For centuries the kremlin chimes have been counting the hours and minutes and marking changing times india is for those who dont know or maybe have forgotten i will remind you that the times india is change surprisingly regularly in 20th century russia. In 1917 the bolsheviks overthrew the czar and replaced him with a communist government for the following 70 years. Then in 1991 after Michelle Goldberg perestroika reforms the russian people overthrew the reds and voted Boris Yeltsin in as president in the countrys 1st democratic elections. However with freedom came the economic crisis and the 1st chechen war whilst yeltsin was anointed modern days are and then his health started to fail. This is how russia entered the new century and a new millennium. Being a documentary film director i recorded what was going on around me. This film is my personal witness testimony about the events of one single not meant to c. N. N. From the 31st of december 1999 to the 31st of december 2000. For the freedom of russia was just last for the freedom of the media. We. Didnt win the freedom of the media will be guaranteed. But. People are really curious theyve all gathered here for you well and shared press freedom. Nobody appreciates the freedom in this country. Jim was told we know your wrong we do appreciate it thank you k. K. By nightfall all the key figures in the campaign had gathered in the Campaign Office. Its important i introduce them to you. But. Less than russias minister of press broadcasting and Mass Communications and owner of the countrys Largest Advertising Agency his ministry supervised all the t. V. Channels in russia either directly or indirectly. Gleb pup loves the former soviet dissident and chief political advisor in the kremlin in the early years of putins rule 12 years after putin became president he joined the opposition. Senior palmarejo over the former head of channel one russia and deputy head of putins Campaign Office she joined the opposition shortly after the election and died in 2016 at the age of 54. Mikhail kasyanov Prime Minister of russia during putins 1st term also later went into opposition he was persecuted and publicly humiliated after a t. V. Show screened a hidden shooting of his intimate life. Blood is laughs or cough was the kremlins main ideology. Just and held senior positions between 2002013 he was demoted after putin returned for his 3rd term in office. Valentyn you musharraf was Boris Yeltsins chief of staff in the 1st person yeltsin spoke to after the Election Results were announced in 2002 you musharraf married yeltsins daughter tatiana. Anatoly to beis was coleader of the union of right forces in parliament and one of the architects of economic reform in russia as well as a close associate of Boris Nemtsov after putins fast term his party lost all its seats in parliament and went into opposition. It was there for you. As though that you would. Work in sheer numbers that he should. Eventually shift. Well talk. To all those we 3. Get. What you. Believe company. If you want to be here with. Anybody. Not absolute not the collapse of a single thing niall lately but you will have to tell it up if you want to. Nibble but i will bludgeon a couple mr winning in the dust and the other get what theyre looking at the family owes a debt of the. Things that general wish the state to show that. It is the moment when. They make that. When there is still. The. No. Now wont be. She. Lost. The press conference was great these were great words one should take them down congratulations well now we should we should have a drink. With your lets have a drink and then get to bed for we should toast who supports your. Claim that he wanted to leave you there still is what i believe is good for you sir are you surprised. At all the washington. Asked. The council who will serve us there are no waiters here i never heard such a coming of this was going to. Take only a question of late and say well we can serve our selves like this theres a meeting tomorrow at 10 would you not look up to know if you still or. 3 you know where youre from. I belong to the people. Who want to meet the people. The people are us the electorate so theres a time when it wasnt so but its a serious and unfortunately not all of us can gather here insufficient some people are sitting up or downstairs where theres no table like this so theyre sitting at their p. C. s nor will this really unusual under but their enthusiasm is obvious and ill ask dimitri i told you to think everyone once again has so many. More you can use them. Sometimes she says the same goes for everyone gathered here. I was meant to do but. Not now so we didnt always agree but in fact which everything was developed step by step little by little no aiming at the result were currently moving closer towards. The end its mission. In the career and you know what its. Going so well. So i want to thank you all and congratulate you. Was that you know to put it the better of them or just but. This is your success because there is the russian. Troops. In the world that her re already sounds a bit hoarse thats because were all tired it was a great effort now well get a 2nd wind. Possible thank you and see you tomorrow. Were going to. Help. The t. V. Set in the Campaign Headquarters was tuned to n. T. V. Just a year later russias best channel would be broken up and nationalized immediately to ask do you know