Putin

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. 

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.

We analyse what Yevgeny Priogozhin’s latest statement means and how Ukranians have reacted to instability in Russia.

Last we heard he was banished to Belarus after abandoning his insurrection. But a few hours ago, the mercenary leader resurfaced – from an undisclosed location.

The administration has imposed fresh sanctions on Russia in retaliation for the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in March.

It’s been reported that the government is putting in an extradition request to Moscow for two Russian nationals suspected of the Salisbury Novichok poisoning. The move is likely to put further strain on Russian-UK relations which have been difficult ever since the attack in March.