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A rising star in Russia's nationalist youth movement Nashi — one of the country's most powerful indoctrination forces — 19-year-old Masha Drokova has been rewarded for her dedication as an organizer with a university scholarship, an apartment, and even a pro-Kremlin talk show. Known as "the girl who kissed Putin" after boldly kissing her hero on the cheek at a government-run summer camp, she also differentiates herself from her peers by engaging in public debates with Nashi's left-wing critics.

But as those public debates evolve into tentative friendships, Masha finds herself risking her bright political future with her off-camera socializing and increasingly conciliatory viewpoints. When popular anti-Putin journalist Oleg Kashin is brutally beaten by "unknown perpetrators," she joins a protest demanding enhanced protection for members of the opposition, further alienating herself from her own movement. But can Masha leave Nashi and remain safe? A chilling portrait of contemporary Russian politics, PUTIN'S KISS is also an intimate look at one teenager's evolving social conscience.