Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | Russia | S03 E05 | All Documentary

Anthony Bourdain explores Russia in 2014 amid Putin's rule, dining with dissidents, meeting opposition protesters, and examining corruption, repression and political paranoia.

Key Takeaways

Putin's Russia combines nationalist pride and popular admiration with autocratic control and suppression of dissent.
Critics of the government face real risks, including imprisonment, violence and poisoning.
Despite repression, cultural expression such as music and food provides spaces for connection and resistance.
Russia's wealth disparity and imperial nostalgia shape its political climate and public mood.

What the video covers

Bourdain visits Moscow in February 2014, describing a city of conspicuous wealth and a country centered on Vladimir Putin's one-man rule.
He dines with longtime friend Zamir and sample classic Russian food while discussing surveillance and the appearance of liberalization.
At an opposition rally supporting political prisoners, Bourdain observes a fragmented movement united mainly by general unhappiness with Putin.
Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and vocal Putin critic, joins Bourdain for dinner and discusses the dangers faced by critics.
The episode recounts the fates of critics such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Alexander Litvinenko and Viktor Yushchenko, who were imprisoned, poisoned or nearly killed.
Bourdain examines the Sochi Olympics as an example of state prestige projects and how the government's priorities shape the country.
Rock musician Ruben Kazarian discusses how music offers a way to connect beyond politics while noting limits on free speech.
The episode explores the 'gay propaganda' law and its broad, arbitrary enforcement and its effect on LGBTQ people.
Bourdain reflects on the country's contrast between extreme wealth and poverty and the lingering legacy of Soviet and imperial history.
Throughout, Bourdain blends food culture, travel and political commentary to portray everyday life and tensions in Russia.

Chapters

Who does Bourdain dine with to discuss the risks of criticizing the government?

Bourdain dines with Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and vocal Putin critic. They discuss how critics of the government face danger, including imprisonment and poisoning.

What does the opposition rally in the episode focus on?

The rally supports political prisoners arrested after protests against Putin's allegedly rigged reelection. Attendees range from human rights activists to nationalists, united mainly by general dissatisfaction.

How does the episode portray Putin's public image?

Bourdain describes Putin as a former mid-level manager with an ego who is still widely admired by many Russians. He notes that Putin's image is carefully cultivated through displays like shirtless photos and shows of strength.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

beautiful right we can really indulge ourselves into something special such a beautiful day new pony ride absolutely now we're coming to your most beautiful fascination side of russian legacy the birches ah the forest of birch ah what a place

Speaker A

[Music] all hail the maximum leader now let's dance [Music] okay thank you well [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] beautiful [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] whatever you think of this guy his dead effectless eyes his smooth pulled tight like a snare

Speaker A

drum face he ain't going anywhere look at him he's the russian superman the kgb middle manager desk jockey turned expression of greater russia's hopes and dreams he lets no opportunity to take his shirt off pass him by pose with a large gun he's there

Speaker A

and no matter how transparently autocratic vengeful oblivious to even a thin veneer of democracy russians love him they seem to feel about him like new yorkers used to feel about giuliani he may be a son of a [ __ ] but he's our

Speaker A

son of a [ __ ] it's february 2014 and the social olympics are just coming up when i arrive in moscow it's a different moscow every time i come here the 80s style go go capitalist conspicuous consumption see who can spend the most money disco

Speaker A

techno thing i encountered when i first came here back in 2001 it's still going strong in fact these days moscow has one of the highest concentrations of billionaires in the world but as never before it's imperial russia now

Speaker A

a one-man rule all power emanates every decision must consider this guy russia is full of characters with murky pasts and shadowy connections but one of them i've called a friend for more than a decade tony oh wow i guess i'm switching to

Speaker A

vodka [Music] now my concern is you know back in the day this place was famous for all of the rooms were bugged not anymore i'm sorry oh really i'm really sorry poor zamir my long time crony he tries at least to be diplomatic about

Speaker A

these things i mean he's got to live here right he doesn't want prussic acid on his blincies given the new enlightened the liberalized forward-thinking russia they've removed the surveillance devices uh listen as a born musketeer i'm trying to be a good patriot so i

