- 7 hours ago
Anthony Bourdain takes a trip to Russia on the eve of the Olympic Games in Sochi; he explores the history and takes a look at the dining scene in St. Petersburg with esteemed Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov.
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00:08Beautiful, right?
00:10We can really indulge ourselves into something special on such a beautiful day.
00:15Probably right.
00:17Absolutely.
00:19Now we're coming to your most beautiful fascination side of Russian legacy, the birches.
00:26Ah, the forest of birch.
00:28Ah, what a place.
00:36All hail the maximum leader.
00:39Now, let's dance.
00:52Okay, thank you.
00:54Well.
00:58Oh.
00:59Oh.
01:10Oh.
01:13Oh.
01:15Oh.
01:16Oh.
01:37Whatever you think of this guy, his dead, effectless eyes, his smooth, pulled tight like a snare drum face,
01:45he ain't going anywhere.
01:47Look at him. He's the Russian Superman, the KGB middle manager desk jockey turned expression of greater Russia's hopes and
01:55dreams.
01:56He lets no opportunity to take his shirt off pass him by. Pose with a large gun? He's there.
02:03And no matter how transparently autocratic, vengeful, oblivious to even a thin veneer of democracy, Russians love him.
02:11They seem to feel about him like New Yorkers used to feel about Giuliani.
02:15He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch.
02:23It's February 2014, and the Sochi Olympics are just coming up when I arrive in Moscow.
02:30It's a different Moscow every time I come here.
02:34The 80s-style go-go capitalist conspicuous consumption, see who can spend the most money disco techno thing I encountered
02:42when I first came here back in 2001, it's still going strong.
02:49In fact, these days, Moscow has one of the highest concentrations of billionaires in the world.
02:57But as never before, it's imperial Russia now, a one-man rule.
03:03All power emanates.
03:05Every decision must consider this guy.
03:27Russia is full of characters with murky pasts and shadowy connections.
03:35But one of them I've called a friend for more than a decade.
03:40Tony.
03:42Food.
03:43Wow.
03:43I guess I'm switching to vodka.
03:45Samir.
03:46Ay-yi-yi.
03:47How are you, brother?
03:52Now, my concern is, you know, back in the day, this place was famous for all of the rooms were
03:57bugged.
03:57Not anymore, I'm sorry.
03:59Oh, really?
04:00I'm really sorry about that.
04:01The times change.
04:02Poor Samir, my longtime crony, he tries, at least, to be diplomatic about these things.
04:07I mean, he's got to live here, right?
04:09He doesn't want prussic acid on his blintzes.
04:11Given the new enlightened, the liberalized, forward-thinking Russia, they've removed the surveillance devices.
04:17Uh, listen, as a born musculite, I'm trying to be a good patriot.
04:21So, I really want you to tell me, frankly, in a week from now, Samir, now I understand why stereotypes
04:27sometimes send a bad message about Russia.
04:30I have an open mind.
04:31Everything's great.
04:32Russia does anything they want.
04:33Listen, why don't we just taste the awesome?
04:36Let's get fucked up.
04:38Oh, спасибо.
04:41The most gorgeous women are in Russia.
04:44Welcome to Russia.
04:46Na zdrowe.
04:52I'm trying to be kind of sober.
04:56United we stand.
04:58I prepared today's special for you Russian tapas.
05:01Russian tapas.
05:02Especially for vodka drinking.
05:04With a small pancake, like a blinis.
05:06Nice.
05:06And asterisk and caviar.
05:09It looks like a winter.
05:11Baltic cucumber with honey.
05:13This is a Baltic sprout.
05:15Smoky one.
05:15With a beetroot.
05:17And this one is a muxun.
05:19This is a white fish.
05:21White fish frozen with melden salt and a little bit of pepper.
05:24And you can eat it raw.
05:25Thank you, chef.
05:26Yeah.
05:26I'm hitting the caviar and the blini.
05:29Uy, uy, uy.
05:33Maybe some more vodka.
05:35And your smile makes it, like, feel like it's water.
05:43What do you think?
05:44What is the perception of Mr. Putin these days?
05:47After 14 years, he's in power.
05:49My perception?
05:51Do you really want to hear it?
05:54I'm not sure, but let's see.
05:57A former mid-level manager in a large corporation, short.
06:01I think that's very important.
