Bryan Burrough, Truly Original Partner on Russian True-Crime Docu-Series (EXCLUSIVE)

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Truly Original has partnered with Vanity Fair special correspondent Bryan Burrough to develop the true crime documentary series currently titled “The Kremlin’s Long Shadow.”

The series will chronicle Scotland Yard’s newly reopened investigations into 15 mysterious deaths that could underscore a diabolical Russian program.

Presented by Burrough, the series will explore a recent chain of bizarre deaths and assassination attempts, utilizing a network of exclusive sources, including widows and children, defectors and spies.

Following the March 2018 assassination attempt on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal via a military-grade nerve agent, the British government is reviewing the cases of 15 suspicious deaths, none of which were originally classified as murders. The series aims to connect the dots between each death.

Cases also include Boris Berezovsky, an anti-Putin Russian oligarch living in exile in London, found dead in what was deemed a suicide, not long after four of his British lawyers and three advisors also died suddenly in separate incidents; and British scientist Matthew Puncher, found stabbed to death on his kitchen floor in an incident also ruled a suicide after tracing a poison used in another murder to a Russian nuclear facility.

The series also will spotlight the case of Mikhail Lesin, Vladimir Putin’s former media czar, who died in his Washington D.C. hotel room in 2015 in what was deemed an accident by police.

co-presidents and co-CEOs Steven Weinstock and Glenda Hersh will executive produce, alongside Truly Original’s Stephanya Bareham. Burrough also serves as executive producer.

“This is urgent ‘true crime’ with global implications, a kind of real-life ‘James Bond’ film — only all of it is real,” Burrough said.

Burrough is an American author and special correspondent for Vanity Fair. He has written six books including “Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence” and “Vendetta: American Express and the Smearing of Edmond Safra.” Burrough was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Dallas, between 1983 and 1992. He has written for Vanity Fair since 1992.

“Among Bryan’s many talents as a writer and investigative journalist is his ability to present world-defining events through a deeply personal lens, allowing him to reveal the emotional and human aspects of each story, adding depth and relevance to the facts,” Weinstock said. “Paired with his vast knowledge and experience with this dark subject matter – so much a part of today’s cultural conversation – this documentary will shock and shed light on a frightening series of events.”

(Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin)