Putin, Russia and the West (2012)

Vladimir Putin, after eight years as president of Russia and four more as prime minister, is stubbornly holding on to power. He has announced his intention to return as president and declared his party the winner in parliamentary elections that are widely seen as fraudulent. He began his career as a KGB spy but when he became president he made himself a valued ally of the West. How did he do it? And what made Washington and London turn against him? In this four-part series Putin's top colleagues - and the Western statesmen who eventually clashed with him - tell the inside story of one of the world's most powerful men.