Frontline (1983–…): Season 35, Episode 19 - Putin's Revenge (I) - full transcript

♪

NARRATOR: Tonight…

There's this grievance that's
eating away at Vladimir Putin.

The FBI detected more attempts…

Russian hackers are behind
those attacks.

NARRATOR:
America in the cross-hairs.

This is the first time
they have gone out

and weaponized that information.

He's going to employ whatever
means he can to undermine

the United States.

NARRATOR:
Tonight on "Frontline,"



in a special two-part investigation,

the epic inside story
of "Putin's Revenge."

♪

We are now only
a few days away from electing

the next president
of the United States…

…turning its attention
back to the election…

…with the election just days away…

NARRATOR: Election Day 2016.

As Americans headed to the polls,

U.S. intelligence agencies
were on high alert.

…making the urgent push
to get out the vote.

Well, in the days
before the election,

there was constant interaction
between the experts

at CIA, FBI, and NSA.



We were monitoring and using
our collection capabilities

to understand what the Russians
might have up their sleeve

at the 11th hour.

Breaking news here:
Wikileaks is about to release

"significant material
tied to Hillary Clinton."

The campaign is doing damage
control tonight

after Wikileaks released…

NARRATOR: The intelligence
agencies had been tracking

a multi-pronged effort
to influence voters:

leaks of hacked emails;

ads on Facebook and Google;

on social media, trolls and bots
spreading fake news...

all, they believed,

connected to Russian President
Vladimir Putin.

This was the most aggressive
and most direct

and most assertive campaign

that the Russians ever mounted
in the history of our elections.

And what characterized this

were the variety and intensity
of the techniques

that they employed.

NARRATOR: Now they detected
what they call O.P.E...

operational preparation
of the environment.

The Russians will map
the architecture

and the environment of their targets.

NARRATOR: The target:
state electoral systems,

registration databases,
voter information.

I'll never forget one day,

John Brennan said to me,
"I'm going to come brief you."

Now, it was not often that
the CIA director,

by himself,
came to DHS to meet with me,

by myself, to share intelligence.

NARRATOR: Brennan had told
Johnson the cyber-intrusions,

traced to Russia,
could be the first step

in a plan to directly interfere
with voting.

The thing that immediately

has to come to you is,
"Hey, somebody might be trying

"to eliminate from the rolls
voters in key states,

"in key precincts

through a very targeted,
careful effort."

You could really do a lot of damage.

…Going to the polls,
casting their ballots…

History will be made today…

NARRATOR: Inside the
administration, the question:

Just how far would Putin go?

I didn't know if the Russians
were going to do anything

at all.

And I thought if they did,

it clearly would be a sign
that Putin had authorized

an aggressive assault
against this country

that to me would have been
tantamount to, to war.

♪

NARRATOR: It would be
Vladimir Putin's revenge

for a lifetime of grievances.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

NARRATOR: Reviving the old
Cold War with new weapons.

We have the responsibility to
advance freedom and democracy.

NARRATOR: An epic struggle.

Everywhere that freedom
stirs, let tyrants fear.

NARRATOR:
Between the leader of Russia

and American democracy.

The United States
will continue to stand up

for democracy
and the universal rights

that all human beings deserve.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

NARRATOR: The story begins
on New Year's Eve 1999.

In Moscow, the future of Russia
was about to change.

With his country in turmoil,

President Boris Yeltsin
had an announcement to make.

President Yeltsin rose
on immense popularity,

his sense of love and admiration,

was progressively losing that.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

NARRATOR:
Across Russia they tuned in.

(TRANSLATED):
I have made a decision.

I've been thinking about it
painfully for a long time.

Today, at the last day
of the departing century,

I am resigning.

I watched it on December 31st.

I remember I was crying my eyes out.

He just said, "Forgive me
for what I haven't managed"

to achieve."

(TRANSLATED): I want to ask
your forgiveness,

for many of our dreams
have not come true.

(YELTSIN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

And for the things that seemed easy,

but turned out to be
excruciatingly difficult.

He gave this absolutely
heartbreaking speech.

He said that he wished
that he had done a better job

by the Russian people.

And he said,
"I'm tired, and I'm leaving."

It was… It was impossible not to cry.

NARRATOR: Yeltsin's final act
as president:

the father of Russian democracy
turned over the country

to his little-known prime
minister, a former KGB officer.

(YELTSIN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED):
I have signed a decree

giving the responsibilities
of the president of Russia

to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

NARRATOR: The new president
escorted Yeltsin

out of the Kremlin.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED): Next to him,
a young Putin was standing.

And Yeltsin shook his hand.

And this famous footage,
actually, the whole world saw.

And Yeltsin said,
"Take care of Russia."

Just those words.

"Take care of Russia."

Yeltsin's resignation
came as a complete surprise

to almost everyone.

Even Yeltsin's top ministers
didn't know about…

NARRATOR: From his first days
as president,

Vladimir Putin was obsessed
with creating the appearance

of a 21st-century leader.

…decision to step down
could not have come

at a better time
for Prime Minister Putin,

NARRATOR: He commissioned
film and photo shoots.