Speaker A

really want you to tell me frankly in a week from now zamir now i understand why stereotypes sometimes send a bad message about russia i have an open mind everything's great russia does anything they want listen why don't we just taste the

Speaker A

awesome let's get up oh placebo thank you the most gorgeous women are in russia welcome to russia i'm trying to be kind of sober [Music] united we stand i prepare today's special for you russian tapas russian tapas especially

Speaker A

for vodka drinking with the small pancakes like iblinis and extra hand caviar this looks like a winter salted cucumber with honey this is a baltic sprouts smoked one with a beetroot and this one is a muksung this is a

Speaker A

white white fish white fish frozen with melted salt and a little bit of pepper and you can eat raw thank you jeff yeah i'm hitting the caviar in the bellini hmm maybe some more vodka thank you and your smile makes it like

Speaker A

feel like it's water [Music] what do you think what is the perception of mr putin these days after 14 years he's in power my perception do you really want to hear it i'm not sure but let's let's see a former mid-level

Speaker A

manager in a large corporation short i think that's very important short who's found himself master of the universe and like a lot of short people if you piss them off bad things happen to you he likes to take his shirt off a lot

Speaker A

let's be serious i mean he strikes me as a businessman a businessman with an ego okay so he's like donald trump but shorter i think my friend needs some some kind of booze to you comrade [Music] like this you know you're gonna have

Speaker A

that one i'll get the next i'm serious about your one week stay in russia i want you to enjoy every minute of it i hope you'll get something new positive to learn and share around the world that's my mission

Speaker A

oh [Music] [Music] okay tony so your new experience right being part of the opposition rally this is nothing new for me blows against the empire street fight man that's me i go way back way back with this i marched on the pentagon with my dad

Speaker A

when i was a kid seriously yeah so you're well prepared it could be a little bit physical and brutal today i don't know that dog does aiming for my nut sack my day is a dissident that will be over quickly

Speaker A

there is opposition to putin but it's a mixed bag and if you do see a demonstration like this one it is with permission along a planned route carefully managed and the cops and security tend to outnumber the demonstrators

Speaker A

[Music] phones metal stuff goes up the main topic of this rally is to support the political prisoners last may when they came to protest against putin's re-election which allegedly was a little bit rigged the election results were shall we say

Speaker A

dubious some of them were arrested and put in prison and some of them are still there divide and conquer will look who's showed up today everybody from human rights activists to oprah right-wing nationalists who think putin's been too soft

Speaker A

putin is not right wig enough for them no he's like a liberal to that he doesn't the jews and immigrant workers right i'm sort of shocked that these guys are at the same demonstration russians they're not united around one

Speaker A

political agenda so the only thing that's united in this group right now is general unhappiness that's it [Music] bad things seem to happen to critics of vladimir putin journalists activists even powerful oligarchs once seemingly untouchable are now fair game if they

Speaker A

displease the leader so we were supposed to be dining at another restaurant this evening and when they heard that you would be joining me we were uninvited but should i be concerned about having dinner with you this is a country of corruption

Speaker A

and if you have business you are in a very unsafe situation everybody can press you and destroy your business that's it this is a system meet boris nemtsov he was deputy prime minister under yeltsin and today is one of putin's most

Speaker A

vocal critics this restaurant was kind enough to take us in but the chef is a brit so maybe he has less reason to worry first course at yornik restaurant they're serving their own versions of dino era russian classics

Speaker A

a modern riff on borscht typically a chunky hearty beaten cabbage broth with chunks of meat here it's a puree for the more elegant shall we say deconstructed presentation critics of the government critics of putin bad things seem to happen to them yes unfortunately

Speaker A

existing power represent let's say russia of 19th century not of 21st critics of putin beware oligarch mikhail korikovsky accused putin of corruption and wound up spending 10 years in prison and labor camps alexander litvinenko accused state security services of organizing a coup

Speaker A

to put putin in power he was poisoned by a lethal dose of radioactive polonium and viktor yashenko the former ukrainian president poisoned disfigured and nearly killed by a toxic dose of dioxin i'm not saying official russian bodies had anything to do with

