Episode 1
THE FUGITIVE
It's Russian revolution with a difference - from Surrey. Billionaire Oligarch, Boris Berezovsky is attempting to overturn President Putin of Russia from the quiet of the English home counties. The exile, whose personal fortune is estimated at £800 million, fled Russia in 2000 and now leads a comfortable life in political asylum at his palatial home in Egham. An outspoken critic of Putin's regime, Berezovsky is still wanted in Russia on charges of fraud.

Yet, as Berezovsky admits in the film, he did have a particular role to play in Putin's rise to power. When he served as Yeltsin's Cabinet Secretary, it was Berezovsky who chose Putin as Yeltsin's replacement, only to be stabbed in the back years later.

This is the story of one man's bid to unseat the President he helped create. It is motivated by revenge, and it's no ordinary bid. Any inclinations viewers may have to dismiss him as another crackpot billionaire with a grudge, is dispelled by the end of the film when it looks as though Berezovsky may indeed succeed in toppling Putin.

The Fugitive follows Berezovsky's political wheeling and dealing as he attempts to turn the UK to his world view, destabilises Latvia with one visit, funds the Orange revolution in Ukraine, forms alliances with key US figures and foments dissent inside Russia. It's a process we follow from the inside - talking to Berezovsky and all his key contacts.

It's a battle where wealth and power count for considerably more than the law. "Putin is a bandit... We now have a right to do everything we want... we are outside legal rules," is Berezovsky's credo.

It's a battle which only one man can win.

Episode 2
THE PRISONER
The battle between President (Putin) and Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The trial of Russia's once richest man, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, turned from Putin's attack on a corrupt and wayward billionaire with huge political influence into a litmus test for the governance of Russia. Arrested in 2003 for alleged fraud and tax evasion, Khodorkovsky has always protested his innocence with an army of lawyers fighting his cause. As the state piled on the pressure - putting Khodorkovsky into jail rather than allowing him freedom during the trial, forcing his lawyers into exile and selling off his company - doubts began to surface about the legitimacy of what was going on.

The cameras of the world's media were all focused on Russia when Khodorkovsky was sentenced to almost a decade in prison in June 2005. The plot thickened when he was sent to a remote Siberian prison colony in the autumn.

The episode follows the trial from the inside and talks to all the major players. Contributors include the lawyers, the parents, the bit players caught up in it all - and, of course, Khodorkovsky's business partner, Nevzlin, who reveals his outspoken views about the corruption of the regime from exile in Israel.

Episode 3
THE POLITICIAN
With fellow oligarchs Khodorkovsky banished to a Siberian prison and Berozovsky in exile, Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow, and his wife are the last elected opposition to Putin. They also happen to be the richest couple in the country, and that is their Achilles' heel.

This episode focuses on the billionaire mayor and his wife who preside over one of the most corrupt, violent and spectacular cities on Earth. Everything, but anything, is available in Moscow: girls, boys, drugs, drink - you name it, it's there. The licence of Moscow is complete anathema to the puritanical Putin. The question is whether it will also mean the end of Luzhkov?

Russian Godfathers tells the inside story of the world of scandal, secret police, summary imprisonment and extreme wealth at the core of Russian politics and asks who really rules Russia.