French director Jean-Michel Carré completes his Putin trilogy with Putin. The New Emperor" after a long analytical work on his personality and influence in the events that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, which occupied most of the space of his first two parts, "Putin's regime" (2007) and "Putin is back" (2014), and he has no choice but to cover the last part of his ascension as the sole ruler of the Russian Federation, and his dream of becoming a great emperor who controls the destinies of people and states.

The maker of the trilogy was keen on its internal interdependence, and at the same time maintained the privacy of each of them, so that if the viewer misses part of it, he understands and treats the part in front of him as an independent achievement in itself, and if he has the opportunity to pursue the whole trilogy, then he will have suffered in all its details, and on this basis the series was dealt with critically, as each part of it internally complements the previous one, but remains independent of it by the uniqueness of its subject, such as the uniqueness of the latter by researching the reasons behind the rise of " Vladimir Putin" as ruler revived the nationalist aspirations of the Russian people, playing on the strings of his deep desire to restore the glories of his country's ancient empire.

Testimonies of politicians. Further reading inside the Russian house

"Jean-Michel Carré" does not prolong or stretch his subject, but rather deepens and expands, and this is one of his stylistic qualities, and to achieve this he has always been armed with the image and meaningful research and does not object to the use of individuals, the experience of any character, no matter how important, cannot be satisfied with presenting it through the available visual materials, but rather the need objectively appears to add testimonies and analytical contributions.

As we have seen, former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine had an important role in the film, not only through his experience as a minister who accompanied the rise of Putin, but also for his critical stance on Western politics, whose arrogance contributed to his rise, and to strengthening Russia's position internationally, after it was close to death and almost erased from the map of the politically powerful.

On the subjective level, the documentary resorts to an in-depth reading of Russian experts and politicians who immersed themselves in the events, so their testimony had a role in completing two paths that occupied the narrative body of the film, namely the external factor and the subjective factor, while the narrative construction of the whole achievement knows an important film director how to build it with unmistakable skill, as all the trilogy - especially its conclusion - is busy with visual tools that keep boredom away from its viewers, despite the depth and complexity of the analysis, because his work this time did not focus on the character alone, but focused on the objective factors making Hers.

A picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the left of the screen in his youth in 1977

"Long live our great power." Celebration of the elimination of Nazism

He chose the last part in 2015 to be his starting point, and proposed the scene of the mass demonstration in Moscow on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the elimination of Nazism and the tyranny of the national spirit over it, and by interviewing some of its participants, the size of the great support for President Putin and their description of him as a strong leader who restores Russia's greatness.

The opinions of Western experts were unanimous – after presenting the demonstration scene to them – on the West's lack of awareness and misunderstanding of Russia and its people, and the fact that the change that took place in it did not affect the essence of its formation as a country that remained - despite its transition from communism to the stage of the free market - preserving the essence of its system during the two phases, a system that glorifies power and accepts the domination of one party over the affairs of the country and the people.

A quarter of a million participants chanted "Long live our great power", glorifying the life of a man who knew how to address their insides, and how to increase the dose of nationalism and patriotism among them, so the president carried the image of his father, who fell during World War II, which has many connotations that the West did not pay attention to early.

The West's disregard for the transformations taking place in Russia since Putin came to power, and its failure to help it in the smooth transition from socialism to beyond, has backfired them and raised a political profile that has become an equal rather than an ally, as described by former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.

The tyranny of the sense of greatness after the end of the Cold War dominated and continued to dominate the leaders of the West, especially the United States of America, and because of it they did not choose the right way to deal with the enemy of yesteryear, the Soviet Union and its heir, they wanted to humiliate it and completely subjugate it without appreciation of its past and important role. Instead of putting an end to the Cold War after the demise of the Warsaw Pact, they treated it as if it still existed, and sought to expand their military alliance with countries that were part of the dissolved alliance, to the point where Bush Sr. boasted: The Cold War is not over.

Photo of Vladimir Putin's gathering with the last president of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin.

Ignore the flat hand. A missed opportunity for friendship with the promised leader

The documentary reviews the policy of "Putin" in its first stage after his election in the late nineties as Prime Minister under President "Boris Yeltsin", and how he extended his hand to them, but instead of taking advantage of the opportunity, they left it hanging in the air, and ignored the stifling economic crisis of Russia, the scarcity of markets, the high rate of inflation, and the decline in purchasing power to levels of "famine", and then allied with the greedy Russian oligarchy, so they bought its old banks and factories, and obtained oil and gas at cheap prices, all of which created a state of vacuum and the need for a savior to be rescued. People from their miserable conditions during the post-socialist era.

