Russia

As the PM ramps up defence spending, the Conservative’s James Heappey and Labour’s Baroness Anderson join Krishnan Guru-Murthy to discuss whether British troops could end up fighting Putin’s war.

Astronaut Tim Peake tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about his journey to becoming an astronaut, his time on the ISS and the crucial role of Elon Musk and SpaceX in future space missions, in this episode of Ways to Change the World.

Ukrainians needed no reminder of the horrifying reality of Russia’s invasion, but the attack on the tiny village of Hroza has tonight put the conflict front and centre in the minds of the international community once again. 

A meeting of two isolated leaders, usually too afraid of leaving home. North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un left his country by armoured train for the first time in four years to meet President Putin in Eastern Siberia. 

President Zelenskyy said it was “absurd” Ukraine had no clear path to membership.

Evgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of long-time Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, joins Krishnan Guru-Murthy to talk about her fight to free Russia’s political prisoners, the toll Vladimir’s detention has taken on their family and whether she can envisage a future in a free, democratic Russia, in this week’s Way to Change the World podcast.

Hubertus Jahn, professor of the history of Russia at Cambridge University, explains how the “mafia boss” in the Kremlin has seen a crack emerge in his enterprise – and who knows what might happen next.

We’re joined by the Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

With Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Progozhin removed from Russia, one authoritarian leader is breathing a little easier – but another is perhaps starting to sweat. 

We speak to Sir Richard Shirreff, the former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, and is in Kyiv to help Ukraine prepare its case for joining Nato – something it will argue for at next month’s Vilnius summit.

We spoke to Russian opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who previously stood in a presidential election against Vladimir Putin. We started by asking him what he made of Yevgeny Prigozhin effectively being given a pardon, while other peaceful opposition protesters like Alexei Navalny are serving long prison sentences.

So what punishment awaits Yevgeny Prigozhin? A new military base in Belarus and all charges dropped.

We spoke to Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Zelenskyy’s office, and began by asking him if Saturday’s chaos was an opportunity to divert Russia’s fire away from Ukraine, and onto itself.

We spoke to Mikhail Kasyanov, who served as Prime Minister of Russia under Vladimir Putin from 2000 to 2004

Yvegeny Prigozhin took advantage of first Yeltsin’s and then Putin’s Russia to rise from a St Petersburg gangster, to a Kremlin caterer, to now one of Russia’s pre-eminent warlords.