06:02Short.
06:03Who has found himself master of the universe.
06:06And like a lot of short people, if you piss them off, bad things happen to you.
06:12He likes to take his shirt off a lot.
06:16Let's be serious.
06:17I mean, by the time...
06:17He strikes me as a businessman.
06:20He is.
06:20A businessman with an ego.
06:22Okay, so he's like Donald Trump, but shorter.
06:26I think my friend needs some kind of booze to you, comrade.
06:34Like this, you know.
06:36You can have that one.
06:37I'll get to you next time.
06:46I'm serious about your one week's stay in Russia.
06:49I want you to enjoy every minute of it.
06:51I hope you'll get something new, positive to learn and share around the world.
06:56That's my mission.
07:13I want you to enjoy every minute.
07:23Help, injuries, don't pulls out!
07:26Help, injuries!
07:31Absolutely not provided.
07:34Okay, Tony.
07:35So your new experience, right, being part of the opposition rally?
07:39This is nothing new for me.
07:40Blows against the empire, speed fighting man.
07:42That's me. I go way back, way back with this.
07:44I marched on the Pentagon with my dad when I was a kid.
07:47Seriously?
07:48Yeah.
07:48So you're well prepared.
07:49It could be a little bit physical and brutal today.
07:51I don't know.
07:52That dog goes aiming for my nutsack.
07:54My day is a dissident.
07:55It will be over quickly.
07:57There is opposition to Putin, but it's a mixed bag.
08:06And if you do see a demonstration like this one, it is with permission.
08:10Along a planned route, carefully managed, and the cops and security tend to outnumber the demonstrators.
08:21Phones, metal stuff goes up.
08:25The main topic of this rally is to support the political prisoners.
08:29Last May, when they came to protest against Putin's re-election, which allegedly was a little bit rigged.
08:35The election results were, shall we say, dubious.
08:39Some of them were arrested and put in prison, and some of them are still there.
08:43Divide and conquer?
08:44Well, look who's showed up today.
08:48Everybody from human rights activists
08:52to Oprah right-wing nationalists who think Putin's been too soft.
08:56Putin is not right-wing enough for them.
08:58No.
08:58He's like a liberal today.
09:00He doesn't...
09:01The Jews and immigrant workers...
09:03Right.
09:05I'm sort of shocked that these guys are at the same demonstration.
09:08What?
09:09Russians, they're not united around one political agenda, so...
09:13The only thing that's united in this group right now is general unhappiness with Putin.
09:17That's it.
09:32Bad things seem to happen to critics of Vladimir Putin.
09:37Journalists, activists, even powerful oligarchs once seemingly untouchable are now fair game if they displease the leader.
09:46So, we were supposed to be dining at another restaurant this evening, and when they heard that you would be
09:51joining me, we were uninvited.
09:54Should I be concerned about having dinner with you?
09:56This is a country of corruption.
09:58And if you have business, you are in a very unsafe situation.
10:03Everybody can press you and destroy your business.
10:06That's it.
10:07This is a system.
10:08Meet Boris Nemsov.
10:09He was deputy prime minister under Yeltsin, and today is one of Putin's most vocal critics.
10:16Putain, get that up to me.
10:18Nice.
10:19This restaurant was kind enough to take us in.
10:22But the chef is a Brit, so maybe he has less reason to worry.
10:26First course, gentlemen.
10:27Ah.
10:29At Yornick Restaurant, they're serving their own versions of dino-era Russian classics.
10:36A modern riff on borscht.
10:38Typically a chunky, hearty, beaten cabbage broth with chunks of meat.
10:42Here it's a puree for the more elegant, shall we say, deconstructed presentation.
10:54Critics of the government, critics of Putin, bad things seem to happen to them.
10:59Yes.
10:59Unfortunately, existing power represent, let I say, Russia of 19th century, not of 21st.
11:07Critics of Putin, beware.
11:09Oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky accused Putin of corruption and wound up spending 10 years
11:15in prison and labor camps.
11:17Alexander Litvinenko accused state security services of organizing a coup to put Putin
11:23in power.
11:24He was poisoned by a lethal dose of radioactive polonium.
11:29And Viktor Yushchenko, the former Ukrainian president, poisoned, disfigured, and nearly
11:34killed by a toxic dose of dioxin.
