Putin Russia and the West bbc 2

Putin, Russia and the West BBC 2. This is a four- part documentary by Norma Percy and it is one of the kind of things that BBC does so well despite having only one quarter of the budget of Sky. And it is difficult to see a Murdoch empire despite the growing money difference having the clout to get big hitters such as Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice and their Russian counterparts talking about the relationship between Putin’s Russia and the West, by which we mean, of course, America. Outstanding archive material catalogued the war in Chechnya and Putin’s battles with the fossil fuel oligarch’s that controlled large swathes of pre-Putin Russia. It shows Putin’s tentative relationship with Bush prior to and after 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iran. Compelling. I won’t miss any of the next three episodes. This is a 20K page history book broken up into standard storylines of kings, kingmakers and subjects. It’s brilliant. But, of course, the oligarchs in Russia and America, didn’t fade away.