Active Measures (2018)

The title of the film, 'Active Measures' refers to a term used to describe the political warfare conducted by Russian intelligence committees. Jack Bryan begins the documentary exploring Vladimir Putin's tumultuous and painful past, beginning with a story about his father narrowly saving his mother's life.

His father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, was returning from a prolonged hospital stay after battle and passed a medic unit transporting corpses. By sheer luck he spotted a shoe belonging to his wife, whom the medics incorrectly assumed to be dead, and pulled her from the pile of dead bodies. Over the next several years, Putin's father would continue to nurse his gravely ill mother back to health despite medics initially claiming her to be as good as dead. Hillary Clinton makes a brief appearance to compare this anecdote with Putin's general ideology regarding Russia: "Putin sees himself as literally pulling the body of Russia out of the pile-the dust pin of history. "The film continues to examine Putin's career within the KGB, which began when he was only 22 years old. Biographic information about Putin, quoting his own accounts, asserts that he only ever worked as a spy in Leningrad and Dresden monitoring foreigners while using his fluency in German as for cover under the guise of a translator. Putin claimed that, "[My colleagues and I] were reduced mainly to collecting press clippings, thus contributing to the mountains of useless information produced by the KGB. " The film, however, reveals this to be untrue. Putin's true role within the KGB was to help protect deep cover Russian spies living under assumed identities within the United States and help develop active measures within the US to influence policymaking. Names of some of these spies are shown: Jack Barsky, Andrew Daulton Lee, and Karl Koecher. The film continues to examine the infancy of Putin's political career where he is believed to have developed "a strong network of former KGB, foreign economic interests, and local interests" while working with the mayor of St. Petersburg. Another interview asserts that St. Petersburg in the early 90's nurtured immense organized crime and corruption; crime syndicates would often collude with kleptocratic state officials to rip off locals. The film also makes allegations that the September 1999 apartment bombings were very likely false flag events concocted by the FSB, which Putin formerly led, to boost his chances of a successful Presidential campaign which he announced only a month prior. Evidence of the FSB having been at the apartments prior to the bombings as well as proprietary Kremlin explosives were found following an investigation. Putin's tirade against democracy, independent actors within Russia, and his cruel actions against dissenters during his presidency are closely examined. Putin also cracked down on oligarchs, who had bought up devalued Russian infrastructure and formerly state-owned enterprises shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Many of these oligarchs were excommunicated from Russia, killed/disappeared under mysterious and dubious circumstances, or forced to abide by strict regulation and essentially become "Putin lap dogs. " Putin then proceeds to appoint his network of former intelligence and security officials (Dmitry Medvedev, Aras Agalarov, Igor Sechin) to key positions within his administration to allow Putin complete control of oligarch assets. The film then makes a granular summarization of how Putin and his kleptocratic counterparts essentially use intermediary banks to launder money generated from Russian assets and move it into the West with the help of Russian crime boss Semion Mogilevich. Enter Trump: a real estate billionaire who was facing severe financial problems and issues securing loans after a bout of poor business ventures throughout the 90's. The film presents theories that the Trump Tower in Manhattan along with the infamous Trump Casino in Atlantic City were money laundering paradises due to the ability for shell companies to buy and sell condos/rooms without having to fully identify themselves, essentially allowing them to acquire clean money and store it with virtually no effort at all. Links between Trump and the Mogilevich crime family are strongly established, despite Trump's own comments on the topic. The film transitions to aggressive actions Putin took towards the end of his first term and the beginning of his second. Toomás Hendrik Ilves, the former President of Estonia, recounts the May 2007 cyberattack Russia conducted on his country over a controversial Soviet statue. The attack successfully suppressed all forms of internet connection nationwide for both pedestrian and commercial use for an entire day. The former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, explains that his term promises for Georgia to join the EU and NATO instigated the Russian invasion of Georgia in August of 2008, despite Russian active measures utilizing controlled opposition and propaganda geared towards the west to argue otherwise. After an embarrassing military performance in Georgia, Putin refocused Russia's priorities on their security services and political warfare, beginning with the funding of far-right nationalist parties in Belarus, France, Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Russia began employing many foreign business ventures with the goals of forcing governments into abiding by Russian policy interests in order to protect their own economic welfare. In 2012, Russia employed Bidzina Ivanishvili, a Russian oligarch, to run against Saakashvili in the parliamentary election. Russia proceeded to initiate a disinformation campaign targeting Saakashvili by making claims that he lied about his nationality, was a drug addict, provoked war with South Ossetia, and went as far to fabricate the Gldani prison scandal. The campaign was successful and secured the election for Ivanishvili. Saakashvili faces certain death if he ever returns to Georgia. Events in Ukraine play out in a very similar way. On top of Ukraine's dependence on Russia for oil, a huge part of their economy consists of intermediary companies controlled by Ukrainian/Russian oligarch Dimitry Firtash, who has also been proven to have strong ties to the Mogilevich crime family as well as Paul Manafort, Trump's 2016 campaign chairman. The film proceeds to make strong comparisons between the disinformation campaign conducted on Yulia Tymoshenko in the 2010 Ukrainian Election and the one conducted on Mikheil Saakashvili in 2012; Russian journalists make claims of her supposed Armenian and Jewish