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Even before critics had a chance to see Oliver Stones new documentary a series of in-depth interviews withRussian President Vladimir Putin airing on Showtime there were plenty of signs that the director would be uncomfortably sympathetic to his authoritarian subject.

If nothing else, Stones track record of borderline-obsequious documentaries about past dictators (Cubas Fidel Castro and Venezuelas Hugo Chavez) strongly suggests that the director has a soft spot for repressive regimes.

Now that reviews of The Putin Interviews are starting to leak out, its becoming quite clear that those fears were justified.

That said, there are two moments in The Putin Interviews that raise questionsextending far beyond Stone himself.

There are a number of people on the far left who are willing to apologize for Putin, either as a reflexive response to their ideological disdain for the American military-industrial complex, misplaced concern about being perceived as McCarthyist or because carrying waterfor Putin is necessary in order to justify many of the actions of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Apparently, The Putin Interviewsinadvertently illuminates why any defense of Putin makes these people, for lack of a better term, phony liberals.

The first incident occurs when Putin tells Stone that hes never had an off day as president because hes not a woman. Putins exact words to Stone were I am not a woman, so I dont have bad days. I am not trying to insult anyone. Thats just the nature of things. There are certain natural cycles,according to a report by Bloomberg.

The second problematic moment occurs when Stone asks Putin about his 2013 law outlawing what they described as gay propaganda to minors. After insisting that Russia does not discriminate by homosexuals because their laws arent as restrictive as those in many Muslim countries, Putin admits that he wouldnt shower with a homosexual man because, Why provoke him? But you know, Im a judo master.

These arent just reactionary comments by a man whose prejudices include the idea that women cant control their emotions when they menstruate and that homosexual men might prey on other naked men in a shower. They are hardened views manifested in Russian policy under the Putin regime, from a law that partially decriminalized domestic abuseto the abuse of gay men in Chechnya (as well as the aforementioned 2013 law).

Whats more, while Putins alleged preference for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton may not have been solely motivated by the latters gender, it isnt exactly a coincidence that he forged an alliance with both a misogynistic presidential candidate and a misogynistic publisherin order to take her down.

What we have in The Putin Interviewsis more than just the latest effort by apast-his-prime director to ingratiate himself to political strongmen. It is, on a deeper level, a litmus test for all of the far leftists like Stone whose knee-jerk impulses override their ability to feel compassion for historically marginalized groups.

In other words: If you are willing to defend Putin, or Stone and Assange or any of theothers who carry water for the Russian president, you are not a true liberal.

Or a good person for that matter.

Read the rest here:
Oliver Stone's The Putin Interviews is a litmus test for progressives - Salon