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'Citizen K:' Film Review
The Hollywood Reporter ^ | 2019

Posted on 11/30/2019 5:12:54 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

Alex Gibney traces the rise and fall of dissident exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in this scalding portrait of Putin's Russia.

With typically zealous journalistic diligence, prolific nonfiction filmmaker Alex Gibney digs into the curious case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Citizen K, providing a lucidly accessible account of post-Soviet Russia's lurching transition out of Communism into a free-market economy that became a Wild West of gangster capitalism. The short hop from there to the faux democracy of Vladimir Putin, with his flimsy "election theater" and his 18-year stranglehold on the Kremlin, is a chilling cautionary tale.

Khodorkovsky is a charismatic subject with a still-mischievous twinkle in his eye even after serving 10 years in a Siberian prison, making him a marvelously ambiguous antihero for documentary treatment. At one time believed to be the richest man in Russia, he was a product of the chaos that took hold in the wake of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost era, when Boris Yeltsin's presidency would create the opportunity for a mere seven avaricious businessmen to monopolize 50 percent of the national economy...

(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: film; hollywood; moviereview; oligarchs; putin; russia
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1 posted on 11/30/2019 5:12:54 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

2 posted on 11/30/2019 5:15:18 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

3 posted on 11/30/2019 5:26:28 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Me doth thinks Hollywood projects too much!


4 posted on 11/30/2019 5:43:16 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
lucidly accessible account of post-Soviet Russia's lurching transition out of Communism into a free-market economy that became a Wild West of gangster capitalism. The short hop from there to the faux democracy of Vladimir Putin, with his flimsy "election theater" and his 18-year stranglehold on the Kremlin, is a chilling cautionary tale.

The CLINTONS and their cabal caused the gangster capitalism and the subsequent rise of Putin. But I bet the "documentary" won't dare mention that

5 posted on 11/30/2019 5:46:57 PM PST by montag813
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To: montag813
The CLINTONS and their cabal caused the gangster capitalism and the subsequent rise of Putin. But I bet the "documentary" won't dare mention that

Truth!

6 posted on 11/30/2019 6:14:55 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: montag813

Khodorkovsky is also buddy-buddy with George Soros...shame.


7 posted on 11/30/2019 6:19:53 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

“With typically zealous journalistic diligence”

Howls, Bruce. Howls of derisive laughter.


8 posted on 11/30/2019 7:32:40 PM PST by dsc (Our system of government cannot survive one-party control of communications.)
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To: montag813

“” “” lucidly accessible account of post-Soviet Russia’s lurching transition out of Communism into a free-market economy that became a Wild West of gangster capitalism. “” “”

I don’t know why do they call it capitalism. Clinton-backed Yeltsinism was about declaring old Communists Democrats and sharing all the national wealth of USSR worth $2,5 trillion between their kids.

Khodorkovsky is a prime example of such wonder boy.
A guy with STEM education and no training in how business works and turned into a billionaire in 27 years.
There are more brazen example of 19 y.o. becoming the founders and CEOs of major banks and automakers.

That is anything but business and capitalism.

When Putin started to get rid of these pukes most of them moved to the West and I am yet to see any of them getting any successful in any real business. Most are the very definition of failure.


9 posted on 11/30/2019 9:28:35 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: NorseViking

That’s the truth....


10 posted on 11/30/2019 9:33:24 PM PST by caww
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To: NorseViking

That’s the truth....


11 posted on 11/30/2019 9:33:25 PM PST by caww
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To: BradyLS
Here's Khodorkovsky speaking at the Atlantic Council in 2015... of all places!

He hates Putin as much as the Denorats hate Trump! Putin kicked him out and froze his assests....He still dreams of being Presidnt of Russia....


12 posted on 11/30/2019 9:53:20 PM PST by caww
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To: NorseViking
According to the documentary (which I saw today) M.Khod started one of the first “banks” in Russia after reading a book 📚 about banking.

(?)

13 posted on 11/30/2019 10:34:52 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: caww

I watched the documentary in theater today. It puts forward the idea that, while Russians do not see Khodorkovsky as someone with a political future that 1) his decade in jail and 2) the entrenched corruption of the new wave of oligarchs established by Putin — have softened people’s views on Khodorkovsky.

But they’d never vote for him or anything like that.


14 posted on 11/30/2019 10:38:52 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Comparing ‘entrenched corruption’ of new wave to that of Khodorkovsky is silly. Khodorkovsky and company were exponentially more corrupt.
Another point is that 90% of Yeltsin-era oligarchs are still in business after adopting to the rile of law.
Modern ‘oligarchs’ are mostly businessmen in a true sense of this word.


15 posted on 11/30/2019 10:56:55 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

He’s just another banished Oligarch.....and the only reason any Russian would ‘soften their view’ of Khodorkovsky is because Putin pardoned him from jail on 20 December 2013 before serving his full jail time.


16 posted on 11/30/2019 11:01:46 PM PST by caww
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To: caww

Putin pardoned several high-profile prisoners in 2013 as a publicity stunt to win the good graces of Western leaders he invited to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.


17 posted on 11/30/2019 11:06:11 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: caww

Putin pardoned several high-profile prisoners in 2013 as a publicity stunt to win the good graces of Western leaders he invited to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

* To add it was also to alleviate the domestic fallout from the protests against him that had dominated headlines earlier in the year when hundreds of thousands of protests took the streets upon his return to power to replace Dmitry Medvedev after taking a ‘break.’

The Sochi plus Crimea grab later on were ploys to revamp his relationship to the public.


18 posted on 11/30/2019 11:09:36 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: NorseViking

Yup people vote for Putin because they feel any alternative would be much worse. They’re stuck.


19 posted on 11/30/2019 11:11:00 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I’d say if not for the Clintons’ war on Putin he could have been voted out a couple elections ago. He is universally viewed as a protector from Western corruption. Ukraine makes a perfect example why Putin is better than any of ‘free trade’ ‘anti-corruption’ activists the West is peddling for replacement.


20 posted on 11/30/2019 11:16:24 PM PST by NorseViking
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