Showtime to air Stone interviews with Vladimir Putin

NEW YORK – Showtime is presenting four hours of director Oliver Stone interviewing Russian president Vladimir Putin on four consecutive nights in June.

The network announced Monday that “The Putin Interviews” will air first on June 12 at 9 p.m. Eastern, with three additional hour-long installments on the following nights. Showtime said Stone interviewed Putin more than a dozen times over the past two years, most recently in February.

Showtime is comparing the project to conversations held by British TV host David Frost and former U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1977.

Stone had also interviewed Putin for his documentary “Ukraine on Fire,” which was said to take a sympathetic view of Russia’s involvement in the conflict there.