Oliver Stone thinks that Vladimir Putin is a ‘great leader for his country’.
The 76-year-old Platoon director famously claimed in 2017 that the ‘Russian people have never been better off’ as he debuted his four-hour documentary on their president, The Putin Interviews.
He is also known for his movies JFK, Wall Street and Born on the Fourth of July, although he more frequently focuses on documentaries now.
In new comments, the filmmaker now says he believes that Putin – who launched his invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago – is ‘loved by the people’ and his nation is doing a ‘great job’ with issues such as nuclear energy.
‘I think Russia is doing a great job with nuclear energy. China is also a leader in that field, although I never was able to penetrate into China, which was a shame for the movie I wish we had.’
‘But Putin is a great leader for his country and the people love him,’ he told The Guardian.
The Academy Award winner, who is currently at the helm of a documentary about Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, added that he considers himself to be in the ‘middle’ of the political spectrum.
However, he claimed Democratic leader and current President Joe Biden is a ‘cold warrior’, while his favourite US President of all time would be the late John F Kennedy, whom he has also examined in recent projects JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass and JFK: Destiny Betrayed.
Describing his political stance, he explained: ‘I would say extreme middle. The truth matters to me and we’re digging for the truth.’
He also said that he felt he had happened upon ‘a very important subject’ in climate change, which he was ‘grateful for’, linking to his most recent film, documentary Nuclear Now.
Stone, who previously spoke out against police brutality in the States, joked that that could be his last film ‘because I’m at that age where I can keel over tomorrow’.
Source: Metro News
