What is the famous American director Oliver Stone doing next to the Russian ruler Vladimir Putin? Why this frank sympathy for a man who, in fact, violates all the basic principles of creativity of Stone himself. In the famous film "Salvador" Stone endured a ruthless sentence to American politicians who financed the "contras", who dealt with opponents of the current government and supporters of the country's peaceful development.

Vladimir Putin does the same thing. From the Russian budget, there are funds for the existence of "people's republics", in which the criminal dictatorship of the very same local "contras" is established, cracking down on opponents of the "Russian world" and simply with those who challenge the bandit regime. In Russia itself, Putin heads a gigantic corrupt criminal pyramid, ready to destroy anyone who opposes her, just remember Politkovskaya, Magnitsky, Nemtsov. But why did President Reagan, who agreed with the help of the "contras", aroused Stone's disgust, while President Putin aroused his admiration?.

It's not Reagan or Putin. It's in Stone itself. The American director underwent the same evolution that many artists of the West and East. Career begins with exposing the vices of its own civilization, continues with contempt for democracy, which seems just a conspiracy of elites, and ends with frank enthusiasm for authoritarianism.

For Russia, the most striking example of such degradation is the example of Maxim Gorky. The great writer who found all the necessary words, not only to describe the sufferings of the "little man", but also to denounce the Bolshevik coup and terror unleashed by the new rulers of the country, ended his life with the silent hostage of Joseph Stalin, a cog in the NKVD system, organized by the authorities of the Union of Soviet Writers and singer of the Gulag.

A no less terrible example is the disintegration of Knut Hamsun, a Norwegian genius who lived with the suffering and problems of ordinary people in his country. The great author of The Hunger will devote his inspiration to his old age to Adolf Hitler and will present the Nobel laureate medal to Joseph Goebbels. He will support the collaborationist government of Quisling and resent the Norwegian resistance. Shocked Norwegians do not even dare to sue him, they recognize him as insane - although Hamsun was in his mind, solid memory and excellent creative form. The treachery of Hamsun Norway has been exhilarating to this day, although the writer himself certainly did not consider himself a traitor, and he was sure that he alone opposes the imperialistic Anglo-Saxon civilization.

In comparison with Gorky or Hamsun, Oliver Stone is still a lamb, although his creative degradation continues and it is not known what results it will lead to. In the end, the filmmaker is already involved in Putin's corruption deal, roughly as Gorky Stalin. Gorky at the end of his life desperately needed reissues and comfort - and got it from the Kremlin celestial. The current owner of the Kremlin does not just talk with an American, but also is the employer of his son, who is struggling on the notorious propaganda television channel Russia Today. The true size of the fees of Stone-junior can only be guessed, since in Russia the bulk of corruption payments pass by the cash desk, simply handed to the employee in an envelope - and this envelope, which is not subject to any taxes, may prove to be the main link in the relations between Stone and Putin. At the same time, both Stone can not consider themselves cogs of the Russian propaganda machine - they are only struggling with imperialism, and Russia is helping them in this. In the end, the successful struggle of talented people should be generously funded - so that they can withstand the dominance of capital.

At the same time, not only does Stone chat with Putin. Putin is also flattered by his communication with Stone. We must remember how, from the first day of his coming to power, the Kremlin's owner was literally clinging to Western celebrities, the "stars", whom he had previously seen only on movie screens. But over time - when Putin felt like a monument - he needed an eminent interlocutor with whom he could talk on equal terms. Oliver Stone perfectly suited for this role. Why did a man who idolized Fidel Castro and admired Hugo Chavez, can not talk with Putin just as enthusiastically, why he can not perceive a lie as truth, but the truth as a lie? And everything is really good for Stone. With Stone, Putin can not restrain himself as a medieval monarch - with his favorite clown sent as a gift by his colleague on the throne.

I was always interested in how the same artists combine the desire to expose the shortcomings of democracy - with a sincere, servile admiration for a dictatorship that does not recognize any reproofs and destroys its enemies? And I'm starting to suspect that the reasons for the degradation of all the Stones of recent decades are not at all that they want to improve the democratic world. And in their contempt for the democratic world. In their attraction to the "strong hand", which will bring order and will pursue the policy that they like. Or vice versa - they will a priori be liked by the politician of any tyrant, defender of "traditional" values ??and "common people".

Stone, who created an impressive epic about the Vietnam War and did not spare the United States, with a grin walks past Putin's Chechen war, past the Georgian war of Putin, past the Ukrainian war of Putin - simply because he is not afraid of the blood shed by the dictator. Stone, who was indignant at the cruelty of the Salvadorian "contras", admires one of the most heinous murderers of the twentieth century - Fidel Castro, compared to which any Latin American ruler is simply a vegetarian. But Castro rules his island with a solid hand, he is revered by citizens, he hates the United States - and this combination introduces Stone into a real ecstasy, almost loveful. Yes, he loved Castro, he loved Chavez, he loves Putin, and Hamsun loved Hitler, and Gorky - Stalin. It's a love of power that does not recognize half-tones. Love for the legitimized right to murder of any scale, when it comes not just about one person, but about hundreds, thousands, millions of people. This love does not stop even when the hero dies.

Hamsun wrote an enthusiastic obituary to Hitler, who destroyed Germany and plunged the world into incalculable disasters - at the time of writing this text everything was clear. Stone removed an enthusiastic posthumous film about Chavez, although at the time of shooting it was clear that the Venezuelan adventurer turned his country into a world of poverty and despair. Even 15 years ago he at least tried to be objective - and when he was shooting a film about the Middle East conflict, he talked not only with Arafat, but also with Peres, Barak and Netanyahu. Years later, there was no trace of this vaunted objectivity. In the film about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the main characters of Stone are Putin and Yanukovych, here there is no place either for the Ukrainian people or for Ukrainian politicians who defend the country from aggression.

There was only a love for the tyrant.

Original.