Still, Hearst concludes: "For all the trials and tribulations that Percy faced in getting close to her man, the series remains compulsive viewing for all those who want to know what went on inside Russia for the last decade".

Andrei Illarionov, Putin's economic adviser turned political opponent, wrote on his LiveJournal blog: "This whole story is like a game in which the public only knows part of the information.

[5][6] Journalist and popular blogger Anton Nosik went further on his LiveJournal blog, accusing the filmmakers of taking Russian state money through the PR agency Ketchum Inc., which has a contract to "improve the image of Russia in the West".

[5][7] Writing in The Moscow Times, the Sanoma-owned English language freesheet published in Moscow, Victor Davidoff has problems with the filmmakers' general political stance when it comes to Putin's Russia, which he feels follows the dominant theory among the leftist Westerners, that of "Putin's anti-democratic crusade largely being a legitimate reaction to the hostile policies of the West, especially the United States".

[5] Davidoff feels the documentary "bought into the Kremlin version of history: Putin came to power, put an end to the 'chaos of the 1990s,' took the country back from the oligarchs and gave Russians prosperity".