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"Patriots" on Broadway: The story of Putin's rise to power
“Putin was my mistake. Getting rid of him is my responsibility.”
It’s clear by the time the character Boris Berezovsky utters that chilling line in the new Broadway play “Patriots” that any attempt to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise would be futile, perhaps even fatal.
The show, which opened for a limited run in New York on April 22, stars Tony and Emmy-nominated actor Michael Stuhlbarg as Berezovsky, a larger-than-life oligarch whose billions buy him into the highest ranks of Russian power after the fall of the Soviet Union. When asked by President Boris Yeltsin to find a successor to lead the fledgling nation, Berezovsky taps Putin, a former KGB agent and ex-mayor of St. Petersburg who few knew well.
The play’s director, Rupert Goold, said while the play is set in a specific moment in modern Russian history, the script has needed changes along the way as major developments colored Putin’s story.
“It does feel like the filter on it changes every day because something else happens every day,” actor Will Keen, who originated the role of Putin in London two years ago, told GZERO’s Tony Maciulis. “It feels like the play has, overall, become darker and darker. It seems to become more and more perturbing.”
“Patriots'' was written by Peter Morgan, creator of Netflix’s “The Crown” and the play puts a similarly-styled lens on Russian history. It’s Shakespearean, more melodrama than history lesson, but the characters are very real. The Broadway audience will also likely receive the show differently than the West End crowd in London, in part because of America’s long and contentious relationship with Russia, and the current polarization in US politics and discourse.
“Patriots” is playing a 12-week run at Broadway’s Barrymore theater.
Catch this full episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on public television beginning this Friday, April 26. Check local listings.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters with attorney Todd Blanche at the end of the day at Manhattan criminal court as jury selection continues in New York, U.S., April 18, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Trump jury formed, A 911 for 911, Croatia’s coalition crunch begins, New nets chop malaria in half, Netflix numbers soar
12: And then there were twelve. A dozen jurors, plus one alternate, have been selected in Donald Trump’s criminal “hush money” trial in New York. This comes after two jurors were dismissed on Thursday – one of them resigned over fears she had been targeted publicly by a FOX news host, while the other was sent home over prosecutors’ suspicions he had lied on his juror questionnaire. Five more alternates will be selected on Friday.
4: Who do you call when the emergency is that 911 itself is out? People in four US states had to wrestle with that conundrum on Wednesday night after their emergency call systems went down. No cause was given for the outages in Nevada, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Texas, but federal officials have warned that the move to digital systems in recent years has raised the risk of cyberattacks.
60: As expected, Croatia’s governing center-right HDZ party won the most votes in the election, securing 60 seats out of 151, but it will not be able to govern alone, heralding difficult coalition talks ahead. The vote followed a bitter campaign between the HDZ and a center-left coalition led by President Zoran Milanović.
50: New insecticides applied to mosquito nets cut malaria transmissions by up to 50% in trials. Mosquito nets treated with insecticides are the most effective way to stop the spread of malaria, which infects hundreds of millions around the globe and kills some 600,000 people annually. But as mosquitos develop immunity to long-used insecticides, it becomes necessary to develop new ones.
9.3 million: Netflix’s recent un-chill crackdown on password-sharing appears to have worked, as the global streaming behemoth added 9.3 million subscribers worldwide in the first quarter of 2024, and saw its operating income soar by 54%. The company says it still plans to stop reporting subscriber numbers altogether next year, as it focuses more on “engagement” than account numbers.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland.
Will Trudeau’s digital services tax lead to trade dispute?
After all, US Ambassador David Cohen warned in July that if Canada introduces such a tax, his country would have “no choice but to take retaliatory measures in the trade context, potentially in the digital trade context.” Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, no stranger to trade disputes with her American friends, appears determined to proceed.
"It's really a matter of fairness," she said. "There are other countries, our partners, who are today collecting DST. That DST is helping make essential investments in their countries, and it's just not fair for Canadians to be deprived of that revenue."
The Canadian argument is that tech companies collecting billions of dollars of revenue in Canada — like Netflix and Amazon — are able to shelter their profits in low-tax jurisdictions and are not contributing meaningfully to the economy. The Americans, unpersuaded by these arguments, don’t want to see Canada break from an OECD consensus, which is to wait until there is an international tax agreement. Business groups in both countries have asked Canada to hold off to avoid the uncertainty and disruption of a trade dispute.
The new legislation introducing the tax did not include a date, which means the government could implement it when it sees fit. Freeland may be hoping that it gives her leverage in trying to convince her American counterparts to accept the tax without imposing countervailing duties.
59.5 billion: US oil major Exxon Mobil on Wednesday paid $59.5 billion to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources, a major producer of shale oil in West Texas.
