Putin, Russia and the West - Season 1

Season 1
Episodes

Taking Control
Charting Vladimir Putin's rise to the top in Russian politics and how he has maintained his hold on power despite growing unrest in the country, including allegations of electoral fraud and thousands of protesters taking to the streets of Moscow. The programme features interviews with some of his senior colleagues and Western politicians he has clashed with, analysing how Putin became a key ally of the West after becoming president despite his earlier spell in the KGB.

Democracy Threatens
Former Ukraine president Leonid Kuchma tells the inside story of his country's 2004 elections and admits to being Putin's ally. The programme explores how Russian-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner at the expense of his opponent Viktor Yushchenko, sparking the Orange Revolution. Plus, Kremlin officials of the time tell how they clamped down on human rights groups and critics of Putin to ensure that those events did not bring about a similar uprising in Russia.

War
An insight into the 2008 armed conflict between Russia and Georgia over the South Ossetia region. The countries' respective presidents at the time, Dmitry Medvedev and Mikheil Saakashvili, recall the intense behind-the-scenes negotiations that led up to the war, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy's efforts to broker a ceasefire. In Washington, DC, former Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice describe how they considered the consequences of offering military support to their Georgian allies.

New Start
The inside story of Barack Obama's campaign to win over Dmitry Medvedev, and a look at the Russian president's own complex relationship with the country's prime minister Vladimir Putin. Officials on both sides recount how a phone call between Obama and Medvedev sealed a new treaty on nuclear weapons, and there is also an insight into how Putin was eventually nominated to run for the presidential election in 2012. Last in the series.
Recently Updated Shows

Doc
Doc centers on the hard-charging, brilliant Dr. Amy Larsen, Chief of Internal and Family Medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis. After a brain injury erases the last eight years of her life, Amy must navigate an unfamiliar world where she has no recollection of patients she's treated, colleagues she's crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves and the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away. She can rely only on her estranged 17-year-old daughter, whom she remembers as a 9-year-old, and a handful of devoted friends, as she struggles to continue practicing medicine, despite having lost nearly a decade of knowledge and experience.

Dark Matter
Hailed as one of the best sci-fi novels of the decade, Dark Matter is a story about the road not taken. The series follows Jason Dessen, a physicist, professor, and family man who – one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago – is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the multiverse of lives he could have lived. In this labyrinth of mind-bending realities, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from the most terrifying, unbeatable foe imaginable: himself.