Putin came at the right moment and appeared as a promised leader, he expelled the oligarchs and seized with an iron hand the country's natural resources, and will appear soon after as the protector of the country's security and stability, and under the slogan of fighting "terrorism" committed horrific massacres in Chechnya, and despite the opposition media exposing his lies and fabricating accusations to some of its people, the majority supported him.

Western advocates of the "end of history" will be shocked by the changes taking place in a country that they thought was over, and there is no hope of its return to life again, and with all these dramatic transformations they stubbornly insisted on ignoring it and continuing the policy of entering the Russian depth through the democracy of Ukraine and Georgia.

The dominance of the West. Anxiety bothers the heir to the hardline Soviet

The documentary provides a stunning picture of Western interventions in Russian nationalist revolutions, and shows how worried it was and their new president, heir to a strict Soviet tradition, about Western hegemony.

After the intensification of his return internally, Putin went to declare his position on them and not to allow the countries surrounding Russia to join NATO, and drew the borders of his empire with the borders of neighboring countries, and then proceeded with the policy of isolating the West from it and thinking about expanding it in the future, and in this context the world will understand his intervention in Crimea.

All this was happening while Europe was divided between submission to the American will and the primacy of its interests, which aroused the fervor of the Russian people, so they rallied around their leader, indifferent to the emerging dictatorial trend or his absolute power.

Polish the image. A return to the era of mass songs

The movie "Putin.. The new emperor" the negative effects of the West on the Russian liberal movement when he declared himself its guardian and spokesman, and on the other hand stops at the position of "Putin" from his opponents and the media critical of his actions and his exploitation of public money to strengthen his power, and he treated them harshly, described their symbols, and sought with all his strength and the strength of the country's natural resources, which almost a small circle of his confidants to dominate their amounts, all in order to change his previous image as an intelligence man to the image of a high-class state leader.

The documentary reveals Putin's organized operations to buy state media institutions and open his own television channels and his party that broadcast day and night propaganda to whitewash his image, thanks to which Putin will become the first beloved man in the country, as songs are composed for him and the masses sing songs for him, and loud trumpets will be enshrined in their minds A dangerous equation that says: Liberalism brings only problems and divisions, while centralization and the uniqueness of a capable leader in power will enhance security and stability.

Caesar gas. Europe's interests coming from the East

Gradually, the carefully crafted French documentary brings us to the beginning of the formation of the emperor's features, and explains how external circumstances pushed him to become a reality, and when the West surpassed its existence, it found itself unable to prevent or even stop it.

In the economic field, gas will be the weakest link through which pressure lies on pragmatic Europe, despite its support for US sanctions against it, it has excluded its oil and gas sources from it.

Putin knew its weakness, so he worked on it to expand his emerging empire in the Asian and Russian part of the world, and after the emergence of the "Arab Spring", his bet will be on the rulers, not the peoples, and the Syrian experience will be his new entrance to the Middle East amid the inability of the Americans and Europeans.

Emperor of war. The return of the Russian bear to the international fold

The documentary devotes considerable time to the Syrian civil war and Russia's role in maintaining Bashar al-Assad's power through its military intervention against the opposition, ignoring the protests of the world or the United Nations. Syria was a decisive bet, and by overcoming it, it proves to the world its strength and readiness to return the "Russian bear" to the international fold, to be an important pole in it, as he wanted it as a ride to impose himself as emperor.

While declaring his war on Islamic "terrorism", he was keen to present himself internally as a defender of the right of minorities, including Muslims, to live in peace and enjoy equal rights with other religions, and at the "Christian" level, we saw his great bet on the Church and the support of its leaders, based on his understanding of the power of its influence on people, and most importantly its role in strengthening his presence as the sole leader of the country.

The author of the "Putin Trilogy" director Jean-Michel Carré

The documentary concludes facts reinforced by his investigations, interviews and the large amount of photographic documents and archives, namely that Emperor Putin has become a reality, or at least on his way to becoming what he wishes, and on the other hand he rules out the possibility of the United States retreating from its condescending policy and its permanent sense of superiority, while betting on a growing China that prefers its self-interests over others does not seem feasible in finding solutions that reduce tension between the West and Russia, and in this case only Europe remains, as it is the only one that It has a strong interest in doing so.

How right is director Jean-Michel Carré's conclusion after a long scrutiny of research? Let us leave it to time to judge, but what is important for the recipient is how much the documentary has provided him with visual enjoyment and cognitive enrichment.