He is a man who is obsessed with TV.

He watches tapes of the evening news

over and over and over again
to see how he's portrayed,

to see how he looks.

(CONVERSATION IN RUSSIAN)

(CAMERA CLICKING)

(CONVERSATION IN RUSSIAN)

He wears very good suits

like any other Western leader.

He speaks fluent German
and he understands English.

NARRATOR: Putin cultivated
the image of a reformer

and a democrat.

Russian narrative was
the victory of democracy,

the triumph of popular will,
that sort of thing.

So a young guy
who speaks a foreign language

fits into that narrative
as long as you ignore

everything else about him.

NARRATOR: Putin quickly
learned how to sell himself

with the help
of his public relations guru.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED): He began
to think that everything

can be manipulated.

Any kind of press, any TV program

is all about manipulation.

It was decided what TV channels
would show what news.

NARRATOR: They made sure
a dynamic, vital

and charismatic Putin was on display

for all Russians to see.

He's healthy.

He's young.

He's virile.

He casts himself as a savior.

Temperamentally and in style,
he is the anti-Yeltsin.

He's bringing back
a kind of dignity and strength

to the Russian presidency
that had been missing

under Boris Yeltsin.

President Clinton arrived
in Moscow carrying a message

of cooperation…

NARRATOR: Putin's first test
with the United States...

a visit from the American president.

Bill Clinton had come
to the Kremlin to evaluate

Putin for himself.

President Clinton wanted
to get a little bit of a feel.

He wanted to meet him in the…
in the Kremlin as president.

Two presidents, one near the
end of his term, the other…

NARRATOR:
Putin seemed indifferent

to the American president,
who had championed

Yeltsin and liberalization
and expanded NATO.

Putin conveys

a huge amount through body language.

He tries to show you that he's
the alpha male in the room

through the way he spreads his legs,

through the way he slouches
a bit in his chair,

through the way
that he will look at people

and kind of give them
a dismissive hand wave.

Putin doesn't have much time for him.

And this is not what Clinton was
used to when it came to Russia.

He was used to having somebody
he could relate to.

And Putin is a cold fish

and Clinton didn't respond well
to him.

(SIREN BLARING)

If Mr. Clinton was hoping
for a foreign policy triumph,

he won't get it here.

NARRATOR: Later that day,

Clinton received a warmer
reception from Boris Yeltsin,

and issued a warning about Putin.

Bill Clinton looked hard
into Yeltsin's eyes and said,

"I'm a little bit concerned
about this young man

"that you have turned over
the presidency to.

He doesn't have democracy
in his heart."

And he reached over
and poked him in his heart.

And I will never forget
the expression

that came over Yeltsin.

NARRATOR:
Yeltsin's confidants say

by the end of his life, he would
come to agree with Clinton.

Before Boris Yeltsin died,
he told intimates

that it was a great mistake
for him to have selected Putin

as his successor.

NARRATOR: At the Kremlin,
in those first months,

Clinton's fears were realized.

Putin began to centralize
his authority.

He more or less laid out the path

that he was going to be taking,
which was to reduce democracy,

to consolidate authority
back into the Kremlin.

And he took steps, some of which
were small and symbolic,

like going back
to the Soviet-era anthem.

(CHEERING)

(ANTHEM BEGINS)

♪ Rossia svyashchennaya
nasha derzhava ♪

NARRATOR: It was
Joseph Stalin's national anthem

with the words rewritten by
one of the original authors.

What Putin did
when he came in was, said,

"Okay, I've got a different project.

We're going to make"... If you will,

to coin a phrase...

"I'm going to make Russia
great again."

NARRATOR: Behind Putin's
vision for Russia...

A resentment, built up
over a lifetime of believing

his country had been humiliated
by the United States.

There's this resentment,
there's this grievance

that's eating away at him and
it's fundamental to his tenure,

this sense of grievance.

NARRATOR: Putin's project
to make Russia great again

would lead to conflict with the West

and interference
in an American election.

But the seeds had been planted
long before,

when Vladimir Putin was a young man.

He was trained in the
Soviet secret police, the KGB,

to see the United States
as the enemy.

It was drilled into all the officers.

The KGB was a monopoly

that produced violence.

It was a monopoly
that was responsible

for political surveillance

on everyday basis of Soviet citizens.

Nothing could go without the KGB.

NARRATOR:
Putin's first assignment

wasn't undercover espionage;

they thought he was better
suited to counterintelligence.

And a counterintelligence
officer, right,

is somebody for whom
conspiracy theories

and the enemy within are the job,

and rooting those out and carrying

that kind of paranoid
"everyone might actually

always be out to get us."

NARRATOR:
The job was a disappointment.

He's an unhappy man.

He has wanted to be a secret
agent all of his life,

as long as he can remember.

And then he gets posted
to East Germany,

and not even to Berlin... To Dresden,

which is just such a backwater.

(CHEERING)

NARRATOR:
It was in East Germany

that Putin first came face
to face with the conflict

between the USSR
and the United States.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

This protest movement may now
be reaching a critical moment.

…will be a year remembered
for Communism's

loss of influence in the world.