Speaker A

it but it's mighty suspicious i don't think you need to be a conspiracy theorist to say whoever did this very much wanted everyone to know who done it everybody understands yeah of course and everybody is meant to understand

Speaker A

yeah everybody understands everybody understands everything right in this country when you're talking classic conspiracy theories and classically russian style paranoia you want some classic russian food to go along with it palmini minced beef dumplings served on a pillow of cabbage

Speaker A

with sour cream it's very good maybe the most extreme and visible example of how things seem to work here is the sushi olympics if you look at the map of russian federation it's difficult to find the sport without

Speaker A

snow and dice at all but putin did but it seems like a pretty obvious question i mean if we wanted to hold our winter olympics in miami presumably someone would say isn't it a little warm there this is absolutely personal putin

Speaker A

project right they spend more than 50 billion of dollars which is the most expensive games in the history of mankind 26 thousand dollars a seat for the curling stadium to build for a fee putin road from adler to

Speaker A

crossland which is 30 miles price for that 9 billion u.s dollars this is a road right it's three times expensive than american program flying to mars and who got many of those contracts for the roads and stadiums and

Speaker A

infrastructure well there's these guys putin's childhood friends and judo partners the rottenburg brothers whose companies received contracts worth upwards of seven billion dollars and putin's associate of 20 years vladimir yakunen who owns the state railroads his company received 10 billion dollars

Speaker A

worth of contracts it's very easy to imagine what's happened with this money right and you know who cares in russia just about no one here's this is a case in the videnco case a known enemy of putin speaking with a bout of radioactive

Speaker A

polonium aren't you concerned me about myself yeah you're a pain in the ass tony i was born here for 54 years ago this is my country russian people are in a very big trouble russian court doesn't work russian education decline every year and

Speaker A

i believe that russia has a chance to be free has a chance it's difficult but we must [Music] do america yeah all of russia's eyes are upon you bring honor to your clan you know what american i will break you

Speaker A

i will break you [Music] [ __ ] forget about it will bury you i'll remove your visa [Applause] no ah russia doesn't surrender oh the land of the free [Music] just missed it by i was pretty close i was actually out here all last night

Speaker A

uh practicing you must be kidding me while zamir contemplates a suddenly grimmer future thanks to me i head out to rublevka a compound of luxury homes outside moscow to meet alexander lebedev [Music] at one time alexander was doing great

Speaker A

former officer of the intelligence services like putin turned billionaire he owned pieces of russia's most powerful energy companies airlines and banks and still publishes the navajo gazetta one of the only opposition newspapers left in russia but running a newspaper that's been

Speaker A

harshly critical of the ruler has cost him he's been stripped of nearly everything it can be a dangerous thing to do investigative journalism in this country your own paper like five journalists six yeah plus their lives yeah probably

Speaker A

the biggest number because there was no war in this country so in peaceful times to lose six journalists killed it's quite a lot six journalists murdered one paper presumably for their reporting on political corruption or human rights abuse

Speaker A

though pointing a finger directly at the government is impossible one can say that the climate here is such that what you say can certainly get you killed you have at various stages made life difficult for yourself business was very good for you and then

Speaker A

you had to have an opinion when you interact with the local bureaucracies and judicial system it still leaves a lot to be desired let's put it this way lebedev is now a potato farmer that's my production that's my potato

Speaker A

the biggest producer in russia true but his billions are gone and he now lives the life of a mere millionaire let's see how do you like this one very good some freshly made potato chips that lebidev is very proud of

Speaker A

and his personal chef prepares scottish salmon smoked on cherry tree sawdust served with avocado that was very good lately lebedev is getting into slow food this is a cold pressed cedar tree in siberia a cedar oil from according from acidic

Speaker A

but he has not slowed down his profile or kept his mouth shut recently on a russian talk show he got in an argument over the financial crisis with another guest a heated argument he ended up smacking the guy

Speaker A

i saw the incident on television i found it very refreshing actually i think it's something that political discourse could use more of the government took the opportunity to charge him with politically motivated hooliganism a charge that could have resulted in a penalty of

Speaker A

five years in prison he has instead been convicted of battery he's working off his sentence painting fences and shoveling snow i mean sitting on a bench and expecting to spend next five years in prison with two small kids it's not always

