Yet for all its quirks, Mr Tuschi's film conveys the venal brutality that underpins Mr Putin's rule.

ECONOMIST: The challenge of capturing a murky country on film

Beyond merely criticising Mr Putin's rule, he openly financed at least two important opposition parties and wielded heavy influence in the Russian parliament, the Duma.

ECONOMIST: Russia

And, although Mr Putin as prime minister was still the real boss, Mr Medvedev pleased liberals by speaking out on the need to rein in corruption (even in Mr Putin's circle), strengthen the rule of law and modernise the economy.

ECONOMIST: The return of Vladimir Putin

The government's attack on the Yukos oil company and its erstwhile boss, Mikhail Khodorkovsky whose trial verdict was last week conveniently postponed so as to come after Mr Putin's Victory Day parades has demonstrated with an awful clarity both the lack of any independent rule of law and the arbitrariness of the Russian state's intervention in business.

ECONOMIST: Russia and the West

And that has added to the frustration over, for example, Mr Putin's backing for Syria's government or a senior Russian general's statement that the country did not rule out the possibility of a nuclear first strike against missile-defence sites.

ECONOMIST: Russia and America