At the age of 21, Vasily Vlasov became the youngest parliamentarian in the Russian Duma. Given his abundant confidence and self-assured manner, he could have been a refreshing new voice.

The Patriot

Moscow, January 1996. Boris Yeltsin gets ready to run for a second mandate of the presidency of the young Russian Federation. Polls are in the single digits. A painful economic transition, war in Chechnya, and the rise of criminal groups have left the majority of Russians dissatisfied with Yeltsin… and willing to vote for the communist leader Gennady Zyuganov. Yet six months later, Yeltsin won the election with nearly 54% of the vote. How did that happen?