Episode 1

In the early 2000s, Peter Pomerantsev (Kiev-born, raised in England; the son of Russian political exiles) came to Moscow to work in the fast-growing TV and film industry. The job gave him first hand access to every nook and corrupt cranny of the country. He was perfectly placed to witness the transformation of the New Russia on its journey from communist collapse to a new form of dictatorship.

In a series of character studies, the subjects of Pomerantsev's reality TV documentaries, we glimpse the ways in which the Russian people have responded to and acted upon the opportunities (as well as terrible injustices) of Putin's new world order.

Including, Oliona, professionally trained 'gold digger', escaping a bleak upbringing in Siberia; Vitaly, gangster-turned-filmmaker who studied his favourite American mafia movies and then made his auto theft crimes the subject of a hit six-part drama series; and, Mozhayev, an architectural and urban historian who fights in vain to save what remains of the buildings of the Moscow that existed before the Soviet experiment.

Written by Peter Pomerantsev.

Read by Justin Salinger.

Abridged by Robin Brooks.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
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First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2015.