Speaker A

you know very nice but the guy said something very bad he said those who don't have a billion yourself though his victim did not register an official complaint the message i think was clear the charges were oppressed by the russian state which is

Speaker A

pretty funny because this is a private accusation it's dangerous very dangerous to criticize or investigate or speculate why why do you care do you really think you can defeat it no so why are you doing i hope hopefully reason would prevail

Speaker A

[Music] no it's the kgb they're they're blocking your signal i'm sure that they are believe it or not i'm quite sure you've had someone on your tail the entire time you've been here what's rock and roll supposed to be

Speaker A

about other than cars and girls and aggression about dissent about rebellion right in russia where everything is supposed to be just fine that could be a dangerous position travis leake is an expat american who manages this band luna

Speaker A

[Applause] [Music] ruben kazarian is luna's guitarist and songwriter what we have now here is the facade and it's very nice we have elections democracy courts but always doesn't work as it should so what prevents right now in russia to speak freely

Speaker A

formerly nothing but in reality a lot of things let's talk about mtv so rebel music as i understand it was an mtv television series whose fundamental principle was to celebrate bands who say difficult things in environments where there might be repercussions

Speaker A

and as i understand it your band was chosen for one of seven episodes correct and in fact one of your songs was used as the title track for the series so i get a letter from the producer and

Speaker A

essentially it says because of political pressure the russia episode has been removed from the rebel music series according to the producer mtv russia pushed back on the content she presumes because of the negative impact it would have on them

Speaker A

and their ability to do business on a day-to-day basis in russia mtv's official reason for removing luna from the series is that they simply did not have enough time to air all the stories they filmed this was a documentary series about

Speaker A

musicians standing up and risking their lives in some cases right stand up against government abuse of power government corruption and yet a foreign government was able to editorially control what american viewers see on their tv screens that to me is a scandal of epic

Speaker A

proportion this entire documentary is gone luna's song is the title track to the series but their episode never happened the rest of russia is very very different than moscow i mean here you drive around it's like bentley ferrari maserati you know you go

Speaker A

to buy a pair of shoes you pick up a bentley on the way out you tour a lot in russia what do you see we see a lot of problems we see that the level of the leaving is

Speaker A

very low there's something in rock music that unites everybody it's something beyond politics is certain energy and this energy is the same in every country and every city we have rock music we are common people we we're like

Speaker A

you [Music] we are going to the hometown of president putin saint petersburg he was born there right started his career the night train to st petersburg is one of the great fun things to do in russia [Music] roll on great steel wheels through the

Speaker A

night through dark forests of birch and snow out there in the dark visible for a second or two at a time the real russia the one most russians live in so tony time to enjoy life ooh the gentle

Speaker A

chicken meat i need something gentle tony do you see crucian and ratatou [Laughter] pro tip if the word gentle is used on a menu avoid those items and stick to the classics like blini with caviar and cold pickled

Speaker A

herring and potatoes and soyanca the soup of sturgeon salmon olives and lemon is healthcare free anymore in this country well officially they say it's free but if you want to get operation within a month then you can't wait you won't get it there's a long

Speaker A

line of those you have an education up to the high school it's so free the quality is not best as it used to be people used to get a lot of things for free now it's it's coming to an end

Speaker A

you ask for capitalism you got it buddy well according to reaganomics there's the trickle-down theory okay yeah that means that that if i make lots and lots and lots and lots of money that money will somehow trickle down to you

Speaker A

you know my nasser my garage attendant uh my aromatherapist they of course will be making money i will be buying more things for various wives and prostitutes in this way i don't exactly share the will but i i trickle it down and and if you don't

Speaker A

like your job what can you do without my feces spattered walls or cleaning up with my dead prostitutes you could leave your job at walmart and become a billionaire like me or you make a porn film then you go on a

Speaker A

reality show and you become really really rich for doing nothing it's fantastic tony i'm convinced i think you know what you're doing in life did you put on your jammies uh-huh i just want to stay for the record

Speaker A

uh just because you're in the top bunk that's no indication of any relationship that we may or may not have you and me have to be very careful when i went public and if you bring up subjects like this

Speaker A

there could be some different repercussions you know tolerance never existed in russia that's why when just recently people started to come out in russia like lesbians and gays they were either fired from the jobs or were given like hard time to exist but

Speaker A

what about tchaikovsky they try not to acknowledge it by saying he was a great musician so he was a great musician who liked to have sex with other men that's what people are not meant to learn in school

Speaker A

[Music] [Music] and that's the former winter palace you remember what happened in october 1917.

