All the wizards of the Kremlin

The film The Kremlin Magician, This French production, directed by Olivier Assayas with a screenplay by Emmanuel Carrère, represents what no one had dared to do before: to stage on screen the background and key figures of the first fifteen years of Putin's Russia. It depicts the transition to a police state, a synthesis of Soviet totalitarianism and oligarchic capitalism. I gather that screenwriter Emmanuel Carrère—son of historian Hélène Carrère de Encausse—has greatly irritated the Kremlin, but he has been skillful enough to guarantee the physical safety of some characters by changing their names.

The most striking identity change is that of Vladislav Surkov—considered the architect of Putinism—who served the Kremlin's owner unconditionally for four decades, and who in the film—based on Gio Baranov's novel of the same name—is revealed to be a man of few words. Most film reviews morbidly focus on the Surkov-Baranov identity, overlooking that of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who also appears in the film under a different name. Imprisoned for ten years, the magnate is now... He conspires from his exile in the United Kingdom, in contact with figures like chess champion Garry Kasparov.

The film's sensationalism enhances the "performances." Like that of Eduard Limonov, a pro-Putin Nazi-Bolshevik agitator, displaying his red flag with a white circle and the hammer and sickle in the center instead of the swastika. And Boris Berezovsky, who committed suicide in London in 2013, dramatically acknowledging that he was wrong to act as Putin's godfather.

But beyond identities Kremlin Distorted, the screenwriter simply avoids mentioning and staging some key episodes from those years. And one has to wonder why Carrère, of all people, omits them. And I would venture to say that it is also the price he pays to preserve his own safety. One of these episodes took place in September 1999: explosions near Moscow and other cities killed more than 300 people, humble people, mostly residents of working-class apartment blocks. The Kremlin blamed Chechen terrorists, but many detected and identified Kagebist agents planting the bombs.

Was this a maneuver by Putin to unite the Russian people around him against Chechen terrorism and thus seize power? A few weeks later, Putin's coalition won the parliamentary elections, and he went from being head of the FSB—the former KGB—to prime minister, and in less than three months, to president of Russia. Was Putin responsible for the September massacre? Alexander Litvinenko, a police officer who switched sides—and went into exile in London with Berezovsky—asserts so in his book. Blowing up Russia –Blowing up RussiaAnd he pays for it with his life after Putin's agent Andrei Lugovoi drops a dose of polonium-210 into his cup in the autumn of 2006 at a Piccadilly bar.

Fiction to ensure safety

This is in the film The Kremlin Wizard It's neither mentioned nor discussed, despite being the cruelest episode in Putin's consolidation of power. I understand that Marina Litvinenko, the victim's wife—with whom I spoke shortly after the murder—still needs protection.

Vladislav Surkov definitively resigned as Putin's man in February 2020 and disappeared from the political scene in the midst of the pandemic. It's more than likely that Emmanuel Carrère contacted him to stage the Kremlin magicians' scenario, giving him the lead role under the name Vadim Baranov. The film ends with the gunshot to the head that kills Baranov at his front door. A sequence as fictional as it is necessary to keep Surkov safe. Without Putin in power, the film's ending would surely have been different.