i need our church or you know can you hear. Them if you know them or you know if anyone cares you know some money. You. Hold of her are. Just like all that. Is the believe in yourself you know sort of place if you are fortunate lets hear. The russians not very much roses or. Even now looking through the footage hi can hear Boris Nemtsov voice coming from the t. V. Against the hubbub in the winners Campaign Headquarters i turned up the volume. And. Russia was it but you didnt get what your ship called you know look cool got a question positive distinctness health care. It was only a little bit so you. Can post an issue of kargil conscious decision to govern us oh yes there is just a ghost of a star in the ocean will this approach will work will you get them to live on the ready look like models it was a good Service Truck because when. You move you to the lowest a couple of the strips you can use less theyre going to continue to burn in the us which. Is the nurse who is a National Story going to destroy. The drugs of the yet youre still new girls are resistant certainly knew. That tomorrow was to stretch out for many years in the autumn of 2015 the body of the millionaire mccann lesson was found with head injuries in a cheap hotel in washington d. C. It was with her 300. And in the winter of that same year off who had joined the opposition to putin was shot right under the walls of the kremlin strangely enough most of the people who worked for putins victory and stood shoulder to shoulder with him when he was elected have today either gone into opposition or been dismissed like Alexander Voloshin the kremlin chief of staff and even putins wife looked miller whom he divorced. And the only person still with him at least for now is Dmitri Medvedev who became interim president of russia between putin 2nd and 3rd terms. That it may have putin took power like a hot knife slicing through butter coopting a submissive state happy. Greatest ready and waiting to follow its new leader. The state was as yet still unfamiliar with the concept of vertical power the subordination of everything from parliament to the economy to one single command center was already going into high gear. Although the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky hadnt been imprisoned yet and n. T. V. Was still daring to criticize the president as for example over his handling of the loss of the cursed Nuclear Submarine it was already becoming quite obvious that it was better not to cross the president the ghosts of the past were reappearing and trying to make up for what had been lost in the present soon of Ladysmith Putin the president of the Russian Federation would call the collapse of the soviet empire the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century. Meanwhile i went on shooting my film which was now about the elected president followed by a film about life in the kremlin it seemed that nothing radically changed during the 1st year of putins presidency just details and nuances that seemed insignificant to add 1st glance. For example the president signed a federal law returning the banner of victory over fascism to the army. Well what bana did they hoisted over the reichstag in 1985 the red soviet flag of course with its stock hammer and sickle and although the trickle i was still the National Flag of russia the president ial guard swore allegiance to the red flag of our old soviet home. And. The new president also brought a new inner circle to the kremlin. Equal section former deputy in some petersburg became one of its main figures it was said chin who was seen as the prime mover in bringing the Business Community to heel and imprisoning Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In would take over as head of rosneft the oil company that swallowed up khodorkovsky after his arrest. Because good example today out of you doesnt because. Of im going to get myself because i was a failure which most im sure she was going to talk about on the news after receiving. My work chris alternate in an official film that was aired on russian state t. V. On the 1st anniversary of putins presidency and the shown in many countries of the world. Even today im not ashamed of it in fact it seems to have matured and shows a lot that had gone unnoticed at the time however i am still being asked if anything was left on the cutting room floor it was for example this. So you turned on your camera again she. Is going to have. About the way people live. Recently i was in. And some woman not yet elderly but also not young said to me. Give us back our old life. The way it was 20 years ago. And what can you say to that its impossible to get anything back. And you can either recover your youth nor bygone things and you will of this. Moreover if we try to return to that we have to move but we will definitely destroy everything to do to ensure that people arent doing worse than they did before you look better than. That is something we can do to wrench. It. So this is such a candid conversation so i cannot help but ask why did you restore the old soviet anthem. And if this is connected with what i just said. It is necessary to restore the citizens confidence in the establishment yeah. But. That woman who said we should give back her old life the way it was 20 years ago. People shouldnt feel that they are being deprived of something. She has to grow old but we have to live