Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on February 14, 2025 in order to attend this event.

Please join the Harriman Institute and The SOF/Heyman for a panel discussion about The New Russian Documentary featuring the volume’s editors, Anastasia Kostina (Columbia University) and Masha Shpolberg (Bard College), in conversation with scholar and film critic Anna Nieman and Justin Wilmes (East Carolina University). The panel is followed by a screening of Putin’s Witness, followed by a Q&A with director Vitaly Mansky. Moderated by Justin Wilmes, Associate Professor of Russian Studies at East Carolina University.

Putin’s Witnesses (2018), a film by renowned documentary director Vitaly Mansky, provides a critical look back at Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 1999/2000: the unexpected resignation of Russia’s president Boris Yeltsin, the appointment of Putin as interim president, and Putin’s aggressive presidential campaign which led to his election in March 2000. The film is based on the unique documentary footage shot by Mansky in 1999 and 2000, which provides personal testimonies from those involved in “Operation Successor,” including Putin himself.