as they ridiculed political figures. >> ntv has a comic show called "kukly"-- "puppets." and when putin comes to rise in public life, it features a putin puppet, as well, and he's never portrayed very flatteringly. >> (straining) >> putin apparently was driven to madness by this show, and by the way he was portrayed on it, the way he was mocked on it. >> narrator: ntv and its owner, vladimir gusinsky, came into the crosshairs of putin's government. >> he sent out operatives from the prosecutor general's service, so the tax police, to raid the offices of media- most, the pant company of ntv, whh was at the time the largest independent media holding in russia. >> gusinsky is imprisoned, and while he's in jail, one of putin's lieutenants comes to visit him in jail and says, "you know, you could get out of this mess if you sign over ntv." gusinsky eventually does that, hands over ntv to a kremlin-friendly oligarch. >> doing that, putin made clear the broadcast media, which is how most russians get their news, was no longer going to be outsourced. this was going to be a state-