on. That. Yes youre right we have to live on. The why do you think we should live with this music rather than that. Solution when we listen to the anthem written by alexander why cant we think about our victory in world war 2 rather than the gulag. Why should we necessarily associate this music with the worst nasonex of life during the soviet period of time and reason. With that conversation about the anthem i was trying to find out why putin thought the state should return to the past at all especially when todays russia still has not yet come to terms with it. But if i told you it would hardly be possible to restore things. But its a really important a sense that the majority of the population has a certain nostalgia. You must not deprive people of everything. This is the moral aspect. This is what i think about when i remember my parents but this was part of their lives do we just dump it all on the scrap heap of history as if they hadnt lived at all and he knew it would be very cruel towards our parents so that is at least one reason actually. I didnt. You know the sort of servant on the quarterly going to work. Who knows the divorce medical but im. Pretty sure thats what you would look unsubtle there is certain is which are not enough sitting outside of those receive a. Car wash your car from what you thought a few years ago youll still have it off. Because it was a good recruiting. This all castrol under the supervision of the film director nikita mccall call fantasias father surrogate who wrote the lyrics for to save your tantrums is working hard to record new fashions of the former soviet and present russian anthems well thats again by mikhail cough senior. Fellow at the. Never. Seen. For. What it is never stop lights dim career. I tell her difficulty of. The over the. Polls close. Is the most wizard written just much over its natural. Course of the book more patient than age or fortune of. The ships and that i think she may have moved into those jeffs on the suspicion in the money on the over there and yes that is at peace i can only conclude since to. The fullest. Theres a. Good. So we believe theres obviously sherry whos been seeing. Her. Slug. He says if someone. Says. That he did you think you know something of. An unexpected morning call from the kremlin brought me back to the president s office if you can believe it hello you again with the silly camera the careful the cameras on the way. I wanted to have a heart to heart talk strictly speaking i thought i could take the liberty of talking about it. I do not know what your goals are this way and i wont interfere in the creative process. Do things as you see fit im not trying to impose anything on you youre just you which i just want to state my point of view and you can decide whether you use it or not. So about a conversation about the end of the old even with who started the effects of the me why havent we return to the old melody by alexander the crucially unfortunately many people dont understand history that way and its strange that there is such a misunderstanding as sure it was clear to me i do not know if i managed to convey this yesterday in what was more or less a formal conversation is that it would suit the. So little to me it was a detour that he might have lets say the restoration of the anthem way to soviet melody and gives additional bonuses to someone involved in politics in respect of increased ratings or public confidence. This is necessary in order to achieve anything that those that you must be able to rely on the population is trust. Of course you can always argue about the ways to make that happen and choose the best option. What happens if there is a dispute with your thora tis with a president its very simple there are instruments of democracy a lot of people have signed a petition against the anthem like the conscience of the nation so to speak. This conscience does not feel for the tragedy that the people are going through. It was signed by people who do feel it and who voted for you. To assist you understand that whenever i have to make certain decisions some people including the ones who voted for me will always say that they are wrong so. I believe i have to explain my motives to everyone simply everyone him and then act as i deem necessary with us who will be. Nice to. Do things we need so youre not afraid you will lose some of that trust by taking tough decisions that will somebody. When you know i think its obvious that the decision should be taken in the interests of the state and humans regardless of whether they provoke a positive or a negative reaction as well as we can you have to understand that. You can agree or disagree but you really must understand that if you really think about it you absolutely see youre already wavering me and you know im not if you want me to say that im wavering. No but this is a matter that could have been put on hold for now like the issue with lennon and the more slim lead in the mouths of the issue of the labor code could also been put off. No it couldnt happen. To them thats your opinion others think that land reform could have been put off a little when they said that there was no need to introduce a new land of what people like that exist to do you think theyre less important than those who do not want to have the old anthem back you would get it when you can get. Anything all it takes is the art of