The President speaks

The documentary film “President”, shown on Sunday on the Rossiya 1 TV channel, was not made for any one target audience. At first glance, another complimentary film in honor of another anniversary event actually contains many messages, or, as they say among political strategists, “messages.”

“The documentary “The President” focuses on Vladimir Putin’s tenure as president from 2000 to this year and portrays the Russian leader as a defender of the country who managed to save Russia from collapse by cracking down on oligarchs, subduing Islamist extremists and eradicating corruption,” - says a short article from the American business newspaper The Wall Street Journal.

Indeed, the plot of the story is quite simple: ministers, businessmen, employees of the administration of the head of state, some participants in the events and the president himself comment on events ranging from the invasion of Chechen militants in Dagestan and ending with the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass. The war in Chechnya, the freezing Far East, economic growth, distribution of debts to foreign states and banks, resolving international issues, obtaining the right to host the Olympics in Sochi - the achievements of the first two terms are shown as complex, but indisputable and self-evident things.

Vladimir Putin is shown as a president who constantly communicates with citizens, tightly controls his subordinates, is aware of everything that is happening, and finds time for self-education - during his presidency he managed to learn to speak English fluently and, for example, to play the piano.

Not a single critical statement was broadcast. Even people who are seen in some criticism of the president and the current political situation, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and the head of Sberbank German Gref, speak about the activities of the head of state only in a positive way.

Despite the fact that Vladimir Solovyov interviewed Vladimir Putin for the film, the questions and answers take up only a small part of the film - much more often, the president’s associates who have worked with him for the last 15 years speak.

But portraying President Putin's 15-year reign in bright colors was clearly not the film's sole goal.

It is quite clearly shown that in the early 2000s Russia tried not to oppose itself to the Western world, but to become part of it. Moscow, along with Paris and Berlin, opposed the American operation in Iraq - but after the departure of Jacques Chirac and Hermann Schröder, this coalition fell apart.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, Putin offered his assistance to George W. Bush and, as a friendly sign, canceled the strategic forces exercises that were scheduled for September 12, 2001.

The celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg was shown as a real international event, which attracted dozens of heads of state - Russia was the center of attention in the positive sense of the word.

However, it later turned out that the idea of ​​cooperation with the West was impossible to implement. Western countries, says the main character of the film, actually do not want to see an equal partner in Russia; Moscow’s subordinate position is beneficial for them, which is unacceptable for the Russian people, and therefore for Vladimir Putin.

The President, in fact, shifts responsibility for the crisis that has broken out in relations between Russia and the West exclusively to Europe and the United States, which were not ready to cooperate on equal terms. The film shows that the discord began back in 2007, when the Russian president delivered the “Munich Speech” at the Munich Security Conference.

Thus, it is likely that the filmmakers expect that they will watch it in Western capitals and draw conclusions about how to be friends with Russia, if such an idea suddenly appears in the minds of politicians again.

Another possible target group is the so-called “swamp movement.” Alexey Kudrin, speaking with an interviewer, tried to defend the citizens who went to the demonstrations - according to him, these are representatives of the middle class who then, at the turn of 2011 and 2012, first took to the streets to defend their rights. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said that the demonstrators were those who were not satisfied with the choice of other Russians in favor of Vladimir Putin returning to the Kremlin. Nothing was said about election violations in Moscow, which became the reason for the first demonstrations.

At the end of the film, Vladimir Putin talks about how he, as president, is of course deprived of some simple pleasures, for example, he cannot go shopping or go to the theater, but he can do everything that depends on him for his country and his people. Perhaps these words are addressed to those who dream of becoming president today - Putin shows that it is not easy to get pleasure from such work.