Here the feeling is the end
of the Cold War is at hand…

For many people,
there is a defining moment

in their history when all things

after that moment
refer back to it in some way.

From ABC, this is…

NARRATOR: Lieutenant Colonel
Vladimir Putin saw such a moment

when the Berlin Wall came down…

They are here in the thousands,

they are here
in the tens of thousands.

NARRATOR:
…marking the waning power

of the Soviet Union.

(CHEERING)

Putin sees that this thing
that had always

seemed to be glued together
well, seemed to be impervious,

that had gone from generation
to generation of change

in the top party officials,
seemed to be a rock….

…only one battle in a…

It was starting to crumble
before his eyes.

1989 will be a year remembered

for Communism's loss
of influence in the world.

Mr. Putin joined Russian intelligence

during their waning days,

in the latter years of the Cold War,

when they really felt aggrieved

and the much lesser power
than the United States.

So I think that just reinforced
some of his feelings

of insecurity.

…say they'll never return
to Communism

and promise free
democratic elections…

NARRATOR:
The protests spread to Dresden.

The angry crowds marched
on the German secret police,

the Stasi headquarters,
then Putin's KGB building.

It would be the first time

Putin confronted
a group of protesters.

He calls Moscow, trying to
understand what he is to do,

trying to get orders.

And Moscow doesn't respond.

NARRATOR: A Soviet military
officer told him,

"Moscow is silent."

And this is a massive,
massive trauma for him,

that this massive
historical event is happening.

Soviet influence is collapsing
before his eyes.

And he calls home.

He radios home, and home isn't there.

Freedom and democracy are coming

to parts of Eastern Europe

and a rusty Iron Curtain
is beginning to come down.

(CHEERING AND WHISTLING)

NARRATOR: By the time Putin
returned to Russia,

the USSR was falling apart.

Even in front
of the KGB headquarters,

the statues were coming down.

For many people, this was
in a time of great excitement

and enablement and
experimentation with democracy,

and Vladimir Putin missed this.

NARRATOR: The American
president, George H.W. Bush,

declared it a triumph.

This is a victory
for democracy and freedom.

It's a victory for the
moral force of our values.

NARRATOR: But to Putin,
the end of the Soviet Union

was a humiliation.

The quote that he said once
that really was so revealing,

that the collapse of the Soviet Union

was the greatest geopolitical
catastrophe of the century.

That's how he saw it.

NARRATOR: In the new Russia,
Putin had to reinvent himself.

The former KGB officer
became a political operative

and a bureaucratic fixer.

He's a master bureaucrat.

Russia has always been
a bureaucratic autocracy.

This is how, for example,

Stalin became the general secretary.

He was an amazing bureaucrat.

He out-bureaucrated
all the other bureaucrats.

And Putin does, too.

He is very good at the
bureaucracy of all of it.

NARRATOR: By the late '90s,
he even earned the confidence

of Boris Yeltsin.

They were an odd couple...
The former spy

and a progressive politician
who was trying to bring

democracy to Russia.

Boris Yeltsin decided

to break totalitarianism,

to crush what was left
of Communism with a simple idea,

which is maximum freedom first.

(CAMERAS CLICKING)

NARRATOR: Before long,
Yeltsin promoted him

to lead the KGB's successor, the FSB.

He undertakes this remarkable rise,

basically having nothing to do

with the center of power in Moscow,

to running its most
important security agency,

working in the Kremlin.

NARRATOR: Putin had convinced
Yeltsin that he shared

the president's democratic goals.

He's a professional liar.

To lie is what he was taught
in the intelligence school.

He was pretending that
he was going to pursue

the same development of Russia
as Yeltsin did.

But that's all is just one big lie.

Another major shakeup
in the Kremlin...

Yeltsin fires
his entire cabinet again.

Who's in charge?

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

NARRATOR: Putin rose to
become Yeltsin's prime minister,

the second-most powerful man
in Russia.

A new prime minister, Vladimir Putin,

a man of little political
experience but a…

The biggest and the initial
reaction when people heard

his name being announced
as acting prime minister

on the ninth of August 1999,

by President Yeltsin,

the first reaction was,
"Who is that?"

Most people had never heard
of this guy.

NARRATOR: But the perception
of Putin would begin to change

less than a month later.

Just a few weeks, really,
after he became prime minister,

we had a very suspicious slate

of apartment bombings across Russia.

A bomb destroyed an apartment
building in Moscow

and it does appear…

NARRATOR:
There were suspicions

about who set off the bombs.

The government claimed
it was the work of separatists

from the Russian republic Chechnya.

Everybody's home
asleep in their beds.

And these large apartment blocks
just folded in on themselves,

burying these people

alive or dead, but burying
everybody in the building.

(SIRENS BLARING)

NARRATOR: For Putin,
it was a moment to show

the Russian people just who he was.

This prime minister that most people

don't even remember his name,

and suddenly he comes on television.

He says, "We're going to hunt
down the terrorists."

And we're going to wipe them out
in the outhouse."

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED):
We'll be chasing the terrorists

everywhere.

