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How Putin Came to Power

by Tania Rakhmanova
First Run/Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY, 2005
52 min., color
Sales: VHS, $100; DVD, $390
Distributor’s website:  http://www.frif.com.

Reviewed by Fred Andersson
Kämnärsvägen 7J: 238
226 46 Lund
Sweden

konstfred@yahoo.com

Before 1999, most people would have laughed at the possibility that a rather unknown bureaucrat, Vladimir Putin, would become the next president of Russia. When he was formally elected, just a few month after Yeltsin's resignation at the turn of the year 1999/2000, it was obvious to every independent commentator that this strange development depended on a series of very clever moves on behalf of the so called “family” around Yeltsin. In this film, Tania Rakhmanova uncovers the motives behind the moves and introduces us to a number of key actors and eyewitnesses – many of whom are interviewed in the film.

It's well known that Putin was once a KGB officer. After the downfall of the Empire, he worked for a couple of years in the rapidly growing political PR-business, but he soon managed to get back to the secret police, now reformed and renamed as “FSB”. It was a clear sign of Putin's talents as a public charmer and opportunist that he rapidly managed to become the head of his former employer, i.e. of the FSB. And in that function he was the one that helped Yeltsin and his “family” to get rid of the general attorney Yuri Skuratov. This was done in order to stop further investigation into the massive corruption scandal that is now known as the Mabitex affair.

However, the individual that for the moment represented the most dangerous threat against the new bourgeoisie and its ruthless embezzlement of public property wasn't Skuratov but the Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. Following the initial idea of the businessman Boris Berezhovsky, the “family” created a new party, called Unity (Yedinstvo) in order to prevent Primakov from becoming president and to promote another candidate. Of course, Putin became this very candidate. As the campaign-leader Ksenia Ponomareva tells us in Rakhmanova's film, the Unity party seemed to have no ideology and no program whatsoever except of promoting Putin. And she continues: “Our problem wasn't only that we supported Putin, but that we actually created him!”

Primakov was sacked in May 1999 and replaced first by the interim solution Stepashin, then by Putin (in August). When Yeltsin suddenly resigned, turning his resignation into a spectacular Third Millenium surprise, Putin automatically replaced him in the interim period. In this fortunate position, free to do whatever propaganda tricks he wanted, he easily won the March 2000 election with a final support of 52 % against the weakened and scattered opposition. Rakhmanova's film explains how this could happen and makes good use of the personal narratives of such central actors as Berezhovsky. But above all, she shows the absolutely vital importance of media manipulation for the career of this “TV president”.