Russian President Vladimir Putin tells Oliver Stone how he has escaped five assassination attempts as he admits that while Edward Snowden leaking confidential information was 'wrong' it does not make him a traitor in new documentary.
Putin is the subject of Stone's upcoming Showtime special called The Putin Interviews, which is set to air beginning June 12 over four consecutive nights.
Promoted as “the most detailed portrait of Putin ever granted to a Western interviewer”, The Putin Interviews spawned from several encounters over two years between Stone, director of politically oriented films including JFK and Nixon, and Putin.
In the extended clip released on June 1, Stone and Putin can be seen driving in a car with an English translator in the backseat, discussing topics such as Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing and Russian intelligence.
“As an ex-KGB agent, you must have hated what Snowden did with every fiber of your being,” Stone asks in the clip.
“Snowden is not a traitor,” Putin replies. “He did not betray the interests of his country. Nor did he transfer any information to any other country which would have been pernicious to his own country or to his own people. The only thing Snowden does, he does publicly.”
Stone, whose 2016 film Snowden detailed the rise and fall of the whistleblower, goes on to ask Putin about his own intelligence activities, and though the clip features no overt references to rumors of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, Stone can be seen asking Putin about hacking in the special’s official 30-second trailer.
“I think they’re working quite well,” Putin says of Russian intelligence. “Our intelligence services always conform to the law. That’s the first thing. And secondly, trying to spy on our allies if you really consider them allies and not vassals is just indecent. Because it undermines trust. And it means that in the end, it deals damage to your own national security.”
