of iran or north korea, or china, right. so it s possible to get information now in a way that wasn t the case in the past. but how do you crack the mentality of people that has been fed propaganda, not just in the last few months of the war, but for years really. and that i think is no easy task. how much influence do you think he has, navalny, and how much reach inside russia? how is he viewed there? well, you know, it does speak volumes in a way that the kremlin considers him such a serious threat that they would throw him into jail after poisoning him when he stepped off the airplane literally and returned to the country after having been poisoned, they immediately sent him to jail for years. then they re-upped it, right in the middle of escalating this campaign against ukraine for years more. so the kremlin clearly considers
she says. probably it s going to get worse. a prediction all but certain to come true as a second russian offensive draws near. meantime, the kremlin is warning against the further expansion of nato, threatening consequences should finland and sweden join the alliance. former president dmitry medvedev who is now a part of russia s security council says such a move would cause the russian authority to more than double its forces on the western flank. he says the baltic countries would lose their nonnuclear status. but finland and sweden are edging to apply for membership. a decision is expected in weeks. the head of the cia warns russia s threat must be taken seriously, and the russian president vladimir putin has an increased appetite for risk as this war goes badly for him. given the potential desperation of president putin
loser out of this in many ways. the russian economy is heavily sanctioned. it will be suffering from those sanctions for a generation or nor. nato is likely to expand. his military is being exposed as a paper tiger in all this. when does that start to impact on his hold on the leadership, on the presidency of russia? that s a really good question, because if you look at this war, it really has been an unmitigated disaster for russia. you know, they ve taken perhaps as many as 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers killed in action. thousands of pieces of military equipment destroyed. they galvanized the west, sweden and finland now express readiness to join nato because they see that in their security interests. and you have these sanctions, which are just beginning to take their toll on the russian economy, which the world bank expects to contract by 11% this year. i don t see how anybody in moscow could consider this a victory for russia. but i don t know if there is anybody in that inner circl
part of their efforts to execute some sort of naval dominance in the black sea. so this is going to have an effect on their capabilities. a senior u.s. defense official now says the first russian troops which withdrew from northern ukraine to regroup now appearing in the donbas region of eastern ukraine, parts which are already controlled by mosquito-backed separatists. much of the area is enduring constant bombardment. civilians are paying a heavy price. the price civilians are playing in one town. reporter: the town is no stranger to war. eight years, this has been the front line of ukraine s battle with russian-backed separatists. people here are used to shelling. they have never experienced anything like this. a missile can be heard overhead as an emotional man approaches us.
what more do you know? michael, i m at the damascus gate which is one of the main entrances is for muslim worshipers to enter the old city. we ve actually been here all morning long. what started as a calm morning, it s ramadan and the beginning of friday and the beginning of passover, quickly turned violent. we were able to hear the booms, the shots, the fireworks going off from where we were just outside of the compound. what we know is shortly after around 4:00 a.m. or so, clashes broke out at the al aqa mosque compound, also known as the temple mount, the noble sanctuary as you noted before. we know from the palestinian red cross, at least 50 have been injured. police say they were responding to violent rioters that were throwing rocks and fireworks. police are saying three of their officers were injured. there haven t been clashes this bad, michael, at the al aqsa compound since this time around last year, which of course help set off that 11-day war between israel and hamas and