Alexander Gentelev

Crime is something that usually happens in secret, away from the public eye, indeed away from virtually everyone's view. This is all the more true for organized crime, whose representatives go to great lengths to conduct their brutal, lucrative business undetected and in secret. Perhaps it is above all this contradiction between crime and openness from which this documentary draws its shocking effect. For rarely before have high-ranking gangsters spoken so candidly - and here and there so brutally openly that you can hardly believe your ears - in front of the camera about their careers, about extortion and torture, robbery and murder.

Freed from the shackles of communism in the 1990s, Russia seemed to be entering an era of rebirth. But as is often the case in that country, history unfolded harshly. For the majority of Russians, the transition to a market system was painful and chaotic - and anything but democratic. Amid the confusion, a few shrewd and ruthless businessmen exploited the loopholes in the Soviet economy to make fast money, staving off a return to communist rule. Nicknamed the oligarchs, these men, all billionaires, manoeuvred their way into Russia's political inner circle during glasnost, are credited with Boris Yeltsin's re-election in 1996, and suspected of anointing Vladimir Putin in 1999. They're powerful men with powerful enemies, and they continue to shape Russian society. Dizzying in its detail, The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchs puts modern-day Russia into perspective.

Documentary about Russian Mafia.

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia will be the first ever to be held in a subtropical resort. The most expensive games ever break all records when it comes to corruption and megalomania. Putin's administration has everyone at its beck and call, from oligarchs down to the ordinary people who have to pay the Olympic bill. Both the powerful and the weak speak out in this investigative documentary, which unveils the hidden story behind Putin's games. Government critic Garry Kasparov says that Putin's Olympic propaganda is really all about speeding up the privatization of land in Sochi. Many inhabitants have had to make way for hotels, ski jumps and a large harbor, which were subsequently swept away by storms and landslides – the Olympic village was built on a swamp in the hottest region of Russia. To a large extent, the story of these environmentally unfriendly Olympic Games is one of threats and enormous misappropriations of money.

A three-part documentary film (Russian Roulette, Lords of the Kremlin, and The Last Battle) directed by Alexander Gentelev based on the events that took place in Russia in 1991-2000.

No description available.

Approximately 20,000 Russian houses, businesses and private land have been victims of hostile seizures annually by an organized corporation of criminal bosses, politicians, oligarchs and men of law - the 'Raiders'