Speaker A

everybody came charging through charged up the steps and looted the winter palace and kerensky who was in charge of interim garment had to put on his female outfit to escape the revolutionary peasants that wouldn't go over well these days

Speaker A

right not anymore recently in the run-up to the social olympics attention has been drawn to a wave of rapidly homophobic remarks by public officials images of gay and lesbian activists being beaten and harassed in the street often with official or semi-official

Speaker A

consent and a new law which claims to forbid promoting homosexual propaganda to minors but which can be interpreted any way the authorities choose [Music] what's happening here what's going on oh my god i don't know what's going on

Speaker A

every day i ask myself what's going on what's going on do you have to be afraid no i have nothing to lose so i can be myself i am nobody in social system and i understand it artist and filmmaker xenia robreck is

Speaker A

a brave young woman she's openly gay lately the actual hunting of gay people has been documented violent skinhead gangs who contact gay men and women online arrange meetings under false pretenses then violently ambush them there have been very few prosecutions

Speaker A

even you you can get killed for this our local fixer dasha helps translate xenia had a situation once when the skinheads attacked her on the street and not only once again this new law it prohibits propaganda amongst minors

Speaker A

propaganda go to jail for anything it means whatever they want it to be yes we look how many gay families we have with kids and those people are in maximum stress right now because their families might be ruined

Speaker A

right we rightly see this as outrageous the russian public however it's very likely a vote getter a cynical pandering to a powerful and enduring vein of deep-seated homophobia that goes way way what do you think the source of this

Speaker A

hatred is it's not about russian orthodox church okay it's about uh political structure it's about power we have two rashes okay what are they big like a big bear not very sophisticated and they're based on instincts country okay and the other

Speaker A

side is the country of intelligent people thoughtful people a lot of these political leaders are they using the issue of gay rights to appeal to a larger audience they try to play with bear because usually what happens when you

Speaker A

play with the bear is tomorrow or the next day or the next day the bear eats you yeah uh are you hopeful it's about responsibility we we should never give up farm to table in russia organic local why yes there are those who are trying

Speaker A

sergeis norov is a very popular musician and leader of the band leningrad leningrad was banned in moscow purportedly for promoting alcoholism wow cheers this is sergey's wife matilda together they've opened this restaurant coco co with the mission to bring

Speaker A

genuinely local quality russian food to diners we opened this restaurant one year ago which will work only with local seasonal farmers food and we are the first who did it in all of russia yes in all of russia

Speaker A

traditional combination rye bread and russian fish chef igor grishiken's version of sushi instead of rice wore traditional russian black bread with sprats mackerel cod liver and salmon caviar old school but looks new school when i first came here 2001 the best

Speaker A

restaurant in moscow was a nightmare of french japanese ingredients recipes from nowhere everyone hated russia wanted to be someone else wow pearl barley lightly smoked raw beef topped with quail egg very interesting combination very nice what's the most popular thing what do

Speaker A

people want the most popular it's italian japanese cuisine and sounds like a um fusion tony that's the word [Music] cheers [Music] before putin before gorbachev khrushchev stalin and lenin there was this imperial russia mighty palaces spread across the empire

Speaker A

where the very very few lived in unimaginable luxury that's all well their people worked and starved didn't work out so well for paul did it not really they choked the duke to death right it actually was strangled with a piece of cord the

Speaker A

czars of previous centuries were certainly living the good life money no object when it came to personal comfort or luxurious lodgings and today's imperial powers seem not far behind putin allegedly had a billion dollar palace built for him

Speaker A

we couldn't license the actual smuggled photo but our artist rendering looks like this a putin's spokesman dismissed all this telling the new york times we have congress halls built for the kremlin but if you call all of them