the possible the art of possible compromises isnt it. Yes it is although thats a nice phrase that you can use whenever whenever you need to fill a part of. Both the ways you said it was a compromise. On the. Yes to a certain extent it is a compromise. But its still. It certainly looks like a compromise to continue state of the business. But if it gets in the easter nevertheless these are meaningful actions to achieve a position which you can rely on to solve substantive tasks in the reconstruction of the state and the modernization of the economy so that you. Can see i cant disagree with that argument and well see what you see were already moving closer. But only with this argument just because our positions are moving closer and yet you say people cant be persuaded. I dont know why putin needed to convince me his decision was right when it was already impossible to restore the anthem was there anyone left to disagree with him are you concerned you havent persuaded everyone of the correctness of this decision that if you cannot persuade everyone unfortunately its impossible 140000000 people and you cant discuss things with everyone a person says although i think id be able to if i could only its not possible. You will use with said no offense but i still dont share your opinion about the ounce of. Pity. On the 31st of december 2000 exactly a year had passed since the resignation of Doris Yeltsin and the appointment of Vladimir Putin as his successor. Yeah. Yeah. Good. News for. You what. Would you. Think. Its. Polluting got his sea legs quickly enough and increasingly distanced himself from his men talk. The fishing think the film or anything like that play them and. Then we put in the rest that we brits have to face you begin to put me right he not as a critic for the critique of the with and with that thats really rough going to get a bit of trouble but i think its because youre looking to fill a book. During the year after his resignation Boris Yeltsin rediscovered the original meaning of the word family if you chose 3 minutes to midnight lets turn to the outgoing yes the question putin would have gotten the word to mean that by the way this is the 1st year that its been more or less peaceful theres none of the yearning of the previous 10 years the feeling of thank god its over with here dear relatives through it was just the words dear friends. Stored. For tonight. Is here ringing out the old year and ringing in the new you know hillary and im sure you know for this country. Would be upcoming year will be better than the old one. Will be better. And yet we are ringing in. Our rather and bringing out the old year with a certain sense of loss. Nary a or says the lord for me. To see. If. He. Was. Worth. Today restore the anthem without your knowledge even the new lyrics couldnt save it. Cause its reddish. I felt this word reddish which embodied all the bitterness of this reanimation of the soviet past also became a valedictory sign for me yeltsin died in the 7th year of that image putins presidency. But. Does the president have a say over a lot of things but certainly the head of state has a say over many things. Certain functions of the president are laid down by the law they are very comprehensive and president ial powers may become the determining factor for forming these functions correctly but if you live in the union as a rule to be just far as things ive been planning are concerned ive basically managed to meet the goals ive set for myself. So you can put it is. Just what is your attitude towards the all embracing unity of the nation under the guidance of the wise visionary and just that it may have putin do with me should she. Choose to return i sense a slight irony in your question. There for. 30 years already been everything we used to call extreme and this certainly doesnt help but rather foreigners are used to buy anything so all the bustling monuments and other elements of our talk receive left over from the past and cannot leave everyone but they are very difficult to counter the dimensions of the shall we go if. I admit despite the fact that this was only the 1st year of putins rule all my questions were already raising issues of succession of power imperial ambitions and autocracy although there was no obvious reason for this and if you listen to believe what putin said then you should have had no reason whatsoever to worry about russias future. But. We do must be getting out of the car and buying a mug of beer is quite difficult as you can probably guess because youre always on the move with a lot of people. Around you its not so. Much that someone so there is a problem with the traffic yes now if i get out of the car and start drinking beer thousands will wait for the motorcade to pass and nothing good will come of it to shoot you just like you are so sure theres that bias the got this and im not sure if this is just the simplest example of some of us but everything is like that plus it. Sure would you like fashion. The news youre watching that you yes i would. I do believe that the day will cause im going to be able to return to a normal life i want since i do believe that someday ill have a future as a private citizen but ill be engaged in some other activity and will live the life of a normal person you should not mention. Wealthy so wonderful but stay foster a certain optimism you can accumulate. Was not something you