At the airports or in the toilet.

We'll waste them in an outhouse.

End of story.

When the apartment bombings happen,

it gives him the excuse
he needs to finally go after

what has become a morass in Chechnya

and neighboring Dagestan.

(ROCKET FIRED)

NARRATOR: Putin struck
Chechnya with incredible force.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED):
This was his decision.

He was angry.

And he wanted to punish
the separatists.

He is seen on TV as a doer,
a man of action.

He goes down there.

He's talking to the troops.

He is in command.

NARRATOR: As Putin suited up
for the cameras,

his political fortunes
were on the rise.

And just a few months later,

he was inaugurated
as Russia's new president.

(TRANSLATED):
The powers of the head of state

have been turned over to me today.

NARRATOR: Putin's first
promise to the Russian people:

strength.

(TRANSLATED):
I assure you that there will be

no vacuum of power, not for a minute.

NARRATOR: He moved quickly
to consolidate power.

One of his first targets:
television.

One of the first things he
did was to take control

of television, because more than
90% of Russians

got all their news from television.

NARRATOR: During the Yeltsin
years,

independent television channels
like NTV flourished…

(CHARACTERS SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

Even as they ridiculed
political figures.

NTV also has a comic show
called "Kukly."

"Puppets," and when Putin comes
to rise in public life,

it features a Putin puppet as well.

And he's never portrayed very
flatteringly.

(PUPPET GROANING)

Putin apparently was driven to
madness by the show

and by the way he was portrayed
on it,

the way he was mocked on it.

NARRATOR: NTV and its owner,
Vladimir Gusinsky,

were among the first to fall
in the cross-hairs

of Putin's government.

He sent armed operatives from
the prosecutor general's service

and the tax police to raid the
offices of Media Most,

the parent company of NTV,
which was at that time

the largest independent media
holding in Russia.

Gusinsky is imprisoned.

And while he's in jail, one of

Putin's lieutenants comes to
visit him in jail and says,

"You know, you could get out
this mess

if you sign over NTV."

Gusinsky eventually does that,

hands over NTV to a Kremlin-
friendly oligarch.

In doing that, Putin made
clear the broadcast media,

which is how most Russians get
their news,

was no longer going to be outsourced.

This was going to be a state-run
operation

and it's remained that way
throughout Putin's term.

NARRATOR: He had seized
control of the media.

Now Putin turned his attention
to making Russia powerful again.

When Putin became president,

I think he did begin with the
notion that he could

help engineer the restoration of
Russia as a major power,

as a kind of partner
of the United States.

NARRATOR: Putin had had a
difficult relationship

with President Clinton,

but now he plotted a fresh
strategy to win over

a new American president,
a Republican.

There was an attitude
about Republicans,

rather than Democrats,
were better for Russia.

Because they're not going to
lecture us

about our internal affairs.

And they're not going to meddle
as much as those pesky Democrats

who are always talking about
democracy and human rights

and things like that.

And so they're going to be
realists and that's good.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

President George Bush has
called for a new approach…

NARRATOR: His first chance
came in Slovenia,

as President George W. Bush
arrived for a summit.

What does Putin do?

He studies George W. Bush.

He spends time thinking about
who this guy is,

what motivates him, what works him.

This is the old KGB officer
whose job it is

to basically turn people toward
his interests,

and he plays it that way.

NARRATOR: Putin decided to
focus on

the president's strong
Christian beliefs.

President Putin told
President Bush about the time

his dacha burned down
and a religious medallion,

which had belonged to his
mother, which had gotten lost,

and he thought this was
irretrievably gone,

and then a fireman brought him this

kind of almost like a holy relic.

It was a very affecting,
emotional story

and had some effect
on President Bush.

And he tells the story with
some relish

and connects with Bush, who's
a very religious Christian.

Now, whether Putin himself is
Christian or religious is,

I think, up to debate.

But he recognized as a political
actor that it was a way

to make a connection to a guy

for whom this would
be very important.

NARRATOR: After their private
meeting,

Bush and Putin faced the press.

Question to President Bush,

is this a man that Americans
can trust?

NARRATOR: Putin's story about
his mother's cross

seemed to have had
its desired effect.

I looked the man in the eye,

I found him to be very
straightforward.

I was able to get a sense
of his soul.

He's a man deeply committed to
his country

and the best interests
of his country.

And Bush gives that line, right,

that "I looked into his eyes and
got a sense of his soul."

And we go, "Uh-oh."

And Condi does her version
of not comfortable.

She just reacts, just for a second.

I wouldn't have invited him
to my ranch

if I didn't trust him.

I asked Rice about it recently.

She claims it was not so much a gasp

as an inward-looking, "Ugh."

These are smart people and they
understood this was a comment

that would be wrapped around
Bush's neck,

as it was for as long
as he was president.

NARRATOR: It looked like
Putin had won over

the American president and
gained his respect.

But then…

That looks like a second plane.

That just exploded.

We just saw another plane…

This is a live picture we are seeing.

NARRATOR: Bush's presidency
was transformed

on September 11, 2001.