11:38I'm not saying official Russian bodies had anything to do with it, but it's mighty suspicious.
11:45I don't think you need to be a conspiracy theorist to say whoever did this very much
11:49wanted everyone to know whodunit.
11:51Everybody understands.
11:52Yeah, of course.
11:53And everybody is meant to understand.
11:55Yeah, everybody understands.
11:57Everybody understands everything.
11:59Right.
12:01When you're talking classic conspiracy theories and classically Russian-style paranoia, you want
12:07some classic Russian food to go along with it.
12:10Pelmini.
12:11Minced beef dumpling served on a pillow of cabbage with sour cream.
12:17Mm, it's very good.
12:19Maybe the most extreme and visible example of how things seem to work here is the Sochi
12:25Olympics.
12:26If you look at the map of Russian Federation, it's difficult to find a sport without snow
12:32and ice at all.
12:33But Putin did.
12:36But it seems like a pretty obvious question.
12:39I mean, if we wanted to hold our Winter Olympics in Miami, presumably someone would say, isn't
12:44it a little warm there?
12:45This is absolutely personal Putin project.
12:48Right.
12:48They spent more than $50 billion of dollars, which is the most expensive games in the history
12:53of mankind.
12:54$26,000 a seat for the curling stadium to build.
12:58For a seat?
12:59Putin road from Adler to Красная Poliana, which is 30 miles, price for that $9 billion
13:05U.S. dollars.
13:06This is a road, right?
13:08It's three times expensive than American program flying to Mars.
13:13And who got many of those contracts for the roads and stadiums and infrastructure?
13:17Well, there's these guys.
13:20Putin's childhood friends and judo partners, the Rottenberg brothers, whose companies received
13:25contracts worth upwards of $7 billion.
13:29And Putin's associate of 20 years, Vladimir Yakunin, who owns the state railroads.
13:34His company received $10 billion worth of contracts.
13:38It's very easy to imagine what's happened with this money.
13:41Right.
13:42And you know who cares in Russia?
13:44Just about no one.
13:47Here's, this is a case, the Pedenko case.
13:50A known enemy of Putin, speaking with a bout of radioactive colonial, aren't you concerned?
13:57Me?
13:58About myself?
13:59Yeah.
13:59You're a pain in the ass.
14:00Tony, I was born here 54 years ago.
14:04This is my country.
14:06Russian people are in a very big trouble.
14:09Russian court doesn't work.
14:11Russian education declines every year.
14:14And I believe that Russia has a chance to be free.
14:18It has a chance.
14:19It's difficult, but we must do.
14:21I should be seeing Zelda.
14:23It has a chance for me to see the Civil War.
14:26Jeez, thank you.
14:36I'm sorry.
14:38I'm sorry.
14:40I'm sorry.
14:41I'm sorry.
14:42I can't do it.
14:49Sorry.
14:49I'm sorry.
14:50You're sorry.
14:51You're a servant.
15:00America, yeah, all of Russia's eyes are upon you.
15:05Bring honor to your clan.
15:06You know what, American?
15:07I will break you.
15:10I will break you.
15:17I will break you.
15:20Russia, go ahead!
15:24Forget about it, we will bury you.
15:33I will remove your visa.
15:52No!
15:56Russia does not surrender!
16:02Oh, the land of the free.
16:06Just missed it, buddy.
16:08I was pretty close.
16:11I was actually out here all last night practicing.
16:15You must be kidding me.
16:20While Zemir contemplates a suddenly grimmer future thanks to me,
16:24I head out to Rublevka, a compound of luxury homes outside Moscow
16:29to meet Alexander Lebedev.
16:35At one time, Alexander was doing great.
16:38Former officer of the intelligence services, like Putin, turned billionaire.
16:43He owned pieces of Russia's most powerful energy companies, airlines, and banks.
16:48And still publishes the Novaya Gazeta, one of the only opposition newspapers left in Russia.
16:55But running a newspaper that's been harshly critical of the ruler has cost him.
17:00He's been stripped of nearly everything.
17:03It can be a dangerous thing to do investigative journalism in this country.
17:08Your own paper, what, five journalists?
17:11Six?
17:11Yeah.
17:12Lost their lives?
17:13Yeah, probably the biggest number because there was no war in this country.
17:16So in peaceful times, to lose six journalists killed, it's quite a lot.