Speaker A

putin's palace it is nothing but absurd vodka i haven't tasted that before [Music] so what would i be doing on my outing if i were a czar looking for some cool locks to oppress or hunting you know enjoying life

Speaker A

picking up some good speed here oh okay some have suggested that russia is after all this time coming full circle a tiny tiny minority in possession of nearly unlimited power and wealth the idea of running up the steps of disemboweling

Speaker A

uh royals i could easily imagine myself doing that you would not take much convincing wow that's pleasant surprise i would hurl them all into the sea tomorrow after the revolution in a blunt force strategy designed to even things out

Speaker A

the government seized private residences dividing them into little pieces and portioning them out to the masses who were swarming in from the countryside to serve the new industrialized soviet union i never had any dreams of growing up in socialist

Speaker A

wonderland like when i was a brief period where i was a hippie the idea of living in a commune not attractive to me i was born in a communal flat with three other families sharing one john one kitchen no way they

Speaker A

would feed me when i had no food no way i share my toilet with no man take the first left please [Music] meet yuri human rights activist professor of journalism one of 26 tenants living together in this communal apartment

Speaker A

an arrangement basically unchanged since soviet times just in case you change your mind and it's here that i see for the first time a glimpse of my friends in the years mysterious past growing up in a home just like this one

Speaker A

in russia normally people dip your bread into this can [ __ ] and like this so this was normal for you growing up yeah little juniors i wouldn't drink booze until probably 22 but i'll show you how it works so who

Speaker A

decided who moved into these places those who were in charge of this specific communal services and residential department would assign x amount of to this plan to that plan did you get to choose your neighbors though in the soviet union in the present day

Speaker A

russia there's never been a reason to create infrastructure to make people's life better no one really cared about the people and they should have decent toilet or shower so how's it going lately better worse period so vladimir putin changed the

Speaker A

whole landscaping in the country first of all he started to cram down on the human rights on on the democratic rights the most recent laws and changes in the constitution bring up the old soviet union type of structure in the country so what happens

Speaker A

next a year before you collapse you would never believe in any wildest dreams that it could happen nowadays you think it's a similar situation it looks like a stable you know people are busy money made rich cars but it can't go on like this for too

Speaker A

long so yuri predicts it could be in a similar overnight collapsing situation so there is some hope you do for some major renovations [Music] just another crisp morning in st petersburg neva river ice fishing paradise yeah i'm not gonna wouldn't go out on that you'd

Speaker A

have to enough for a million dollars man not now totally unstable [Music] lessons of history where are we peter and paul's fortress which used to be a viral place for the romanovs who were a little bit executed in directions they were very

Speaker A

found originally built to defend against the marauding swedes god i hate those marauding swedes the peter and paul fortress was overrun by the bolsheviks during the revolution [Music] so the 100 year anniversary of what is coming up great october

Speaker A

socialist revolution in almost three years so i smell with that disparity gap in the society very rich and very poor right that someone might bring up the masses back to the winter palace and storm it again like 100 years

Speaker A

nothing changed every day at noon without fail this d30 122 millimeter howitzer is fired to commemorate the revolution ready to load loaded very solid moment moment of truth tony for you [Music] come up attention one sweet enemies distracted

Speaker A

[Music] congratulations you are the hero of russia now sweet you can't take it on the plane though they won't understand that even carry on since the filming of this show a number of things have happened putin's social olympics a blatant

Speaker A

exercise of political muscle and a financial boondoggle the size unheard of in history went off as planned russia won many gold medals the most of any country in competition which was really all that mattered a few journalists complained about the

Speaker A

bathrooms but that is all but forgotten more than 50 billion dollars of mostly public money gone ukraine rose up and their despotic pro putin president ran away as if a foregone conclusion russia in broad daylight has recently annexed the crimea

Speaker A

and as i'm writing this his massing tens of thousands of troops on the border of ukraine the world has done nothing it will do nothing as vladimir well new he wins again [Music] [Music] you

Topics:Anthony BourdainRussiaPutinMoscowoppositiondissidentsSochi Olympicshuman rightsRussian foodpolitical repression

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