ANALYSIS WILD PAROXYSMS OF THE TURBULENT 90s – HOW THE TRAITORS DOCUMENTARY EXPOSED THE RUSSIAN LIBERAL MILIEU The story which The Traitors tells is pretty simple and well known to academic scholars who deal with the modern Russian state: it was corrupt from its inception and Putin’s regime is in no way an aberration, but smooth continuity of the Yeltsin system. The documentary precipitated a wave of slanderous assaults on ACF and Pevtchikh herself from the“liberal” wing of the Russian opposition outside and inside Russia. They range from obscenities to accusations of Bolshevism, left­wing extremism to collaboration with Putin’s regime. Lev Kadik July 2024 The Traitors broke the main Russian political taboo. In the 1990s, the country underwent a catastrophe of social, economic and political proportions. The 2002 census registered a natural population decline of 1.8 million since 1989. Public discussion about this period was, however, impossible as it could undermine both Putin and“liberal” opposition.