origins. As a result, Viktor Yanukovych won the election and his administration indicted Tymoshenko on charges of abusing her power in office to initiate a raw gas deal. In 2011, court documents confirmed Paul Manafort's involvement in Ukraine-Russian Energy Trade fraud, as well as racketeering, and money laundering with Firtash, Mogilevich, and yet another Russian oligarch: Oleg Deripaska. It was during this time Manafort secured residency within the Trump Tower. The film takes a step back to examine the three main methods Russia uses to engage in active measures: propaganda, cyber attacks, and spies. Former Central Intelligence Director James Woolsey speculates that there at least a thousand deep cover Russian intelligence officers residing in the US currently. FBI Records footage is displayed showing dozens of different Russian spies within the US. CIA Chief of Russia Operations Steven Hall explains that the resources of the FBI are simply too limited to effectively monitor Russian intelligence officers consistently. After closely monitoring Russian oligarchs' residency within the Trump Tower along with a gambling and money laundering ring purportedly ran by Russian crime boss Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, the US commissioned former MI6 Russian Specialist Christopher Steele to conduct an investigation on Trump-Russia ties, just under a year after Steele had previously uncovered FIFA Official Chuck Blazer's embezzlement scandal. The resulting dossier established a strong connection between Trump and Russia, which alleged that Trump had been supported by the Russian government for over five years. It is revealed that Christopher Steele was formerly the handler of Russian defect Alexander Litvinenko, an MI6 agent who'd spent years investigating links between Putin and Mogilevich. Litvinenko was killed via poison, but not before transferring massive amounts of Russian organized crime knowledge on to Steele. The film takes a moment to consider the credibility of the Steele Dossier. The content of the Steele Dossier can be summed up in three different categories: claims not proven yet to be true, claims that are proven to be true, and claims made vague by errors in translation/transliteration. The relationship between Donald Trump and Deutsche Bank is meticulously dissected. Trump started securing loans from Deutsche Bank around 2004 after years of searching for a lender. Trump proved several times to be a liability to the bank: defaulting on a $40 million loan, threatening to sue them, and publicly criticizing them for predatory practices. However, the relationship between Trump and Deutsche Bank only seemed to improve as the bank even began offering loans to his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Unsurprisingly, Deutsche Bank is found to have strong ties to Russian money laundering and an ensuing scandal forces the resignation of their CEO who promptly acquires a new CEO position at the Bank of Cyprus, proven to be another intermediary bank for Russian money laundering. Wilbur Ross, a supporter of Donald Trump and now Secretary of Commerce, is alleged to have secured this CEO position. Trump is said to have been the mediator for this ordeal, which he was compensated for when Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, who also had strong ties to Wilbur Ross, bought one of Trump's estates for nearly twice the amount he paid for it. In 2013, a gambling ring reportedly ran by Russian mob boss "Taiwanchic" was busted within the Trump Tower. Taiwanchic and 28 others were indicted, however Taiwanchic fled to Russia to seek asylum. That same year, Taiwanchic appeared at Trump's Miss Universe pageant along with Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov. In November of 2013, Donald Trump held another Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow where he joined many Russian business owners and oligarchs at a lunch-in as well as co-hosted Agalarov's birthday party. During this time, it is said that Russian intelligence obtained massive amounts of 'kompromat' (compromising material) on Trump, which would be used later to bribe/blackmail him. Ten days after the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych visited Moscow and was forced to withdraw his promised association agreement with the European Union at the last minute, inciting the Euromaidan movement in Kiev, Ukraine overnight. During these protests, Yanukovych signed a treaty and multibillion-dollar loan with Russia before promptly leaving the country to seek asylum in Moscow. After years, Yulia Tymoshenko is finally released from imprisonment. Footage of Trump using several RT talking points during his campaign is shown. When asked about taking a stance on the Russian separatists who shot down MH370, Trump argues the legitimacy of the claims that Russia was even responsible. When asked about Obama's birth certificate Trump also paraphrases claims made by activist Orly Taitz in an RT interview regarding its authenticity. With regards to John McCain's military service, Trump sided with Vladimir Putin in asserting that he was not a war hero and only renowned for his internment as a prisoner of war. The film examines a campaign speech made by Trump riddled with Russian propaganda and alleged to have been drafted by a Russian think-tank. Several instances of Trump perpetuating anti-union and anti-allegiance rhetoric are shown. In March of 2016, John Podesta's email is compromised after he falls for a phishing scam which he blames on an arbitrary Clinton campaign staffer to deflect criticism. Podesta email leaks ensue. Three months later, Wikileaks publishes 20, 000 Clinton emails obtained from a hacked DNC server, which was attacked by two Russian-backed hacking groups "Fancy Bear" and "Cozy Bear. " Emails reveal blatant favoritism for Clinton by the DNC before the primaries even began, tarnishing her credibility as a candidate. Russian intelligence proceeds to nurture conspiracy fueled narratives about the entire democratic party on online forums and social media. The Pizzagate and Seth Rich conspiracy theories are specifically cited as some of the most impactful theories to have originated from the internet. The film focuses on the demographical targeting of Bernie Sanders supporters on social media to become Donald Trump voters. US voter databases of over 26 different states are confirmed to have been compromised during the election. The entire 2016 election is thoroughly proven to be socially engineered by the Russian government as well as infiltrated directly. Closing arguments at the end of the film argue that Russian active measures continue to this day.