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Last year, actor Jude Law stated he “didn’t fear any repercussions” for playing Vladimir Putin in a new film. This production, however, may align so closely with the mythologized image promoted by Russian state media that, within Russia, it functions as a endorsement rather than a challenge.

The Crafted Superhero

For years, the Russian political apparatus and the country's entertainment industry have collaborated to forge a made-to-measure persona of the president. This character is a political superhero without age or mistakes, an ex-intelligence officer reframed as a local 007 who always knows more than he reveals.

“In Russia, the constructed Putin has long eclipsed the actual person.”

Screen-Based Support

A notable instance is a television show released last fall, helmed by a Kremlin supporter. The protagonist is a fictional blue-eyed lieutenant colonel selected by fate to “save” the nation from disorder. While he is called a different name, the implication is unmistakable: the savior must be a familiar security officer.

International depictions often end up buttressing this same narrative instead of debunking it. An adaptation based on a popular book sets out to subvert the Putin cult by framing him as a symptom but as a consequence, moving the focus to the political machinery surrounding him.

The Fable of the Hesitant President

In the film, the president is presented as having been picked by influential figures to steady the nation because he is “a fit former intelligence agent”. They visit him and practically plead him to become president. His response is that he would rather govern from the background, desiring enduring influence.

This tale is the Kremlin’s export myth: the detached, unwilling mastermind shaped by destiny. In reality, these events ever happened.

The Truth Behind the Selection

Nobody ever begged him to accept the role. The position was effectively a selection process with many candidates. Central to the selection stood a powerful businessman from the Yeltsin era who expected to run the state de facto.

• His list featured several politicians, among them an opposition leader subsequently assassinated and a former spy chief.
• According to an expert who studied his rise, the future president merely met the necessary criteria: loyal, from the intelligence world, and politically neutral.
• A businessman close to the process said the primary requirement was controllability and loyalty, not leadership.

“They didn’t need a powerful leader, they needed someone malleable, someone who would follow instructions.”

Building the 007 Persona

Analysts concur that the notion of him as a master operative was constructed retrospectively. Claims about his “recruitment work” in East Germany fall apart under examination. In essence, he was an administrator and routine duties, a low-level clerk not involved with actual agent work.

Interestingly, the move to framing him as a “007” may in part have been inspired by the actor's arrival as 007. The grittier version prompted Russian media and online audiences to make comparisons with their leader. Mashup posters replacing Craig’s face with Putin’s appeared on Moscow streets, fueling the growing tendency to frame him as a Russian 007.

A Diplomatic Opportunity?

Given the casting, an actor popular with viewers there, the Kremlin are likely to seize the opportunity to portray this choice as a minor diplomatic triumph. Its omission of mass protests, the opposition, or prominent activists in the story, even though it includes the past decade, is a welcome aspect for state propaganda.

In Russian cinema, Putin is often an omnipotent figure who never appears on screen. He is signaled through photographs or calls “from above”. In this new film, he at last gets a recognizable face—one that may inadvertently validate the exact legends it perhaps aims to question.