17:20Six journalists murdered.
17:22One paper.
17:23Presumably for their reporting on political corruption or human rights abuse.
17:28Though pointing a finger directly at the government is impossible,
17:32one can say that the climate here is such that what you say can certainly get you killed.
17:39You have at various stages made life difficult for yourself.
17:42Business was very good for you, and then you had to have an opinion.
17:46When you interact with the local bureaucracies and judicial system,
17:49it still leaves a lot to be desired, let's put it this way.
17:53Lebedev is now a potato farmer.
17:54That's my production, that's my potato.
17:56The biggest producer in Russia, true, but his billions are gone,
18:00and he now lives the life of a mere millionaire.
18:03Let's see how you like this one.
18:05Very good.
18:06Some freshly made potato chips that Lebedev is very proud of.
18:12And his personal chef prepares Scottish salmon, smoked on cherry tree sawdust,
18:17served with avocado.
18:21That's very good.
18:22Lately, Lebedev is getting into slow food.
18:25This is a cold pressed cedar tree in Siberia.
18:29Cedar oil?
18:30From corn, from the cedar corn.
18:31But he has not slowed down his profile or kept his mouth shut.
18:37Recently on a Russian talk show, he got in an argument
18:40over the financial crisis with another guest.
18:42A heated argument.
18:43He ended up smacking the guy.
18:45I saw the incident on television and it got in trouble.
18:49I found it very refreshing actually.
18:50I think it's something that political discourse could use more of.
18:53The government took the opportunity to charge him with politically motivated hooliganism.
18:59A charge that could have resulted in a penalty of five years in prison.
19:03He has instead been convicted of battery.
19:06He's working off his sentence painting fences and shoveling snow.
19:11I mean, sitting on a bench and expecting to spend the next five years in prison with two small kids,
19:16it's not always, you know, very nice.
19:19But the guy said something very bad.
19:21He said, those who don't have a billion, go yourself.
19:24Though his victim did not register an official complaint, the message, I think, was clear.
19:30The charges were pressed by the Russian state, which is pretty funny because this is a private accusation.
19:35It's dangerous.
19:37Very dangerous to criticize or investigate or speculate.
19:42Why? Why do you care?
19:45Do you really think you can defeat it? No.
19:49So what are you doing? I hope.
19:50Hopefully, reason would prevail.
20:15No, it's the KGB. They're blocking your signal.
20:20I'm sure that they are, believe it or not.
20:22I'm quite sure you've had someone on your tail the entire time you've been here.
20:28What's rock and roll supposed to be about other than cars and girls and aggression?
20:32About dissent. About rebellion, right?
20:35In Russia, where everything is supposed to be just fine, that could be a dangerous position.
20:43Travis Leak is an expat American who manages this band, Luna.
20:48So what you waiting for?
20:51Ruben Kazarian is Luna's guitarist and songwriter.
20:55What we have now here is the facade, and it's very nice.
20:58We have elections, democracy, courts, but all this doesn't work as it should.
21:04So what prevents right now in Russia to speak freely?
21:09Formally nothing, but in reality a lot of things.
21:12Let's talk about MTV.
21:14So Rebel Music, as I understand it, was an MTV television series whose fundamental principle was to celebrate bands who
21:23say difficult things in environments where there might be repercussions.
21:27And as I understand it, your band was chosen for one of seven episodes?
21:34Correct.
21:34And in fact, one of your songs was used as the title track for the series.
21:40So I get a letter from the producer, and essentially it says, because of political pressure, the Russia episode has
21:48been removed from the Rebel Music series.
21:50According to the producer, MTV Russia pushed back on the content, she presumes because of the negative impact it would
21:57have on them and their ability to do business on a day-to-day basis in Russia.
22:03MTV's official reason for removing Luna from the series is that they simply did not have enough time to air
22:08all the stories they filmed.
22:10This was a documentary series about musicians standing up and risking their lives in some cases to stand up against
22:17government abuse of power, government corruption, and yet a foreign government was able to editorially control what American viewers see
22:27on their TV screens.
22:28That to me is a scandal of epic proportion.
22:30This entire documentary is gone.
22:33Luna's song is the title track to the series, but their episode never happened.
22:40The rest of Russia is very, very different than Moscow.
22:43I mean, here you drive around and it's like Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati.
