Film Review: CITIZEN K
This fascinating documentary is hugely relevant today as we, Americans witness an increasingly autocratic president who is clearly in the thrall of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, a prototypical autocratic leader of one of our most powerful opponents. The film’s focus on the rise and fall of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oligarch who began his spectacular ascent during the chaos following the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s and by 2003 had become the richest man in Russia as the head of Yukos, the largest gas and oil company in Russia. At the apex of his power, he felt compelled to challenge Putin’s blatant corruption. Not surprisingly he was arrested for tax evasion and subjected to a highly publicized trial where he and his associates appeared in the courtroom in steel cages as if they were wild animals or Hannibal Lector.
© (tiff, 2019) Provided by Toronto International Film Festival
When he was sentenced to 10 years in a Siberian prison there was public outrage at what was seen as a kangaroo court. The fascinating details behind his unlikely trajectory fill in the blanks in the reformation of a formerly thoroughly mercenary man, completely focused on amassing wealth at any cost, into a hero of the human rights movement. Gibney is very balanced in his depiction of an imperfect human being. He does not gloss over the facts of his initial amassing of wealth. He bought up the vouchers which were distributed to the citizens of the former USSR when the ruble was devalued. Since no one knew what they were worth, he was able to buy up thousands of them paying kopeks on the ruble (about one thousandth of their value). When the ruble regained its value, he was suddenly enormously wealthy and he was abe to buy up most of the small independent oil and gas companies and combine them into the largest and most influential energy company in Russia, Yukos.
Yukos created thousands of jobs and Khodorkovsky began to feel responsible for his work force. He created Russia’s first national bank and felt genuine regret when it was necessary to lay off his workers. He also aligned himself with the human rights initiative called Open Russia, which advocated for more transparency in government. Presumably, he felt relatively insulated by his financial status to challenge some of Putin’s more questionable activities. This logic was fatally flawed. Putin seized Yukos and nationalized it while charging Khodorkovsky with tax fraud and sentenced him to 10 years in prison in Siberia. After his years in prison his attitude had radically changed and he had become a vocal human rights spokesperson. Putin tried to trump up more charges to extend his prison term, which surprisingly did not work. When he was released from prison he was hailed as a hero to the people.
©Shutterstock/kojoku
What did happen is that Khodorkovsky was forced to leave Russia and move to London, where it is presumed that he is somewhat safer from retaliation (although England is not proving to be wholly safe from KGB assassins of dissidents). The portrait of Khodorkovsky involves interviews with him speaking candidly of the motivations of his younger self and his greedy obsession with money and possessions. There is a Steve Jobs-like quality to his intensity and he has a mouth which, at rest, resides somewhere between a smirk and a Buddha smile. What is striking here is that there is not so much difference between America’s 19th century robber barons and Russia’s oligarchs. The oligarchs came to power at the same time as Putin and they enabled each other. The chilling aspect is that Putin is the only one left standing. The parallels and affinities between his tactics and those of Donald Trump certainly can be understood as a cautionary tale, which we ignore at our peril. As I write this Donald Trump has been acquitted on impeachment charges in a bogus trial with no witnesses and documents denied
Will his enablers have the same kind of “come to Jesus” moment as Khodorokovsky in time to stop the inexorable decline of our democracy and our place in the world?
©Claudio Onorati/ANSA via AP
Alex Gibney has given us another brilliant and insightful deep dive into a significant episode of our time. Previous subjects have included WikiLeaks, Enron, Lance Armstrong, Eliot Spitzer, Scientology, Steve Jobs, Hunter Thompson and Fela. We can advocate for change and be grateful for work like this which shines an impartial light on a serious subject.
