Oliver Stone’s extensive interviews with Russian president Vladimir Putin are getting a television premiere.
Deadline reports that the cabler will debut The Putin Interviews, a four-hour interview special with Putin, over four consecutive nights starting Monday, June 12th at 9 pm. Stone, along with documentary producer Fernando Sulichin, interviewed Putin dozens of times over the course of two years on topics ranging from President Donald Trump and Russian meddling in the U.S. election, to Edward Snowden’s presence in Moscow.
“If Vladimir Putin is indeed the great enemy of the United States, then at least we should try to understand him,” Stone said.
The interviews with Putin were held in various locations throughout the Kremlin, Sochi, and Putin’s residence outside of Moscow. Throughout the interview Putin discusses NATO, personal relationships with former U.S. presidents, and “fostering turmoil in Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere” according to Showtime. In the four-hour series there is also a sequence in which Stone and Putin watch Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, a bizarre movie-watching experience to say the least.
Showtime is drawing comparisons between The Putin Interviews and David Frost’s The Nixon Interviews due to Putin’s relative seclusion from Western interviewers. The four-hour interview series is produced by Sulichin, New Element Media, and Rob Wilson.