I can hear you,
the rest of the world hears you,

and the people who knocked these
buildings down

will hear all of us soon.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

NARRATOR: To Putin, at first
it seemed like an opportunity.

He is the very first foreign
leader to reach George W. Bush

on September 11
and to empathize with him...

Not commiserate, but empathize
with him,

that, "You are finally feeling
the scourge of terrorism"

"that we've been feeling forever.

Let's work together on this."

NARRATOR: But Bush would go
his own way,

countering the terrorist threat
with an effort

to spread democracy.

It is both our responsibility
and our privilege

to fight freedom's fight.

(APPLAUSE)

NARRATOR: The test case:
Iraq.

Vladimir Putin watched as an
American president with

whom he had some sort
of fragile rapport

embarked on a foreign policy
adventure that the United States

had not done in decades.

And we turned it against
a single man, Saddam Hussein.

Tomahawk missiles targeting
senior Iraqi leaders

and possibly Saddam Hussein himself.

"Shock and awe" is the phrase
of the moment…

… "shock and awe" to describe

the sweeping assault on Iraq.

Putin resents the kind of
promiscuous use

of American military force abroad.

As a Russian leader,
and particularly a Cold Warrior

and former K.G.B. man,
you just inherently don't like

seeing the U.S. military in action.

NARRATOR: Regime change at
the hands of the Americans.

As statues fell, echoes of the
final days of the Soviet Union.

The tyrant has fallen
and Iraq is free.

Everywhere that freedom arrives,
humanity rejoices.

And everywhere that freedom
stirs, let tyrants fear.

And Putin knows what this
means for him.

It means that at some point,
it's going to be his turn.

That regime change is going to
come for him, too.

And this becomes the driving
fear of the Putin regime.

Vladimir Putin concluded that
the United States,

when possible, would use its
power and leverage

to depose leaders that it did
not agree with.

And from Vladimir Putin's
perspective,

that was an existential threat.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

NARRATOR: Back in Russia,
Vladimir Putin tried to use

the perceived threat from America

to his political advantage.

For Putin, the sense
of America as an enemy

or an adversary was not only,
I think,

the way he views the world, but
he uses it as a very potent tool

at home, where he can say, "I'm
the only person willing"

to stand up to the United States."

And that's a very powerful
message for Russians.

NARRATOR: It was a message
Putin used during a tragedy

that began in the small town
of Beslan.

Men and women wearing explosive belts

attacked a school in Beslan.

This is definitely the worst
hostage tragedy

that Russia has ever seen.

NARRATOR: It was the first
day of school.

If you could imagine an even
more shocking terrorist attack

than the several large apartment
bombings that killed people

in their sleep, that was Beslan.

NARRATOR: As the students
entered their school,

the terrorists took them hostage,

rigging the school with explosives.

The school that's normally
meant to only hold

a few hundred people is holding
hundreds and hundreds of people.

It's children... and it's little
children, too.

And their moms and dads and
their older brothers.

NARRATOR: Putin was in a
trap.

The rebels demanded he withdraw
his troops from Chechnya

or the children would die.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED): And the plan
was that Putin would either

capitulate or he would lose
his image, his reputation.

This was a serious crisis.

This was a really serious crisis.

NARRATOR: Putin acted and
ordered his army in.

Tanks and troops encircled
the school,

and then on the third day,
an explosion…

(EXPLOSION)

(SIRENS BLARING)

…and chaos.

(EXPLOSIONS)

(SHOUTING)

The army shelled the school
at point-blank range.

They fired at it from tanks.

NARRATOR: Putin's troops were
armed with rockets,

grenade launchers,
and flame throwers.

A lot of the children
who burned alive,

burned alive because
of a fire that raged.

It turns into this debacle,

and the end result is corpses
of little children

stacked like firewood.

More than 320 people were
killed, half of them children,

in the tragedy in the town of
Beslan in North Ossetia.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

NARRATOR: Outrage at Putin
over the tragedy

was growing inside of Russia.

But when he finally spoke about
it, he blamed the United States,

who he had long accused of supporting

the Chechen rebellion.

(TRANSLATED): We demonstrated
weakness,

and weak people are beaten.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED): He said there
are forces in the world

which want to destroy Russia.

He believes that the West played
its role in two Chechen wars,

and that the West played its
role in supporting terrorism.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED):
Some want to tear off

a juicy piece of our country.

Others help them to do it.

Well, the only country that
he could have had in mind,

although he didn't say it
directly, was the United States.

…more than a week after the
bloody ending of the Beslan…

NARRATOR: Putin used that
threat to justify

forcefully expanding
his own power and control.

…he's demanded a radical
shakeup of security

and greater powers for the Kremlin…

NARRATOR: He canceled
elections

throughout the country.

…a stark message to governors

and leaders of Russia's…

NARRATOR: And new rules
forced out the most outspoken

members of the parliament.

And it was a cynical move,

but at the same time it also
expresses

the way to respond
to extreme violence

and to extreme disorder is to
create more dictatorial powers.

He's demanded a radical
shakeup of security

and greater powers…

NARRATOR: Now it was clear.

Putin had taken Russia on a very
different course.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED): After Beslan,
the Kremlin had full power.

