Watson Events

Film Screening and Panel: VLAST (POWER)

VLAST (POWER)

Screening of VLAST (POWER) followed by a panel discussing featuring director Cathryn Collins, Watson Institute director Michael Kennedy, and Robert Legvold, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, Columbia University. 

Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, formerly the wealthiest man in Russia, was arrested at gunpoint on a snowy Siberian runway on October 25, 2003. After challenging the absolute power of Vladimir Putin in the name of an open society, his oil company, YUKOS, was seized, followed by a trial that caused international outrage. He remains defiantly imprisoned following a recent conviction on embezzlement and money laundering charges in a second trial alleging that he stole a larger sum from YUKOS than its annual gross receipts.

Khodorkovsky’s life, the way in which he rose to prominence and the dramatic circumstances of his fall, are a chilling metaphor for the violent political and socioeconomic changes occurring in Russia in the last two decades. VLAST (POWER) shows how liberty and the rule of law have become casualties of the new Russia in a compelling scenario of political intrigue in an oil dependent economy. 

Cosponsored by the Office of Student Activities and Division of Campus Life, the Watson Institute, the Curricular Resource Center, and the Stephen Robert Film Series at the Campus Center.

Location: Petteruti Lounge, Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center.