22:47You know, you go to buy a pair of shoes, you pick up a Bentley on the way out.
22:50You tour a lot in Russia.
22:52What do you see?
22:53We see a lot of problems.
22:54We see that the level of the living is very low.
22:58There's something in rock music that unites everybody.
23:02It's something beyond politics.
23:03It's certain energy, and this energy is the same in every country and every city.
23:08We have rock music.
23:10We are common people.
23:11We are like you.
23:33We are going to the hometown of President Putin.
23:36St. Petersburg.
23:39He was born there.
23:40Right.
23:40Started his career.
23:45The night train to St. Petersburg is one of the great fun things to do in Russia.
23:54Roll on great steel wheels through the night through dark forests of birch and snow.
23:59Out there in the dark, visible for a second or two at a time, the real Russia.
24:04The one most Russians live in.
24:07So Tony, time to enjoy life.
24:10Ooh, the gentle chicken meat.
24:11Really?
24:12I need something gentle, Tony.
24:14The secretion and ratatou.
24:17Ratatou.
24:19May I propose a toast?
24:20Let's go for it.
24:21Two gentle chicken meats.
24:23Pro tip, if the word gentle is used on a menu, avoid those items and stick to the classics.
24:29Mmm.
24:30Like blini with caviar and cold pickled herring and potatoes.
24:34And solyanka, the soup of sturgeon, salmon, olives and lemon.
24:40Is healthcare free anymore in this country?
24:44Well, officially they say it's free.
24:46But if you want to get operation within a month and you can't wait, you won't get it.
24:51There's a long line of doughs.
24:53How about education?
24:55Up to the high school, it's still free.
24:57The quality is not best as it used to be.
25:00People used to get a lot of things for free.
25:02Now it's coming to an end.
25:04You ask for globalism?
25:06You got it, buddy.
25:07According to Reaganomics, there's the trickle-down theory, okay?
25:11Yeah.
25:11So that means that if I make lots and lots and lots and lots of money,
25:15that money will somehow trickle down to you.
25:18You know, my masseur, my garage attendant, my aromatherapist.
25:24They, of course, will be making money.
25:26I will be buying more things for various wives and prostitutes.
25:31In this way, I don't exactly share the wealth, but I trickle it down.
25:36And if you don't like your job of dropping my feces-spattered walls,
25:41or cleaning up my dead prostitutes, you could leave your job at Walmart
25:46and become a billionaire like me.
25:48Hmm.
25:50Or you make a porn film, then you go on a reality show,
25:52and you become really, really rich.
25:54For doing nothing.
25:55It's fantastic.
25:58Tony, I'm convinced.
25:59I think you know what you are doing in life, man.
26:02No, no, no.
26:27Do you put on your jammies?
26:28Uh-huh.
26:29I just want to state for the record, just because you're in the top bunk,
26:33that's no indication of any relationship that we may or may not have.
26:37You and me have to be very careful when we're in public,
26:40and if we bring up subjects like this, there could be some different repercussions.
26:44You know, tolerance never existed in Russia.
26:46That's why when just recently people started to come out in Russia,
26:50like lesbians and gays, they were either fired from the jobs
26:53or were given, like, hard time to exist.
26:56Well, what about Tchaikovsky?
26:59They try not to acknowledge it by saying he was a great musician, so...
27:03He was a great musician who liked to have sex with other men.
27:07That's what people are not meant to learn in school.
27:23You were the best one for it.
27:24You can do this in the middle of the night or the night.
27:33You're not a king.
27:33You're a king.
27:33You're the king.
27:34You're the king.
27:36You're the king.
27:40You're the king.
27:41You're the king.