The government did not matter
much any longer.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

This Kremlin, the power these
days is always in singular.

It doesn't matter where it is.

It belongs to the president.

It comes from the president,
flows out of the president.

NARRATOR: And in his own
backyard,

Putin was seeing a growing threat...

Popular revolutions in three
former Soviet republics…

(PEOPLE CHANTING,
REPORTER SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

…challenging Moscow's influence.

(REPORTER SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

People in the streets is a
really frightening sight

to Putin.

People in the streets can make
all sorts of things happen.

NARRATOR: They were called
the color revolutions,

and again Putin feared America
was trying

to export democracy.

Putin concluded that
these were efforts

by the United States and our
intelligence services

to, in fact, install in these
neighboring countries

regimes that would be anti-Russian.

Because you acted, Georgia is
today both sovereign and free,

and a beacon of liberty
for this region and the world.

Putin is convinced that
people don't just come out

into the streets.

They have to be driven by somebody.

There has to be a puppet master.

Somebody's funding them, and
it's probably the United States.

Americans respect your
courageous choice for liberty.

The American people will stand
with you.

NARRATOR: Georgia, Ukraine,
and Kyrgyzstan...

Putin feared Russia was next.

I think this makes him sit up
and pay attention.

Could that happen to me?

And if it does, not only do I
lose a job that I like,

what else do I lose?

Do I lose my freedom?
Do I lose my life?

(CHEERING)

He freaks out. He's terrified.

It's one thing to go after the
leader of Iraq,

which is in the Middle East.

But it's another to go into the
former Soviet republics.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Putin thought we were the
puppet masters.

Like, man, we are not that good.

I even told Russian television once,

when they were accusing me personally

of being the gray cardinal,
"Are you kidding me?"

But they really thought
we were doing it.

NARRATOR: The fall of the
Soviet Union, Iraq,

the color revolutions,
NATO expansion,

what the Bush administration was
calling "the freedom agenda"...

Vladimir Putin had seen enough.

Russian President Vladimir
Putin is speaking

at an international conference…

NARRATOR: In February 2007,

Putin decided it was time to
make a stand.

He traveled to Munich, Germany,

to speak directly to Western leaders.

(REPORTER SPEAKING GERMAN)

And so he comes to the
security conference in Munich

and says, basically, "I don't
have to mince words, do I?"

I can say what's on my mind."

And then he, he just lashes out,

and he lists all these resentments.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED): First and
foremost,

the United States has
overstepped its national borders

in the economic, political, and
humanitarian spheres

it imposes on other nations.

Well, who would like this?

Who would like this?

My head snapped.

It was so searing and blunt, and
I-I felt,

this was the real guy.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED): This is, of
course, extremely dangerous.

It results in the fact
that no one feels safe.

I want to emphasize this...
No one feels safe.

Americans were pissed,
frantic, angry.

I was four rows back, and you
could almost feel the humidity

from the spittle that was spewing.

Yeah, it was, it was pretty shocking

because it was pretty aggressive.

Putin echoed Cold War
rhetoric by accusing the U.S.

of making the world unsafe.

Premier Vladimir Putin left
no doubt who he sees

is responsible for the current
world crisis.

NARRATOR: The speech was
a turning point.

Putin clearly in this speech
was drawing a line and saying,

"We're not going to try anymore.

"We're just giving up on you.

"And we're going to make
our own world

in which we are the master."

It's one of Putin's harshest
attacks on Americans…

NARRATOR: By the end of
George W. Bush's presidency,

the relationship with Putin
seemed broken.

I remember the president saying,

"You know, I don't know how,
but we've lost him ."

Putin was going in a different
direction

and there was little that
the administration,

in President Bush's mind, could do

to put Putin back on that course.

President Putin's comments
today were quite provocative.

NARRATOR: Soon Putin would
have a new American president

to deal with.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

Mr. Obama's first full day as
president was a busy one…

NARRATOR: In 2009, Barack
Obama arrived in Washington.

President Obama meets with
his national security staff.

NARRATOR: He came with the
hope he could change

relations with Russia.

Barack Obama won't have much
time to savor victory.

Obama came in and thought,

"Well, this is another relationship

"that was probably a victim
of-of, you know,

"the neoconservative foreign policy.

So let's take a look at it,
and let's repair it."

Each American administration
has come to office thinking

that it had to and it could build

a constructive relationship
with the Russians.

This is, as Obama famously said,

"Pressing the reset button."

And the Obama administration
comes in and does that.

Now Mr. Obama wants to make Clinton

the face of his foreign policy.

NARRATOR: Obama entrusted the
job of building the reset

to his secretary of state,
Hillary Clinton.

…meeting between Hillary Clinton

and the Russian foreign
minister, Lavrov.

Secretary Clinton met with
foreign minster Sergey Lavrov

of Russia in Geneva.

And the goal of that meeting was
actually to establish

this thing called "the reset."

I wanted to present you
with a little gift,

which represents what
President Obama,

and Vice President Biden and I
have been saying.

And that is, we want to reset
our relationship, and…

Let's do it, let's do it together…

So we will do it together.

