit of authoritarian rule might reassert itself. 00.43.43 Music 00.43.44 Credits www.bbc.co.uk/correspondent Reporter BRIDGET KENDALL Camera CHRISTOPHER WOOD Dubbing Mixer CLIFF JONES VT Editor JASPAL BANGA Graphic Design NICOLA OWEN Production Team ASTRA CURZON RACHALE DAVIES MARTHA ESTCOURT Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager IRENE OZGA Film Research NICK DODD Research ARMINEH CARTLAND-STUART JO DUTTON Picture Editor ROBERT MOORE Produced & Directed by EWA EWART Series Producer FARAH DURRANI 00.44.06 Editor FIONA MURCH BBC (c) BBC MMI 00.44.10 End BBC Correspondent 1 2