27:44and that's the former winter palace you remember what happened in October 1917
27:48everybody came charging through charged up the steps and looted the winter
27:52palace and Kerensky who was in charge of interim government had to put on his
27:56female outfit to escape the revolutionary peasants that wouldn't go
28:01over well these days right not anymore recently in the run-up to the
28:07social Olympics attention has been drawn to a wave of rabidly homophobic remarks
28:11by public officials images of gay and lesbian activists being beaten and
28:16harassed in the street often with official or semi-official consent and a new
28:21law which claims to forbid promoting homosexual propaganda to minors but
28:27which can be interpreted any way the authorities choose
28:34what's happening here what's going on oh my god
28:40I don't know what's going on every day I ask myself what's going on what's going on
28:46do you have to be afraid no I have nothing to lose so I can be myself I am nobody
28:56in social system and I understand it
28:59artist and filmmaker Xenia Robrek is a brave young woman she's openly gay
29:05she's been attacked and Kommunikation of an insane culture but also it's alright
29:06lately the actual hunting of gay people has been documented violent skinhead gangs
29:11who contact gay men and women online arrange meetings under false pretenses then
29:16violently ambush them there have been very few prosecutions
29:23even you can get killed for this our local fixer dasha helps translate
29:35this new law it prohibits propaganda amongst minors
29:48it's like about anti-soviet propaganda you can go to jail for anything it means whatever they
29:56wanted to be yes we look how many gay families we have with kids and those people are in maximum
30:04stress right now because their families might be ruined right we rightly see this as outrageous
30:11the russian public however it's very likely a vote-getter a cynical pandering to a powerful
30:17and enduring vein of deep-seated homophobia that goes way way back
30:26what do you think the source of this hatred is it's not about russian orthodox church okay it's about
30:33political structure it's about power we have two russians okay what are they
30:40big like a big bear not very sophisticated and based on instinct country okay and the other
30:50side is the country of intelligent people uh thoughtful people a lot of these political
30:56leaders are they using the issue of gay rights to appeal to a larger audience they try to play with
31:04bear because usually what happens when you play with the bear is tomorrow or the next day or the next
31:10day
31:10the bear eats you yeah are you hopeful it's about responsibility it's about responsibility we we should never give
31:36up
31:37farm to table in russia organic local why yes there are those who are trying sergey snorov is a very
31:47popular
31:47musician and leader of the band leningrad leningrad leningrad was banned in moscow purportedly for promoting
31:55alcoholism this is sergey's wife matilda together they've opened this restaurant coco co with the mission to
32:11bring genuinely local quality russian food to diners we opened this restaurant one year ago which will uh
32:19work only with local seasonal farmers food and we are the first who did it look in all of russia
32:25yes in
32:26all of russia traditional combination rye bread and russian fish chef igor grishekin's version of sushi
32:36instead of rice or traditional russian black bread with sprats mackerel cod liver and salmon caviar old
32:44school but looks new school when i first came here 2001 the best restaurant in moscow was a nightmare of
32:54french japanese ingredients recipes from nowhere everyone hated russia wanted to be someone else
33:08wow pearl barley lightly smoked raw beef topped with quail egg
33:18very interesting combination very nice what's the most popular thing what do people want the most
33:25popular it's italian japanese cuisine and uh karaoke and caro
33:30better walk the old place sounds like a nightmare fusion tony that's the word cheers
33:42oh that was good
33:56before putin before gorbachev khrushchev stalin and lenin
34:01there was this imperial russia mighty palaces spread across the empire where the very very few
34:09lived in unimaginable luxury that's paul czar paul well their people worked and starved didn't work
34:17out so well for paul did it not really they choked the dude to death right actually he was strangled
34:23with a
34:23piece of the cord the czars of previous centuries were certainly living the good life money no object
34:30when it came to personal comfort or luxurious lodgings and today's imperial powers seem not far behind
34:38putin allegedly had a billion dollar palace built for him we couldn't license the actual smuggled photo
34:44but our artist rendering looks like this
34:49a putin spokesman dismissed all this telling the new york times we have congress halls built for
34:55the kremlin but if you call all of them putin's palace it is nothing but absurd oh vodka haven't
35:01tasted that before
35:08so what what would i be doing on my outing if i were a czar looking for some kulaks to
35:12oppress or
35:12hunting no enjoying life
35:20hey we're picking up some good speed here oh okay some have suggested that russia is after all this
35:27time coming full circle a tiny tiny minority in possession of nearly unlimited power and wealth
35:34the idea of running up the steps of disemboweling uh royals i could easily imagine myself doing that
35:40it would not take much convincing wow that's pleasant surprise i would hurl the ball into the sea
35:49tomorrow after the revolution in a blunt force strategy designed to even things out the government
35:55seized private residences dividing them into little pieces and portioning them out to the masses who were
36:00swarming in from the countryside to serve the new industrialized soviet union i i never had any dreams
36:07of growing up in a socialist wonderland like when i was a brief period where i was a hippie the
36:11idea
36:12of living in a commune not attractive to me i was born in a communal flat with three other families
36:17sharing one john one kitchen no way they would feed me when i had no food no way i share
36:22my toilet with no man
36:28take the first left please
36:33meet yuri human rights activist professor of journalism one of 26 tenants living together in this communal
36:41apartment an arrangement basically unchanged since soviet times just in case you change your mind and and it's
36:50It's here that I see for the first time a glimpse of my friends Amir's mysterious past growing up in
36:56a home just like this one.