One of her staff members had
the idea to actually memorialize

the reset with a physical
handing over of a reset button.

Yeah, it's this, it's this
plastic button that says,

"Reset," and it was just,
it was kind of a gag gift,

but it was also symbolic of what
Hillary Clinton's trying to do.

We worked hard to get the
right Russian word…

Foreign Minister Lavrov
looked at it and said,

"That doesn't say, 'Reset, '
that says, 'Overcharge'."

You think we got it?
You got it wrong.

I got it wrong. So, misspelled…

That might have been prophetic.

My Russian's a little rusty,
and I trusted somebody else...

I won't say who.

It should be "perezagruzka,"
and this says, "Peregruzka,"

which means overcharged.

(LAUGHTER)

Well, we won't let you do
that to us, I promise.

Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you so much.

Very kind of you.

It'll be on my desk.

Well, we mean it…

Headed to Russia, President
Obama has a big meeting ahead.

Shadows of the Cold War will
loom over his summit meeting

in Moscow…

NARRATOR:
Just a few months later,

Barack Obama himself traveled
to Moscow

to meet with Vladimir Putin.

I remember their first
meeting in July of 2009

at Putin's dacha, you know,
just outside Moscow.

They're much different personalities.

President Obama's initial
question, about ten seconds,

led to a 45-minute, you know,
monologue by Putin.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

You end up having to endure a
bit of a history lecture.

Deal with the... what we used to
call "the airing of grievances"

at the beginning of every meeting.

That tells Obama everything
he needs to know about Putin.

That this is somebody who is, in
his mind, locked in the past,

who is... who is nursing resentment,

and who is going to never
be a full partner

of the United States.

NARRATOR:
In the years that followed,

Vladimir Putin would come to believe

that Barack Obama was a threat

just like the other
American presidents.

We've been tracking this very
serious development

in the Arab world
for the United States.

Demonstrations broke out in
the cities of…

(CROWD CHANTING)

NARRATOR: Putin saw proof in
the Middle East:

Tunisia, Syria, Egypt,
the Arab Spring.

Vladimir Putin looks
at what's happening

in the Arab world, and he sees
it as Dresden all over again.

He sees it as the American meddling

in other countries' affairs

to the detriment of Mother Russia.

The sound of freedom.

President Hosni Mubarak has
stepped down.

NARRATOR:
One of the first to fall:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

I think that particularly for Putin,

what happened in Egypt was something

that really went right to his heart.

NARRATOR:
Especially after the president

of the United States weighed in.

The United States will
continue to stand up

for democracy in Egypt
and around the world.

They'd like to spread
"American-style democracy,"

supported with the help of money
from abroad,

with the help of
intelligence service,

with the help of diplomatic service.

And even, in some cases,
with the help of Pentagon.

Putin was personalizing
the Arab Spring.

That he was seeing it through
the prism

of what could possibly happen
to him in Russia.

This had a distorting effect
on Putin's perception

about what the United States
was up to.

…the political mutiny
that began in Tunisia

spread to Egypt and beyond,
and has reached Libya.

NARRATOR:
The Arab Spring conflict

came to a head in Libya.

It was there that Secretary of
State Clinton took the lead.

She built an international
coalition to take on

Putin's ally, the Libyan
dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.

Gaddafi must go,
and the Libyan people deserve

to determine their own future.

(SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

NARRATOR: Rebel forces
captured Gaddafi and dragged him

from his hiding place.

(SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

As Gaddafi was being captured,

Clinton happened to be in front
of the cameras.

Wow. Huh.

Unconfirmed. Unconfirmed.

Yeah, unconfirmed. No.

What happened?

Unconfirmed reports about
Gaddafi being captured.

She found out about this

as she was doing
a television interview.

NARRATOR: The moments around
Gaddafi's death

were also caught on camera.

(SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

Her response was… We
came, we saw, he died.

(LAUGHTER)

Did it have anything to do
with your visit?

No. Oh, I'm sure it didn't.

It was a moment of success
and gratification for her.

It tells you just how invested
she was in the Libya mission

and what she believed was going
to be a great success

for herself
and for the United States.

Vladimir Putin talked about
the fall of Libya

over and over again.

He would talk about the scene of
Muammar Gaddafi,

the Great Lion of Libya,
reduced to a man

hiding in a drainage pipe,
cowering with his own gun

in his hand, where he was
dragged out by his people

and was killed.

Putin watches that tape over
and over and over again.

It's all he can talk about
for quite some time.

NARRATOR: Vladimir Putin was
determined Gaddafi's fate

would not be his own.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(CROWD CHEERING)

Tens of thousands came out
on the streets

to tell Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin they'd had enough.

NARRATOR: By late 2011,
protests were breaking out

in Moscow, just outside the Kremlin.

More than 100,000 people came
out to say, "No, enough."

We are fed up with this."

This was the largest
demonstration held in Russia,

in Moscow, since the democratic
revolution of August 1991.

NARRATOR: The protests had
been sparked by claims

that Putin's party had rigged
the parliamentary election.

