earlier, emmanuel macron s government narrowly survived a vote of no confidence over the plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. china s president xijinping is in moscow for a state visit with a man now wanted for war crimes. such is the geopolitical fallout from vladimir putin s invasion of ukraine. the fact that the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for the russian president won t deter him for his continued assault on ukraine, but it does raise new questions about the long term consequences for russia. my guest is russian mp and state tv talk show host evgeny popov. how solid is putin s home front? evgeny popov in moscow, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. it s good to have you on the show, mr popov. your president, vladimir putin, is a wanted man. the international criminal court has filed war crimes charges against him. do you recognise the symbolic importance
declared a state of emergency. in cuba the hurricane knocked out the electricity grid leaving the entire country without power. now on bbc news. hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. vladimir putin did not intend to be in the place he s in right now. he didn t want his ukraine invasion to become a protracted war in which his army is losing ground. he didn t plan to forcibly mobilise military age men across russia, and he didn t want to see internal protests spread. but this is where he is seemingly in trouble. my guest is putin loyalist, russian mp and influential state media commentator evgeny popov. if putin is growing desperate, what does that mean for russia? evgeny popov in moscow, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen, for giving me that floor. oh, it s a pleasure to have you on the show. if i may, i want to begin with words from the kremlin chief spokesman dmitry peskov, on september 13th, he stated quite clearly there were no plans for any kind of mob
popov. if putin is growing desperate, what does that mean for russia? evgeny popov in moscow, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen, for giving me that floor. oh, it s a pleasure to have you on the show. if i may, i want to begin with words from the kremlin chief spokesman dmitry peskov, on september 13th, he stated quite clearly there were no plans for any kind of mobilisation in russia. here we are less than two weeks later with a major mobilisation. what happened 7 it s not major mobilisation. this is partially mobilisation. wejust mobilised er, 300,000 people from reserve. it s just 1% from our total reserve people. i don t know what is happening with peskov s statement, but i know that we are in war with all nato countries. with whole, sorry, nato alliance, with whole nato weapon, and we should respond on nato s threat. that s it. well. that s why my country is responding by mobilisation. you just called it a war. you know, you can get locked up for five years in russi
he didn t plan to forcibly mobilise military age men across russia, and he didn t want to see internal protests spread. but this is where he is seemingly in trouble. my guest is putin loyalist, russian mp and influential state media commentator evgeny popov. if putin is growing desperate, what does that mean for russia? evgeny popov in moscow, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen, for giving me that floor. oh, it s a pleasure to have you on the show. if i may, i want to begin with words from the kremlin chief spokesman dmitry peskov, on september 13th, he stated quite clearly there were no plans for any kind of mobilisation in russia. here we are less than two weeks later with a major mobilisation. what happened 7 it s not major mobilisation. this is partially mobilisation. wejust mobilised er, 300,000 people from reserve. it s just 1% from our total reserve people. i don t know what is happening with peskov s statement, but i know that we are in war with all nato countr
how solid is putin s home front? evgeny popov in moscow, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for giving me yourfloor. it s good to have you on the show, mr popov. your president, vladimir putin, is a wanted man. the international criminal court has filed war crimes charges against him. do you recognise the symbolic importance of that? of course you are going to recognise some symbolic of this tremendously stupid decision by international