Putin admitted that he was persuaded by his press secretary to participate in an Oliver Stone film
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his press secretary Dmitry Peskov persuaded him to participate in the filming of American director Oliver Stone’s "Interview with Putin," noting that he had not prepared for it in advance.
"Where is the culprit, mister comrade Peskov? He disappeared somewhere; he is not here. It is he who persuaded me sometime in the past," Putin said.
According to the president, Peskov explained that Oliver Stone is a very famous, Oscar-winning filmmaker who will shoot the film primarily for an American audience and it will primarily focus not on Putin but on Russia, which is important in getting American audiences to learn about Russia as much as possible.
Then, Putin added, "I had a second question: how objectively would he convey what I was going to tell him, whether he would cut, comment or distort something there." According to him, Peskov admitted that he could not guarantee this, nevertheless emphasizing Stone’s decency.
"I agreed. I do not see this as a project. I want you to understand how this all was happening. The staff of the administration, and in particular my press secretary approached and said: ‘Tomorrow such a team will come. We found a few minutes, an hour, in your schedule and you could meet with them.’ And I said ‘good.’ But I had even forgotten that they had arrived. They told me, ’They are waiting already.’ I went to them, started talking, and then left afterwards and immediately forgot about them," Putin said.
The head of state also admitted that he has not yet watched this film fully, since he fell asleep while watching it.
"I will reveal to you such an intimate secret. I watched this film when I was returning from a visit abroad in an airplane. And since I slept little there, I watched it on the plane and fell asleep, so I did not finish watching it, but I'll definitely finish it sometime," Putin said.
He remarked that everything about the film was objective, according to the reviews of those who had seen it. "There are no plans for any continuation," he added.