HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020344.jpg

192

about Snowden for Sony. Stone said that the million dollar deal with Kucherena effectively
guaranteed that any competing project would not have access to Snowden. Sony consequently
put the competing film on hold.

To be sure, it is not unusual for a lawyer to negotiate a deal on behalf of a client, but a lawyer
ordinarily does not have the power to block a competing film access to their client. Clearly,
Kucherena was no ordinary lawyer. Among other positions, he was on the public board of the
FSB security service. In light of such connections, Stone said Kucherena might be acting as an
intermediary for other parties who did control access to Snowden in Russia but that were not his
concern. Kucherena delivered the exclusive access to Snowden.

Aside from being a skilled director, Stone is a shrewd producer who knew how to close a deal.
He assessed, correctly as it turned out, that the payment to Kucherena would effectively block
Sony’s competing project. Where the money went was far less clear.

Towards the end of our dinner, Stone told me that he did not know I was writing a book about
until a few weeks earlier. He learned of my book from Snowden. He said Snowden had
expressed concern to him about the direction of the book I was writing. “What was it about?”
Stone asked me.

I was taken aback. I had no idea that Snowden was aware of my book project, as I had not
tried to contact him. I told Stone that I considered Snowden to be extraordinary man who had
changed history. Although I was intentionally vague in my description, Stone seemed to be
reassured.

That Snowden was aware that I was investigating him presented an opportunity. I asked Stone
about the possibility of my seeing Snowden in Moscow.

Stone did not offer to arrange such a meeting. He said only that I “might want to speak to
Anatoly [Kucherena].” This conversation suggested to me that Kucherena was Snowden’s gate-
keeper.

In his two years in Moscow, Snowden, or his handlers, had granted only a handful of face-to
face interviews. One was with James Bamford, who was writing an article on Snowden for Wired
magazine in 2014. But it took nearly nine months to arrange the meeting. “I have been trying to
set up an interview with him [Snowden]—traveling to Berlin, Rio de Janeiro twice, and New
York multiple times to talk with the handful of his confidants who can arrange a meeting. “ he
recounted in Wired. After my dinner with Stone, I hoped to find a quicker route.
First, I was advised that I needed a Moscow “fixer,” the curious term that journalists
commonly use to describe a local intermediary who arranges appointments in foreign countries. I
retained Zamir Gotta, a highly respected TV producer in Moscow, who I was told had helped
“fix” the Bamford interview with Snowden.

HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020344