When the Soviet Union began to dissolve in the early 1990s, it created an unusual environment for business -- Communism was presumably a thing of the past in Russia while the instruments of Capitalism were still being established, opening remarkable opportunities for entrepreneurs with the right combination of nerve and connections. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was one such businessman, who went from running a fledgling import/export business to operating a bank that merged with a Soviet oil company to create Russia's largest petroleum firm, generating tremendous private wealth from the formerly publicly-held oil reserves. Khodorkovsky became the wealthiest man in Russia (and one of the richest in the world), but despite his public reputation as a philanthropist, not everyone was pleased with him, and as Vladimir Putin rose to power, Khodorkovsky became a target as the nation's new leadership realized just how much had been given away, and he was held to task for a number of professional indiscretions. Filmmaker Cathryn Collins charts Khodorkovsky's rise and fall as politics and economics evolved in a number of ways in the documentary Vlast (aka Power), which received its American premiere at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival.
by Mark Deming
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