should know i dont sense any irony in what you say youll be true and ill tell you why you know what you mean its a its very important that sense go with this by the way as we are returning to your question about whether it wouldnt be better to step into the shoes of a modern citizenship of him im not. Going to 1st of all the month of the life of a monarch is quite complicated she doesnt live but monarchs quite often in recent years in various parts of the world during official visits just to be at the opening of the Senate Museum and i can say that their faith does not inspire me at all or at least i would not like to experience anything like that although some of the study of. The problem comes to see just where life is hard and full of restrictions you need the results you can get them they dont belong to themselves it was in the sea. Well thats their destiny but also most. Recently and its forever is one of those with the muslims in this respect not an elected head of state has a better life than those since it gives you a chance to prove yourself in the greatest need leads you in service to the motherland with a maximum effort. A marksman. Posters already been stolen but of the same type that only gives you an opportunity to live a normal life after uniform your official duties after the edge over term sick the community and you dont let your constantly being reminded that youre terminal and one day. Youre going to muslim would seek treatment of mileage look at you know mr bush and you will know that 1st of all have to live a life of a normal person did and as they used to say in a way you want to shamed oh. Well i was more than. Normal so im so that you can address people openly in your new positions without of hurting your game as it was an ebook dont you sure as one of more thing is very important in that it is necessary to understand that you will live as a normal citizen even and that in a few years time youll be confronted with everything you do with the state in the society now as an ordinary citizen. A student they were going to learn you. Its a good lesson should not only to see you mr will its a good thing to remember that before taking any decision rather than yielding to monarchical initial was. The luckiest man because weve been here 2 years. I shall we perhaps ill put a camera down inside his offscreen huge if you dislike of the usual if you do exactly as you are saying you will do now it will become a pledge of homes where the future for both the country and you pass nothing in it was leeched dont know youre going to storm of the discussion never goes right but as im telling you just as i thought ive sat and thought what a rack my brains about how it should be there still i dont wait dont think about how your children will lead if you tell me how the children of your friends and relatives will live and how you will have to see what kind of country it will be. To society as new recruits and this is a serious issue most probably the source of all the advantages of democracy of course double aid i dont know it would be rash one of the reasons why democracies have. Democracies are more resilient you go back to just good job you are good you immigrate so you know to put it this puzzle you. More goes not no idea what to say now so lets keep our fingers crossed and 2 thumbs up. When. Clearly. Going to get. There. You just. Put in still rules russia a lot has happened over the years hes been in power the end of the war in chechnya and the beginning of the chechen wars in moscow the olympics and doping scandals the crimea and the war in ukraine and a growing confidence and getting kicked out of the g 8 war over there was emigration imprisonments and the deaths of those who try to speak out against putin and there was also the price i had to pay for naively assuming i was just a witness life has proven that tacit consent turns witnesses into accomplices so we all voluntarily became hostages of the very person who was leading us towards a glorious future that ultimately came to echo the dark past. The. The band. Playing an internment camp. We go goodbye. Managed to escape from china. And turkey she meets other weaker side who also report on the horrific conditions in the camps. Good jellied of op wants to tell her story so the whole world can know the plight of her people. In 30 minutes on d w. These days people meticulously planned everything work on days off everywhere all for the sake of fishing see. As a result many people feel stressed out. What is optimal time management and do even meeting in the 1st place. Made in germany 90 minutes on d w. 50 years of religions for peace people from many Different Things are working together toward a common goal the peaceful resolution of religious conflicts. Now the female members are religious who peers from the middle east are demanding a larger. Own Common Ground is empowering women giving them the rule. Making them agent of change rather. Than the female peacemakers stores january 5th on t. W. This is news and these are our top stories russias Security Service the f. S. B. Says it has neutralized a gunman who opened fire on a its headquarters in central moscow one f. S. B. Employee was killed and several people were aboard said one dead in the attack the motive is not yet clear. At least 3 people are dead in india after protests against a controversial new citizenship law demonstrate