The FRONTLINE Interviews:

Putin's Road to War

Our Sources. On the Record. At Your Fingertips.

The reporting behind the March 2022 documentary Putin’s Road to War draws on more than 60 interviews FRONTLINE has conducted over the last five years about Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, including interviews filmed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These interviews can be explored below in video or text. The collection is part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, which makes our source material available to the public.

Interviews

Yevgenia Albats
Russian journalist

Video
Daniel Baer
U.S. ambassador, OSCE, 2013-17

Text
Peter Baker
White House Correspondent, The New York Times

Text
Peter Baker
The New York Times

Video
John Beyrle
U.S. ambassador to Russia, 2008-12

Video
Antony Blinken
Obama adviser, 2009-15

Video
Irina Borogan
Co-author, "The Red Web"

Text
John Brennan
CIA Director, 2013-17

Video
William Burns
U.S. ambassador to Russia, 2005-08

Video
Massimo Calabresi
Time

Text
James Clapper
Director of National Intelligence, 2010-17

Video
James Collins
U.S. ambassador to Russia, 1997-2001

Text
Robert Costa
The Washington Post

Text
Michael Crowley
Politico

Text
Tikhon Dzyadko
Russian journalist

Text
Evelyn Farkas
Defense Department, 2009-15

Video
Jon Finer
Obama adviser, 2009-13

Video
Daniel Fried
Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland

Text
Daniel Fried
National Security Council, 2001-05

Video
Masha Gessen
Author, "The Man Without a Face"

Video
Susan Glasser
Columnist, The New Yorker

Video
Susan Glasser
Co-author, "Kremlin Rising"

Video
Sebastian Gorka
Deputy Assistant to the President, 2017

Text
Thomas Graham
National Security Council, 2002-07

Text
Lev Gudkov
Russian sociologist

Text
Gennady Gudkov
Opposition politician

Text
Stephen Hadley
National Security Adviser, 2005-09

Text
David Hoffman
The Washington Post

Video
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
President of Estonia, 2006-16

Text
Julia Ioffe
Washington Correspondent, Puck

Video
Julia Ioffe
The Atlantic

Video
Jeh Johnson
Secretary of Homeland Security, 2013-17

Video
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Opposition politician

Video
Andrei Klimov
Russian Senate

Text
Masha Lipman
Russian journalist

Video
Ryan Lizza
The New Yorker

Video
Michael McFaul
U.S. ambassador to Russia, 2012-14

Video
Molly McKew
Adviser to former president of Georgia

Text
Alexander Mikhailov
Former KGB officer

Text
Greg Miller
The Washington Post

Text
Ellen Nakashima
The Washington Post

Text
Victoria Nuland
U.S. ambassador to NATO, 2005-08

Video
Evan Osnos
The New Yorker

Text
Timothy O’Brien
Executive editor, Bloomberg View

Text
Gleb Pavlovsky
Former adviser to Vladimir Putin

Video
Nikolay Petrov
Russian political scientist

Text
Steven Pifer
U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, 1998-2000

Text
John Podesta
Clinton campaign chairman

Video
Eugene Robinson
Columnist, The Washington Post

Video
Vladimir Ryzhkov
Opposition politician

Video
David Sanger
The New York Times

Video
Kori Schake
American Enterprise Institute

Video
Adam Schiff
D-Calif.

Text
Ekaterina Schulmann
Russian political scientist

Video
Andrei Soldatov
Co-author, "The Red Web"

Video
Jake Sullivan
Chief policy adviser, Clinton campaign

Video
Strobe Talbott
Deputy Secretary of State, 1994-2001

Video
Celeste Wallander
Obama administration, 2009-17

Video
Ben Wittes
Editor-in-chief, Lawfare

Text
Jon Wolfsthal
Obama adviser, 2014-17

Video
Joshua Yaffa
The New Yorker

Video
Mikhail Zygar
Author, "All the Kremlin’s Men"

Video

Interviews for this film were conducted by Mike Wiser of the Kirk Documentary Group and edited for the web by Phil Bennett and Lauren Prestileo. The Transparency Project is produced by Phil Bennett and Lauren Prestileo.

Design and build for Putin's Road to War by Dan Nolan and Anthony DeLorenzo with assistance from Kimberly Patch. Video editing by Alex LaGore. Copy editing by Julie Wolf. Additional assistance from Olivia DelVecchio, Denise Emerson, Priyanka Boghani, Patrice Taddonio, and Jennifer Wehunt.

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