2008. The new owners of William Browder’s company demanded and obtained 120 million euros in tax returns from the tax authorities. His Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, denounces the biggest fraud ever made to the detriment of Russian finances. He was arrested and sent to prison. In 2008, he dies under torture. William Browder decides to avenge him and to hit Putin in the heart: his wallet. He imagines the Magnitsky Act, a law that deprives all those responsible for the murder of his lawyer, Serge Magnitsky, of visas and access to their property and assets. He found allies in Boris Nemtsov, the main opponent of Vladimir Putin, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who pleaded with the U.S. Senate to extend these sanctions to all those responsible for human rights violations in Russia: oligarchs, civil servants, military personnel, and businessmen who surround Putin and serve as his nominees in order to amass an unjustly acquired fortune with complete impunity

// WATCH EPISODE ONE:    • POISON(S): Putin's Invisible Chemical...  

In Russia, in the early 2000s, another man experienced disillusionment with the arrival in power of Vladimir Putin. Serguei Skripal confided at length about his story to Mark Urban, a British journalist. He tells that he was working for the GRU, the Russian military intelligence. At that time, his salary decreased and his benefits disappeared. Russia was in the midst of an economic slump. Even the civil servants of the intelligence are not paid any more. He decides to betray for money and gives the British secret services the official organization chart of the GRU. But very quickly, the Russians discover that he is a mole. They arrest him and send him to prison. He doesn’t think he’ll get out until one day in July 2010 when he learns that Russian spies have been arrested on American soil.

This documentary was produced by LITTLE BIG STORY and directed by Jennifer Deschamps. It was first released in 2023.
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