Author Ben Mezrich established his name writing best-sellers like Bringing Down the House, Straight Flush and Sex on the Moon. His new book is called Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs, a True Story of Ambition, Wealth, Betrayal, and Murder. Mezrich joined Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to talk about the book, which details a power-grab after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"It's fascinating and terrifying," Mezrich said of his project. "It's the story of Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich, and also how [Russian President Vladimir] Putin was created in the middle of all of this.
"The book opens — this actually happened — [when] Putin invited the biggest oligarchs at the time who were a group of men who between them had a trillion dollars between them" to Joseph Stalin's former residence. "Putin walked in, he had just taken power, and he basically said, 'you've all made a lot of money, you can keep your money, but stay out of my way,'" Mezrich said. "Putin took over, and he basically said, 'from here on out, politics is not your game.'"
Mezrich said Putin kept a low profile before he took over the most powerful office in Russia.
Leaders were looking for "someone they would call a cog, a nobody, and they found Putin — who was this low-level KGB agent," Mezrich said. The move backfired.
"So they found this guy who they thought was someone they could control, and Putin flipped it on its head," Mezrich said. "From that moment on everything changed."
Mezrich thought the story of Berezovksy and Abramaovich — two oligarchs who initially flourished under the Putin regime — was compelling. He sketched out the intrigue, and landed a deal for a book and a movie.
"I sold the movie rights basically on a hundred pages of it and an outline," he said. "I write in a cinematic style, and I feel like if it's a topic good enough for a book it should be a movie."
Part of the deal involved an informational meeting with one Russian powerbroker in London.
"I [initially] said, No way. The level of wealth is obscene. We're talking about people with 767s as their airplane."
Despite his initial hesitance Mezrich agreed to meet.
"It was morning. I flew overnight. [Producer] Brett Ratner was sitting there with me with the guy, and he goes, 'Are we gonna get killed for doing this?' And the guy goes, 'You watch too many movies,'" Mezrich said. "If you go up against Putin [like he had] — you really challenge him in the political arena — it's a scary thing."
Mezrich has been criticized for recreating dialogue for this historical novelization, but the criticism didn't bother him.
"No, not all all. There are plenty of writers who have been doing it for years. I definitely write thrillers, and so there are many critics out there who don't love the way I do it," Mezrich said. "To me it's an exciting way to tell a story. [...] They don't have to go back and figure out where the drama is."
