Oliver Stone, the American film director has held a series of rare interviews with Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to be aired in installments in June.

"The Putin Interviews" will be broadcast as a documentary series in four parts by Showtime, the US network beginning on June 12.

The cable network is promoting the programmes by comparing them to the rare and unique conversations between David Frost, the British journalist and Richard Nixon, the former US president in 1977.

The series draws on footage from a dozen interviews between the Russian president and Mr Stone. The most recent interview was recorded in February, after Donald Trump was inaugurated to the presidency.