According to Stone himself, he visited the Kremlin before shooting the documentary about the Russian leader as he previously met Putin during his work on the movie about Snowden residing in Russia.
"It was a casual meeting, a conversation, we were at the theater, we enjoyed the performance," Kucherena told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster adding that he personally acquainted Putin with Stone.
On Friday, Stone released the transcript of his interviews with the Russian leader recorded between 2015 and 2017 that had been aired by the Showtime television network earlier in the week. Putin's quotes are given in the translation from Russian into English used in the transcript.
In 2013, Snowden leaked classified documents pertaining to mass surveillance practices carried out by US authorities around the globe. Later in the year, Russia granted the former NSA contractor temporary asylum for one year. In 2014, Snowden received a three-year residence permit to live in Russia, which was later extended until 2020.
