Putin's Next Move

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Biography, History, Sociopolitical Documentary published by CBC broadcasted as part of CBC Our World series in 2007 - English narration

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This week we look at Russia's president Vladimir Putin and where he's taking
his powerful, contradictory, and often unknowable country. His Party swept
parliamentary elections.Now he can write his ticket to the future. But where
does Vladimir Putin want to take Russia? We hear from two veteran
correspondents. And...in order to put the Putin era in context, we discuss
the book KHRUSHCHEV: A MAN AND HIS ERA. Brian talks with the Pulitzer prize
winning historian, William Taubman about the man who tried to humanize the
Soviet system.

This past week, Russia held parliamentary elections. President Vladimir Putin's
Party, United Russia, won easily more than 60 percent of the votes despite
allegations by European observers of irregularities. This victory is important
because Putin, by law, has to step down from power in May after serving two
terms. His future is unclear and so his Party's majority now gives him lots of
new options. The West is now looking at Russia with increasing alarm, unsure
how to interpret Putin and his ambitions.That's why we turn to two Russia
hands here at the CBC: Don Murray, based in London and Alexandra Szacka in
Moscow.

Don Murray brings valuable perspective to the question of Putin, having
reported from Russia during the exciting years of Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
Alexandra Szacka is the CBC's new reporter in Moscow. She brings to her
assignment an exciting history. She lived in Communist Poland as a child.
Her grandfather was sent to Stalin's gulag in the 1930's. And her father went
to University in provincial Russia during the Khrushchev years. She has seen
the spectrum of Soviet history within her own family.We present first a short
excerpt from her report earlier this week on the Putin victory and then hear
her thoughts on what's ahead for Russia.

Vladimir Putin is among the last generation of Russian leaders raised under
the Soviet regime.He experienced, first hand, the communist system. And his
world view was shaped, partly, by having lived in a country closed off from
the rest of the world and which saw the West as an enemy. As a leader who
often cites history, he has looked at Russia's recent past --at the leadership
of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin--and has decided they made mistakes.
We know he's an advocate of a strong, nationalist Russia and wants to revive
its international influence.Every leader brings his own stamp to his era and
can shape history by the force of his personality. That's what historian
William Taubman believes. He won a Pulitzer prize a couple of years ago for
his insightful portrait of Nikita Khrushchev, who ran the Soviet Union in the
1960's, when Putin was a young.

Khrushchev is interesting because he represents a reformist strain in Russia.
His greatest achievement was denouncing Russia's authoritarian past and trying
to put a human face on Communism. He's credited with having paved the way for
Gorbachev and the reforms of the late 1980's.Brian met with Taubman recently
and we talked about the lessons of Khrushchev and what mark Vladimir Putin
may leave on his own era.