In a bold show of power, Putin pressures his advisors to support the invasion of Ukraine
A new documentary examines an ‘unhinged’ meeting that took place three days before Russia sent in troops
Sitting in a row like school children several metres away from the Russian president, members of Vladimir Putin's security council take turns standing at a podium. There, they make seemingly forced calls to recognize the independence of pro-Russia separatist regions in Ukraine — a move that Putin would go on to make, and that many in the West see as a precursor to the full-scale invasion of the country.
"They went up there and dutifully said what the master wanted them to say," Julia Ioffe, the founding partner of media company Puck, says in the documentary Putin's Road to War.
As seen in the video, Putin berates the head of his foreign intelligence agency, Sergei Naryshkin, as he stumbles over his words. He tells Naryshkin to "speak plainly," cornering him into clearly stating he supports the idea, then dismisses him. Like the other advisors in the room, Naryshkin appears to be powerless.
"It was unhinged, having his national security team, one by one, press him to invade Ukraine," Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, says in the documentary.
This was the meeting that took place three days before Russia deployed troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. And since Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been injured and killed. And the shelling of villages, towns and cities — including Kyiv, Mariupol and Lviv — has left them virtually unrecognizable.
"You see how this all went down. How much of it was driven just by one man [and] his deranged ideas, and everybody around him was too scared to say anything about it or to resist," Ioffe says in the documentary.
The documentary takes a look back at Putin's life before his 22-year presidency began as well as the days leading up to the invasion. Through journalists' reporting and expert analysis, the film investigates what may have driven this leader to the destruction of Ukraine.
"This was not the war of the Russian people against the Ukrainian people. This really is Vladimir Putin's war," Susan Glasser, the co-author of Kremlin Rising, says in the documentary.
Watch Putin's Road to War on CBC Gem.