36:58In Russia normally people dip your bread into this canned shit and like this.
37:04So this was normal for you growing up?
37:06Yeah.
37:06I wouldn't drink booze until probably 22 but I'll show you how it worked.
37:13So who decided who moved into these places?
37:18So those who were in charge of this specific communal services and residential department would assign X amount to this
37:26plan, to that plan.
37:28Did you get to choose your neighbors though?
37:31No.
37:31I get that.
37:32In the Soviet Union and in the present day Russia there has never been a reason to create infrastructure to
37:41make people's life better.
37:42No one really cared about the people and they should have decent toilet or shower.
37:47So how's it going lately?
37:50Better?
37:50Worse?
37:54So Vladimir Putin changed the whole landscaping in the country.
37:57First of all he started to cramp down on the human rights, on the democratic rights.
38:02The most recent laws and changes in the constitution bring up the old Soviet Union type of structure in the
38:10country.
38:11So what happens next?
38:16A year before the Soviet Union collapse you would never believe in any wildest dreams that it could happen.
38:23Nowadays he thinks it's a similar situation.
38:25It looks like a stable, you know, people are busy, money made, rich cars, but it can't go on like
38:33this for too long.
38:34So Yuri predicts it could be in a similar overnight collapsing situation.
38:40So there is some hope.
38:42You're due for some major renovations.
39:06Just another crisp morning in St. Petersburg.
39:27Niva River, ice fishing paradise.
39:31Yeah.
39:31I wouldn't go out on that.
39:33You'd have to do that for a million dollars, man.
39:35Not now.
39:35Not now.
39:38It's totally unstable.
39:52Lessons of history.
39:54Where are we?
39:55Peter and Paul's fortress, which used to be a burial place for the Romanovs,
39:59who were a little bit executed in 1917.
40:03They were very executed.
40:04And whatever they found.
40:05Originally built to defend against the marauding Swedes.
40:08God, I hate those marauding Swedes.
40:10The Peter and Paul fortress was overrun by the Bolsheviks during the revolution.
40:21So the hundred year anniversary of what is coming up?
40:24Great October socialist revolution in three years.
40:28Almost in three years.
40:29So I smell with that disparity gap in the society.
40:32Very rich and very poor.
40:34Right.
40:34That someone might bring up the masses back to the Winter Palace and storm it again.
40:40Like a hundred years.
40:41Nothing changed.
40:42Every day at noon without fail, this D30 122mm howitzer is fired to commemorate the revolution.
40:50Ready to load.
40:53Loaded.
40:55Very solemn moment.
40:58Moment of truth, Tony, for you.
41:12Come up.
41:17Attention.
41:19One.
41:19Two.
41:20Two.
41:21Four.
41:25Sweet.
41:27Enemy is destructed.
41:32Congratulations.
41:32You are the hero of Russia now.
41:36Sweet.
41:38You can't take it on the plane though.
41:41They won't understand.
41:43Don't even carry on?
41:47Since the filming of this show, a number of things have happened.
41:51Putin's Sociolympics, a blatant exercise of political muscle and a financial boondoggle
41:57the size unheard of in history, went off as planned.
42:01Russia won many gold medals, the most of any country in competition, which was really
42:07all that mattered.
42:08A few journalists complained about the bathrooms, but that is all but forgotten.
42:13More than $50 billion of mostly public money, gone.
42:19Ukraine rose up and their despotic pro-Putin president ran away.
42:24As if a foregone conclusion, Russia, in broad daylight, has recently annexed the Crimea.
42:30And as I'm writing this, is massing tens of thousands of troops on the border of Ukraine.
42:36The world has done nothing.
42:39It will do nothing.
42:41As Vladimir well knew, he wins again.
42:46When he lives again.
42:55These people yet remember, Russia can die yet again.
42:55We don't
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