Oliver Stone has rarely met a political argument he didn’t want to take a controversial stance on. Over the past several months, as tensions between Russia and Ukraine have ratcheted up, the Oscar-winning filmmaker has been sharing his own takes on exactly what is happening, and they’ve largely been pro-Putin—which is hardly a surprise to anyone who is even semi-acquainted with the moviemaker’s filmography. As Deadline reports, Stone has been using his own social media channels to share his views on the Russia-Ukraine situation and has been a sought-after figure to weigh in on the crisis. As Deadline’s Tom Tapp wrote:
Early last month, Stone told KCRW’s Robert Scheer: “The United States and its allies in NATO have been provoking Russia for, since two years now—actually three years—over the Ukraine…”
In the same interview, the director decried “bloodthirsty” media coverage saying, “they have no proof that Russia intends to invade Ukraine; I doubt that they would. I think Russia is concerned only with the Donbass region.”
But following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Stone seems to have changed his tune—though he has criticized the media for calling Russia’s invasion an “invasion.” On Thursday of last week, he condemned Putin’s actions via a Facebook post, which began:
“Although the United States has many wars of aggression on its conscience, it doesn’t justify Mr. Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. A dozen wrongs don’t make a right. Russia was wrong to invade.”
Much like a certain former president who clearly admires Vladimir Putin’s tyrannical ways, Stone has long been fascinated by what makes the Russian president tick. In 2017, he released a series, The Putin Interviews, which featured some frank political conversations between the two culled from more than a dozen sit-down chats (plus at least one screening of Dr. Strangelove).
Of course, like most things with Stone, he found a way to bring it back to JFK when he stated: “Now is the time, as JFK and Khrushchev faced down the perilous situation in Cuba in October 1962, for the two nuclear powers to walk this back from the abyss.”
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(Via Deadline)