Context
On Sunday, November 8, the Russian television channel NTV will show The Wall, a documentary dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The one-hour documentary was directed by NTV political correspondent and well-known journalist Vladimir Kondratyev, who is the only journalist who is called by the traditional, respectful Russian patronymic form of address on live news. It is no coincidence that Kondratyev happened to direct a documentary about the fall of the Berlin Wall; he has worked in Germany for 11 years, before which he studied in Leipzig and Berlin for five years. Vladimir Kondratyev worked as head of the USSR Gosteleradio (State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting) news bureau in Bonn, West Germany, in late 1980s and describes himself as "personally connected" to this topic.
The film features footage of the major players directly involved in the Berlin events, including Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, German president from 1984 to 1994 Richard von Weizsäcker, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany Egon Krenz, and others.
However, the most unusual guest appearance in the film is Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which marks the first time the prime minister has given a unscripted interview for a documentary. Kondratyev says that he met personally with Vladimir Putin, who had agreed to appear in the NTV documentary. The meeting lasted around 30 minutes, and the majority of Prime Minister Putin's recollections, including those of a personal nature, are reported to be in the film. In late 1980s Vladimir Putin worked for the KGB in Dresden, East Germany.
Why did Kondratyev choose Vladimir Putin for his documentary, especially when his role in German reunification seems to be less significant than that of the other personalities in the film? Kondratyev answered that Vladimir Putin did in fact play a significant role in German reunion when he was working in East Germany. "He was one of the few Soviet citizens who were directly affected by the GDR protesters in Dresden, when a mob attacked Stasi building and then prepared to storm the intelligence office where Putin and his colleagues worked. Putin persuaded the demonstrators to retreat." Channel NTV will broadcast The Wall on Sunday in prime time.