WTF, Brussels? A Putin Propagandist Comes To Town
Oliver Stone to give a masterclass at Brussels documentary film festival
Coming Monday: a new class in the Foreign Influence Operations course! I’ve written up a closer look at Russian manipulation of Western media, with some real-life examples. It builds on a number of themes we’ve covered in earlier classes.
If you’re new to Rant! and haven’t checked out the Foreign Influence Operations course yet, I hope you will. It’s timely!
Introduction to Foreign Influence Operations
ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
This weekend, Brussels is hosting the Millennium Documentary Film Festival. According to the event’s web site, the festival aims to showcase films that “reflect humanity’s dreams and ambitions for a fairer and more equitable world.”
So I had to wonder: why is the festival hosting Oliver Stone for a masterclass on its opening night?
For those not familiar with Stone’s documentary work, here is a quick recap:
In 2017, Stone directed “The Putin Interviews.” The four-part documentary was widely seen as a puff piece of flattery, designed to cultivate Putin’s cult of personality. The New York Times called it “embarrassingly generous.”
Stone followed up that magnum opus in 2021 with “Qazaq: History Of The Golden Man,” a documentary about former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev. Nazarbaev ruled as a dictator for more than 30 years. Although Stone had denied Kazakh government involvement with the film, a recent investigation by OCCRP revealed the government paid at least $5 million for the film. Nazarbaev was personally involved in editing the film, to make sure it cast him in the best light. Last time I checked, that’s not how actual documentaries are made, but then again, I’ve never made a documentary about a dictator (although I have written about them, and I definitely don’t allow them editorial control. That would be weird).
Both Oliver Stone “documentaries” were produced by Igor Lopatonok, a pro-Kremlin filmmaker who has gone on to pitch similar documentaries about other dictators, including Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko and Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev. This should be a new genre of film called “dickumentaries.”
Stone and Lopatonok also worked together on two films about Ukraine: “Ukraine On Fire” in 2016 and “Revealing Ukraine” in 2019. As Radio Free Europe reported,
“The documentaries give a Moscow-friendly view of Ukraine's 2014 Euromaidan revolution that culminated in the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.”
Stone also directed the film “Snowden,” which sought to cast Edward Snowden—who stole millions of US government classified documents and, by sheer coincidence, ended up in Moscow—as a hero. (For those who’ve read Victor in Trouble, this was the inspiration behind the character Peter Oliff, who makes a film for the Russian dictator that ends up winning an Oscar.)
Meanwhile, Brussels Is A Nest Of Spies
It’s rather ironic that a shill for dictators is invited to a prominent event in Brussels, capital of Europe and a massive magnet for Putin’s spies, who have been actively working to influence European policy in Russia’s favor using people like Stone.
Indeed, a number of recent reports have highlighted the problem. This one from Lithuania talks about how Russians are basically spying freely in Brussels and EU officials are oblivious and ill-prepared when it comes to counterintelligence. The investigation notes that Russia has diplomats at the Permanent Mission to the EU, but it also has twenty-one diplomats at the Russian Embassy to Belgium. That's a lot of diplomats for such a small country.
Despite Russia’s "carousel of spies”, as the investigation calls it, working its way through EU officials and Members of European Parliament (MEPs), the European officials have been given zero counterintelligence training. As the Lithuanian investigation notes:
MEPs told journalists…that no outreach or training on how to recognise and prevent the dangers of Russian intelligence and influence has been carried out in the European Parliament. “There has been nothing like that,” Urmas Paet said. “To my knowledge, no training has been offered. Apart from the recommendation to remove TikTok from personal devices, there has been no specific guidance on how to protect your communications, for example, nor on how to behave in case of possible approaches by foreign intelligence officers,” Slovak MEP Martin Hojsik added.
That seems…not good.
The Belgian justice minister just this week said Brussels cannot manage its spy problem. “Russia has not just invaded Ukraine, but is also involved in hybrid warfare … also here,” he said.
So why, why, is Oliver Stone, who is contributing to this Russian effort to influence the West, giving a masterclass in Brussels?
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of stories you should be reading
RUSSIAN SPIES IN EUROPE
Brussels’ spy problem is the tip of the iceberg, says Belgian justice minister (Politico)
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
