PROPERTY TO DIE FOR
Part of the This World series

TX: 9pm Tuesday 19 July 2005, BBC 2

‘Democracy is a dictatorship of law’ (Vladimir Putin)

‘There is not much wrong with our laws in Russia. It is just that not many people want to obey them.’ (Anna Politkovskaya, reporter)

You’re sitting in a house you’ve bought legally, but you can’t move because you’re nursing a broken leg. Suddenly you hear a bulldozer attack the front porch. You’re removed bodily, in time to watch the destruction of your home, so unscrupulous bureaucrats can develop the land it stands on. Or you come to work and find your office or factory or theatre stolen, using forged documents that claim it’s been sold - twice.

This is the world revealed in Property to Die For , a story of life and death on the Moscow property market virtually unknown in the West. Its sinister complexities are only now being revealed in Russia. It’s a series of multi-million dollar scams involving corrupt judges, bureaucrats, cops, mafiosi, and victims facing acid attacks, kidnapping and personal ruin.

Property to Die For investigates crimes protected by Russian law and its officers. They’re shrugged off by authorities and encouraged by apparatchiki at the highest levels of both local and national government. These crimes make nonsense of President Putin’s hawkish profile as a restorer of law and order.

The scale of repossession of assets, carried out through apparently simple means, questions whether the Russian government is able or willing to control the situation. This new insecurity of property is at the heart of Putin’s reforms.

Following the often blackly comic tales of repossession, Property to Die For exposes the human realities of Putin’s Russia. It asks whether Russia lives up to its claim to be an orderly democratic society, subject to the rule of law. How can a property owning democracy operate when land titles have no meaning?

Produced and Directed by Christopher Mitchell
Executive Producer Roger Graef

For more information about this film please contact:
Paul Rasmussen via email: Paul.rasmussen@bbc.co.uk or telephone: 0208 752 5252
or call Zoe at Films of Record on 020 7286 0333

© Films of Record

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