Putin: Prisoner of Power - Dasha Lisitsina, Russell Finch, Misha Glenny

Written by Dasha Lisitsina, Russell Finch, Misha Glenny
Format: MP3

Episode 1: Rise of the Oligarch
The seeds of Putin’s rise to power lie in a slightly unusual place: 1990’s Moscow where, after 70 years of communism, “gangster capitalism” arrived. Here we tell the story of how a young graduate student at The Institute of Controlled Sciences became one of the richest men in Russia and the Kremlin’s power broker - Boris Berezovsky.

Episode 2: Operation Successor
In 1998, a big financial crash hit Moscow. President Yeltsin’s popularity plummeted. Boris Berezovsky and Yeltsin’s family started the search for a successor. Why did they choose Putin and how did they mould Putin into a President the nation could get behind?

Episode 3: The President vs. The Power Broker
As soon as Putin became President, he started eliminating his immediate rivals. First, Putin went after the very man who helped anoint him — Boris Berezovsky. Along the way, he seized control of the TV stations.

Episode 4: The Octopus State
In his quest to consolidate power, Putin went head to head with the richest man in Russia — the Oil Tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The battle that followed would determine what was more important in Putin’s new Russia: power or money?

Episode 5: The New Nobility Faces a Crisis
When Putin came to the Presidency, he didn’t leave his KGB past entirely behind him. The secret services quickly became “the new nobility” of Russia. When the biggest terrorist attack in Russia happened - hundreds of children held hostage at a school — this new nobility was put to the test.

Episode 6: Little Green Men
In 2014, a revolution started in neighbouring Ukraine. Months later, Putin’s man in Ukraine, President Yanukovich, fled the country in the middle of the night. This left Putin with a power vacuum he desperately had to fill and put him in conflict with the West.

Episode 7: What next?
Misha Glenny talks to former Russia advisor to President Bill Clinton, Mark Meddish, about the country’s political future. Where has Putin’s long rule left Russia today? How long will Putin hold on to power? Can he find a successor?