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
david, what do you think of that? what he was getting at is exactly what putin is saying that he may do. he is not pulling out of the treaty. he didn t sound like he was planning to break the limits which are 1,550 strategic nuclear weapons for each country. it did sound like he was going to halt all inspections, american inspections in russia for compliance of the treaty. the fact of the matter is, kate, we have not done those inspections in several years mostly because of covid which kept the inspectors from going into the country and over the past year, because of the russians threw blockades to it, and they maintained that we were throwing blockades to inspections of our sites, but there is no appetite to replace this treaty when it expires in three years february of 2026.
little bit more 55-56. there are cracks in the wall here when it comes to republicans, how far to go. but, largely, there is still bipartisan support up on capitol hill. there is and you saw that delegation of republicans in ukraine today. there has been bipartisan support, but money is one thing and sending money for weapons. but, the president in his speech in poland didn t lay out how to the american people how he plans to keep this from spiraling out of control. the idea that president putin is saying he is not going to be in the start treaty which limits u.s. ability to have eyes on the number of intercontinental nuclear weapons that russia has, that s a huge problem that diplomatically this treaty was supposed to run out in february of 2026. they will have to try to renegotiate that while we are supplying ukraine with weapons to fight against russia. i don t think that putin would be willing to come to the table to renegotiate any kind of agreement for accountability on that sy
in a world of myths. i called it a warfrom the beginning, but not from the february of 2026. 2022, but from 2014. it s. it was a civil war between ukrainian citizens on the west. 0n the. 0n the east of ukraine. but now it s a war between russia and nato countries. i call it war from the beginning. why is it then. yeah, 0k, well, that s clear, then. putin has called it a special military operation from the very beginning. he insisted that anybody who referred to it as a war was committing a crime. you ve clearly changed. lots of things have changed. if you re calling it a war, why is it a war that so many russians of military age who could be called up
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 russia for calling it a war. don t live, stephen, in a world of myths. i called it a warfrom the beginning, but not from the february of 2026. 2022, but from 2014. it s. it was a civil war between ukrainian citizens on the west. 0n the. 0n the east of ukraine. but now it s a war between russia and nato countries. i call it war from the beginning. why is it then. yeah, 0k, well, that s clear, then. putin has called it