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Putin, Russia and the West

For the first time Putin's top colleagues and some western statesmen tell the inside story of one of the world's most powerful men.
This four-part series is made by a team with a track record for getting behind closed doors with multi-award-winning series like The Death of Yugoslavia, The Second Russian Revolution, and Iran and the West.

Thursday 19 January
BBC-2 at 9 pm		 (1) Taking control

In this episode, George W Bush meets Putin in June 2001 and declares he looked him in the eye and 'got a sense of his soul'. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice recall their discomfort. But Rice, the only Bush adviser in the private talks, reveals that, three months before 9/11, Putin gave Bush a prophetic warning about Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban. After 9/11, Putin describes how he convinced his shocked colleagues that Russia should align with the West. Sergei Ivanov, Russian's defence minister, tells how the Taliban secretly offered to join forces with Russia against America.
Thursday 26 January
BBC-2 at 9 pm		 (2) Democracy threatens

The second episode includes an extraordinary interview with former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, who tells how, in the 2004 election, he set about getting his chosen successor elected president - with the help of Putin and his Kremlin advisers.

The opposition candidate, Victor Yushchenko, relates how the election campaign won him many voters and exit polls gave him a clear lead, but the Putin/Kuchma-backed candidate was still declared the winner. This result sparked the Orange Revolution.

Kremlin officials tell how they made sure that Putin wouldn't face a similar revolution at home. Tens of thousands of young Russians were mobilised to fight the threat of democracy.
Thursday 2 February
BBC-2 at 9 pm		 (3) War

The third episode tells how, in August 2008, Russia went to war with America's ally, Georgia. Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev and Georgia's president Mikheil Saakashvili reveal why each decided it was necessary to make war on the other.

Former American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and former secretary of defense Robert Gates describe what happened inside the National Security Council as President Bush considered whether to send in ground troops to save Georgia's capital. They reveal just how near to war the conflict brought the two nuclear super-powers.
Thursday 9 February
BBC-2 at 9 pm		 (4) New Start

The final episode of the series tells the inside story of two relationships: Barack Obama's campaign to win over Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, and Medvedev's own complex dealings with Vladimir Putin.

Obama became president determined to rid the world of nuclear weapons. To begin the process he needed Russian help. So he set out to reset relations with Russia. Ignoring Putin, whom many considered still in charge, he concentrated on Medvedev.

Top officials on both sides describe how a phone call between the two young lawyer-presidents finally clinched agreement to cut their countries' nuclear arsenals in half. But inside Russia, Medvedev had a harder time.
Tuesday 7 February at 7.30 pm
Cadogan Hall, Sloane Terrace, London SW1X 9DQ
close to Sloane Square tube station (District and Circle lines)
tickets:  020 7730 4500 (box office)
or book on-line		 Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra
conductor: Valery Poliansky
Part of the Zurich International Concert Series

Tchaikovsky Polonaise from Eugene Onegin
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no.2
Tatyana Polianskaya (piano)
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade

Conductor Valery Poliansky is joined by his daughter Tatyana in Rachmaninov's richly romantic second Piano Concerto.
Monday 20 February at 6.30 pm
Duke of York's Picturehouse
Preston Circus, Brighton
tickets: 01273 602503 or 0871 902 5728 (Box Office)		 Mothers (Majki)
Director: Micho Manchevski. Starring Ana Stojanovska, Vladimir Jacev.  Macedonia 2010.  Macedonian language with English subtitles.

A triptych of fascinating stories from a director who has won a Golden Lion and was nominated for an Academy Award. Mothers highlights the delicate relationships between truth and fiction, drama and documentary, pushing the viewer to define what is reality.

Two nine-year-old girls report a flasher to the police even though they never saw him. Three filmmakers meet the only residents of a deserted village - an elderly brother and sister who have not spoken to each other in 16 years. Retired cleaning women are found raped and strangled in a small town. A reporter who writes about the murders is arrested. The fiction slowly turns into a documentary.
Monday 27 to Wednesday 29 February
The Hawth Theatre, Hawth Avenue, Crawley
tickets: 01293 553636 (Hawth box office)		 Moscow City Ballet
Formed in 1988 the company owes its distinctive style to artistry of Victor Smirnov-Golovanov, distinguished Russian choreographer and former Bolshoi soloist who has inspired new audiences to attend live ballet.
Monday 27 February at 7.30 pm Giselle
Tuesday 28 February at 7.30 pm The Nutcracker
Wednesday 29 February at 7.30 pm Swan Lake

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