Lol. Stone is trying to flatter an enigma he doesn't quite understand but wants to seem like he does, in order to stand out as a daring filmmaker.

I saw the poster for his Ukraine movie and it looks disastrously tacky, like a Steven Seagal film, if he made documentaries (speaking of people flattering Putin). Liberals are wrong in trying to pin Putin as some kind of international Loki but Stone is just as wrong in trying to make him in to whatever great leader he's trying to pin him as. His interviews with Putin seem just as silly as Megyn Kelly's. Both are projecting themselves on to someone they don't really get.

There is an American documentary called the Dagestan Chronicles where an American filmmaker following Khabib, the UFC champion, around in his hometown. You see small town Russia without commentary and thus get an unbiased clue as to how modern Russia could have ended up connected to something like the Alt Right, just by seeing how similar in condition modern Russia is to middle America. It's on YouTube. I'll post it.