Oliver Stone - The Putin Interviews

Background Information:

Putin is indeed correct that John Kerry, as Senator, was highly critical of Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” missile defense program, calling it a “cancer on our nation.” See, “Kerry Says Star Wars ‘Based on Illusion,’” Lawrence L. Knutson, Associated Press (June 4, 1985). Retrieved at: http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1985/Kerry-Says-Star-Wars-Based-on-Illusion-/id-959d3c5dace13d1264c5c18833522d2e

Background Information:

It appears that it was the Johnson Administration that first floated the idea with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to engage in joint talks about limitations on Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems, though this idea had been in consideration for years by the United States, including in the Kennedy Administration. See, “Cold War International History Conference: Paper by David S. Patterson” (1998). Retrieved at: https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/cold-war/conference/patterson.html

Background Information:

Indeed, there is evidence that Khrushchev’s decision to place missiles in Cuba was a predictable result of the US’s stationing of Jupiter missiles in Italy and Turkey—a provocative move which seemed aimed at giving the US first strike capability against the USSR. As an article in The Atlantic explains:

“The Jupiter’s’ destabilizing effect was widely recognized among defense experts within and outside the US government and even by congressional leaders. For instance, Senator Albert Gore Sr., an ally of the administration, told Secretary of State Dean Rusk that they were a “provocation” in a closed session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February 1961 (more than a year and a half before the missile crisis), adding, “I wonder what our attitude would be” if the Soviets deployed nuclear-armed missiles to Cuba. Senator Claiborne Pell raised an identical argument in a memo passed on to Kennedy in May 1961.

Given America’s powerful nuclear superiority, as well as the deployment of the Jupiter missiles, Moscow suspected that Washington viewed a nuclear first strike as an attractive option. They were right to be suspicious. The archives reveal that in fact the Kennedy administration had strongly considered this option during the Berlin crisis in 1961.”

See, “The Real Cuban Missile Crisis,” Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic (Jan/Feb. 2013). Retrieved at: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/the-real-cuban-missile-crisis/309190/

Background Information:

Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999), American film director, screenwriter, and producer regarded as one of the most influential directors in modern cinema. Most notable films: The Shining ; 2001 : A Space Odyssey ; A Clockwork Orange ; Dr. Strangelove ; and Full Metal Jacket , which examines the dehumanizing effects of the Vietnam War on soldiers. The film was released just one year after Oliver Stone’s Platoon . See, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Kubrick’s 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb satirizes Cold War hysteria over nuclear conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. See, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012

Background Information:

See, “The Real Cuban Missile Crisis,” Ibid.

Background Information:

See, “Hillary, Putin’s No Hitler,” Timothy Stanley, CNN (March 5, 2014). Retrieved at: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/opinion/stanley-hillary-clinton-hitler/

Background Information:

It is true, as Stone states, that General Curtis LeMay was a proponent of striking the USSR and beginning WWIII while the Soviet Union was still relatively weak. See, “Waiting for WWIII,” Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker (Oct. 16, 2012). Retrieved at: http://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/waiting-for-world-war-iii

Background Information:

Oliver Stone is here referring to the alternative account of the killing of Osama bin Laden by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, Seymour M. Hersh, entitled, The Killing of Osama Bin Laden (Verso 2016).

Background Information:

For a detailed account of the economic and social disaster which followed the collapse of the USSR—a disaster even greater than that of the US’s Great Depression – see, Cohen, Stephen F. Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives (Columbia University Press 2011).

Background Information:

The four parties represented in the Russian Parliament which Putin refers to are: Putin’s United Russia Party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and A Just Russia. See, “Russia Parliament Elections: How the Parties Line Up,” BBC (March 6, 2012). Retrieved at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15939801

Background Information:

Of course, this just happened again in 2016 with Donald J. Trump losing the popular vote but winning the Electoral College vote and therefore the Presidency.

Claim: “Now concerning the rights of sexual minorities. During the Soviet times, there was a criminal responsibility for homosexuals, and right now there is none. We eliminated that part of the criminal code back in the 1990s.”

For an explanation of Russia’s legal policies towards the LBGT community and their impact on that community, see, “Russia’s Mixed Messages on LGBT,” Stephen Ennis, BBC (April 29, 2016). Retrieved at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36132060. The article explains that, as of the date of its publication, no member of the LGBT community had actually been imprisoned in Russia under the newly-passed law forbidding “homosexual propaganda.”

Background Information:

Putin appears to be referring here to the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states. This was a 5-4 decision in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 US __ (2015). In truth, the Supreme Court had invalidated all state laws criminalizing homosexual activity 12 years sooner in the case of Lawrence v. Texas, 539 US 558 (2003).

Background Information:

The “gay propaganda law” was signed into law by President Putin on June 30, 2013. While the stated purpose is to protect children from homosexual content, activists counter that the law is used against the LGBT community in general. See, “Russia: Court Rules Against LGBT Activist,” Human Rights Watch (February 3, 2016). Retrieved at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/03/russia-court-rules-against-lgbt-activist

Claim: “So I was very much surprised to hear criticism from the United States, because some legislation in the United States provides criminal responsibility for homosexuals.”

Contradicting: As indicated above in fn. 82, Putin is in fact incorrect that homosexual activity is still criminalized in the US. Such criminalization, while lasting into this century, was finally ended with the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas.

Background Information:

Putin is right on the money in terms of his estimate that Muslims make up about 12% of the Russian population, and shall make up about 20% by the year 2030. He is also correct that the absolute number of Muslims in Russia continues to grow, and indeed to far outpace the general population growth in Russia. Indeed, contrary to Putin’s claims, the overall population of Russia is actually in decline. See, “Russia’s Growing Muslim Population,” Strafor Enterprises (Aug. 8, 2013). Retrieved at: https://www.stratfor.com/image/russias-growing-muslim-population