Oliver Stone’s new Putin doc

WHILE controversy has swirled over Michael Flynn’s abrupt resignation as national security adviser due to his contact with Vladimir Putin’s regime, one American who’s come close to the Russian president is Oliver Stone.

Stone interviewed Putin for a documentary called “Ukraine on Fire,” which debuted at the tiny Taormina Film Festival in Sicily last year. But he’s also been working on another Putin documentary that also includes numerous interviews. Multiple sources told Page Six that as part of the project, Stone — the controversial filmmaker behind movies such as “Snowden” and “JFK,” plus docs on Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez — has become close with the Russian leader. “Every time I talk to Oliver, he says he’s off to see Putin,” said a friend of the filmmaker.

Another source added that Stone attended a dinner in a Manhattan restaurant and was overheard detailing his movie on Putin. A third source said, “He’s been to Russia something like 20 times” for the documentary. “He’s been on the phone with Putin every five minutes; he spends a lot of time with Putin.” The source said Stone had even visited the leader at his Russian “country estate.” Putin reportedly has a sprawling secret holiday retreat deep in northern Russia.

Stone has kept the film largely under wraps in the US. His “Snowden” was expected to be a potential Oscar contender, but the movie struggled at the box office, making $21.5 million domestically last fall. Stone, however, began his Putin project while making the film about the whistleblower. He first revealed to Russian media he wanted to make the film on Putin during a trip to Moscow to meet with Edward Snowden in 2014. “I would interview [Putin] to show the point of view that Americans don’t want to hear about,” he reportedly told news agency RIA Novosti. According to Newsweek, Stone told Russian pro-government tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda the film will debut this year. Stone and his manager both did not respond to a request for comment.