Allegations of fraud captured
for the first time

on cell phone videos.

(TRANSLATED):
They took their smart phones

and they recorded everything.

And they immediately uploaded
that on the internet.

And the whole country could see it.

So the social networks have
played a huge role

in those protests.

NARRATOR: They saw ballot
boxes being stuffed

even before the polls opened.

Ballot-stuffing... suddenly
people saw this evidence

with their own eyes.

And there was no explaining it away.

NARRATOR: Ballots hidden in
the bathroom.

Campaign officials filling
out ballots.

The pens at one polling place
filled with erasable ink.

The Russian people reacted to
that by going out

into the streets with signs
that said literally,

"President Putin must go."

(CROWD CHANTING IN RUSSIAN)

NARRATOR: Once again,
Putin saw something else.

What Putin sees is,
here is American regime change

coming for him, finally.

He knew that the Americans would
eventually come for him,

that they would try to oust him.

He was thrown by the
protests, he was taken aback

by the passion of the opposition,

and had to look for a place to
point the finger.

He pointed it at us.

NARRATOR: In particular,

Putin singled out Hillary Clinton.

And we do have serious
concerns about the conduct

of the election.

NARRATOR: Clinton's
statements on the election

were spreading on the internet.

You know, the Russian people
deserve the right to have

their voices heard
and their votes counted.

He finds it incredibly provocative

that Hillary Clinton feels the
need to chime in

at this moment of weakness,

that it's a kind of kick
in the gut when he's weak.

For which he may never have
forgiven her.

NARRATOR: And in the Kremlin,
they believed it was a message

directed to the protesters.

It was the first signal from
the State Department

that they're really very serious
in their attempts

to interfere in our internal
political life.

NARRATOR: Putin claimed that
behind the scenes,

Clinton was going even further.

He said it was Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton,

who provided funds and means
to the Russian opposition,

and made them to get out
of the... on the streets.

NARRATOR: The State
Department said they were

simply promoting democracy,
not trying to steer the outcome.

But to Putin,
Clinton had crossed the line,

threatening his hold on power.

There's no question he's
looking at revenge

at Hillary Clinton.

There's no question that he sees
Hillary Clinton as an adversary.

And he wanted to, like, you
know, he wanted to get her back.

NARRATOR: But first, Putin
decided to settle some scores

inside Russia.

He ordered a crackdown on
protesters and dissidents.

(MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

(TRANSLATED): They started
enacting searches, arrests,

detentions, actions against
opposition leaders,

persecution in the mass media.

And they launched individual
persecution that applied

to tens of hundreds, maybe
thousands of people

in the country.

(MAN SHOUTING IN RUSSIAN)

This was a clear message
that it's over.

"You've had your fun.

"It's done. It's over.

"The election's over.
I'm the president.

You are not toppling me.
I am the law."

Bad things often happen to opponents…

He was forced into exile in
England after…

NARRATOR: Many of Putin's
opponents inside Russia

fled the country.

Others had died mysterious deaths.

Vladimir Putin's top opponent saying,

"I am scared that
Putin will kill me."

Death of a former
Vladimir Putin aide…

NARRATOR: One, who nearly
died twice from poisoning

was Vladimir Kara-Murza.

…Kremlin, so very close to
Vladimir Putin's office…

There's been a very high
mortality rate

in the last several years among
the people

who have crossed the path of
Vladimir Putin's Kremlin...

Independent journalists,
anti-corruption campaigners,

opposition activists,
opposition leaders.

Many people have died.

Some in strange and unexplained
deaths,

others in just straight-out
assassinations.

NARRATOR: He had secured
his power at home,

and now would deal with
the threat from America.

For the Russians and for Putin now,

they're engaged in an
existential struggle

with the United States.

This is, to the Russians' mind,
and to Putin's mind,

about defending the survival,
not simply of Putin,

but of the Russian state
and the Russian people.

(MEN CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

(ANTHEM STARTS)

♪ Rossia svyashchennaya

NARRATOR: Soon, Putin's
Russia would have the capacity

to strike at the heart
of American democracy.

(SPEAKING RUSSIAN):

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

♪ Slavsya, strana

♪ My gordimsya toboi!

NARRATOR: Next time…
Putin.

NARRATOR: "Frontline's"
investigation continues.

If it were possible to create
chaos with the political system

of a major Western democratic
country like the U.S.,

I think that would certainly
serve the propaganda goals

of Vladimir Putin's regime.

NARRATOR:
Russia and the 2016 election.

Russia, if you're listening…

We couldn't believe that a
presidential candidate

was encouraging an adversary
to meddle in an election.

NARRATOR: And the struggle to
respond.

This is a classic case of the
Obama administration

over-thinking something while the
Russians were just kind of

punching them in the gut.

NARRATOR: The inside story of
"Putin's Revenge."

If the U.S. is diminished in
the eyes of the world,

it just benefits Russia.

To me, I think Mr. Putin sees
this as a tremendous success.

NARRATOR: The conclusion,
next time on "Frontline."

♪

part of "Frontline's"
transparency project.

Our extensive interviews with
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Engineer the restoration
of Russia as a major power.

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