Hard Numbers: Exxon bets on shale, Netflix makes an unchill choice, Google floods the zone, digital tax plans advance
25: Netflix is planning to raise subscription prices again, starting with the US and Canada, as soon as the ongoing US actors strike ends. The precise cost increase isn’t known yet, but it comes after Netflix and other ad-free streamers have already raised their fees by 25% over the past year.
800: Is a flood on the way? As the weather gets more and more extreme, the answer is, increasingly, yes — but where and when? Google Maps has an answer for that: a new prediction service called Flood Hub. In the US and Canada, it will cover 800 river areas inhabited by some 12 million people.
32 billion: The OECD this week released a new draft treaty on global digital taxation that could raise as much as $32 billion annually by enabling governments to tax tech companies in the countries where they operate, rather than just where they are headquartered. It’s unclear whether it will be ratified by enough countries’ legislatures to take effect — but Canada is charging ahead unilaterally with its own digital tax, despite threats from US lawmakers.South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol meets with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos during a news conference in Washington, DC.
“Squid Game” diplomacy
When US President Joe Biden hosts South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House on Wednesday, the two leaders will have a lot to talk about.
Biden hopes to reassure Yoon that America would defend South Korea from a North Korean nuclear attack amid rumblings that Seoul wants its own nukes because it fears the US might not respond fast enough if Kim Jong Un pushes the red button. For his part, Yoon needs something from Biden that he can sell as a win back home, where Yoon's approval rating has tanked following the Pentagon leak that suggested the US was snooping on its ally.
Biden agreeing to ease US export controls on South Korean firms or IRA tax credits for South Korean-made electric vehicles would do the trick. But that's about as likely as Seoul doing what Biden wants: supplying weapons to Ukraine.
So far, what Yoon is getting from his almost week-long state visit is a windfall of investments by US companies in South Korea, starting with $2.5 billion from Netflix. The streaming giant is bullish on America’s appetite for South Korean pop culture, which in recent years has turned the nation into a global soft-power heavyweight.Water is dropped near a fireman as the Fairview Fire burns near Hemet, California.
California scorcher, Gulf states threaten Netflix, potential Putin-Xi meeting
California’s dystopian heatwave
Californians are bracing for mass power outages as the state of 40 million people suffers a record-breaking heatwave with temperatures in the triple digits. With residents cranking up air conditioners, state authorities say energy use statewide is hitting record levels. (The power grid is under added pressure because of the extreme heat, which makes power transmission less efficient.) Meanwhile, California’s independent grid operator called for energy rationing between 4 and 9 pm, advising residents to turn up their thermostats and avoid using energy-intensive equipment like dishwashers and washing machines. Indeed, the heatwave and energy crunch indicate that extreme weather events linked to climate change are pummeling countries in the developing and developed world alike. (With a GDP of $3.4 trillion in 2021, California’s economy is the largest in the US, surpassing countries like India and France.) As several wildfires broke out in Southern California in recent days, Governor Gavin Newsom warned that “we’re heading into the worst part of this heat wave.”
Gulf gulp for Netflix
Several Gulf Arab states have threatened legal action against the US-based streaming giant unless it censors any content there that violates “Islamic and societal values.” The salvo came from a Riyadh-based commission that represents the media interests of the Gulf Cooperation Council. No specific offenses were listed, but the concern is believed to center on programming that includes LGBTQ characters or themes. It’s not clear how big the Middle East market is for Netflix — the company lumps the region together with Africa and Europe in its annual reports. But the real challenge may come closer to home: Netflix recently weathered a backlash from progressives angry about a Dave Chappelle comedy special that was seen to make fun of transgender people. Would caving to Riyadh’s content demands provoke a similar storm? As our Eurasia Group friends noted earlier this year, the culture wars are a constant and usually no-win battle for companies these days.Putin-Xi: From BFFs to "it's complicated"
The Kremlin says Vladimir Putin will meet Xi Jinping next week at a regional security gathering in Uzbekistan. If confirmed, it'll be the first in-person chat between the presidents of Russia and China since early February, when Putin attended the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics less than three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. It'll also be Xi's first trip outside China since early 2020 — a big milestone for the architect of China's zero-COVID policy. The two have a lot to talk about since their last hangout, during which they showed off a bilateral bromance that, it turns out, does have limits. Xi was not happy about the Russian invasion but perhaps hoped the war would be quick and the West wouldn't have time to respond. That clearly did not happen, and the conflict looks more destined for a deep freeze than a negotiated settlement. What's more, China is feeling the heat for being noncommittal about Ukraine at a time that its lagging economy can hardly afford to lose foreign investment dollars. Russia, for its part, needs China to keep buying Russian oil that's off Western markets — albeit it at bargain prices — and remain its most powerful “friend.”
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