10 December 2016
Newsdesk
Director Oliver Stone sought the advice of Russian President Vladimir Putin when making his film about espionage whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The 70-year-old filmmaker is on good terms with Putin, and is currently in the process of making a documentary about the controversial world leader.
And when making his new film Snowden, following the analyst at America's National Security Agency (NSA) who revealed its inner workings to the world, he sought the advice of Putin, who in 2013 granted Snowden asylum.
"When I was doing the movie I would just call him (Putin) because I met him, he got involved with us,” Stone told British newspaper The Times.
Stone spoke to the Russian President, who during the Soviet era worked for the nation's KGB spy agency, about the context in which he granted Snowden asylum and the workings of different countries' intelligence operations.
"I asked Putin and he said, 'Look I didn't particularly admire what (Snowden) did,' because he'd been a KGB agent at one point in his life, but he said he admired his courage,” he recalled. “He said the NSA had gone too far, a lot further than the Russian because they had bigger money and more technology at the time."
Although Stone believes Putin admires Snowden, the Born on the Fourth of July filmmaker says the Russian premier almost decided to make an agreement with the U.S. government which would've sent the whistleblower back to his homeland to face espionage charges.
"He (Putin) said: 'We were negotiating with the United States an extradition treaty...The United States didn't want to sign because they have so many criminals that stole money from the Russian state in the West and they didn't want to return them,’” he explained.
"Then Snowden shows up in the transit zone of Moscow airport. (Putin) said: 'We don't have any treaty with you. You didn't make one. You didn't want one. Therefore under Russian law, we will give him asylum.’”
Stone knows his closeness to Putin and the decision to make a film about a leader accused of multiple human rights abuses and of annexing the Crimea region from neighbouring Ukraine will cause controversy as he adds, "I'm sure I'll get eaten alive by the usual people.”
He's unrepentant however: "The only place that can resist American rule now is Russia, or China, maybe."
