he didn t leave, so we recorded another ten minutes, and then we got up, he still didn t leave, he was chatting away, and he said, i ve just spoken to vladimir putin, you know, and i told vladimir that i was going to give an interview to the bbc and vladimir putin said send my best wishes to the bbc. i don t know if that s true, that s what he said. and then he said, don t be upset by the way things have gone, you asked for this interview. he seems to have think it had gone well for him, which is quite interesting, and off he walked. fascinating. steve, thank you very much for sharing the story behind the interview. we appreciate it. steve rosenberg joining us live from moscow. you can find the full interview both on iplayer and also on youtube. now, evidently, steve s interview has very much cut through, though the degree to which it will impact on belarusian politics we will see because of the way lukashenko runs the country. but if we turn our attention to stories in the uk, let s c
which has kept him put him in the headlines over the last year and a half. think back to august of last year, he was accused of rigging the presidential election, then he launched a brutal crackdown on his critics and opponents tens of thousands of people were detained. then he was accused of air piracy remember the case of the ryan air passengerjet, which he forced to land in minsk so he could arrest one of his critics. and now being accused of weaponising migrants. so we put in a request to interview him, didn t expect to get a yes, but he agreed. and then you went tell us about what it was like when you arrived to do the interview. well, we had to set up all the equipment, all the cameras, the lights the day before in the palace of independence. then we came back the next day and belarusian state television was there, it was quite a quiet atmosphere. we were told that mr lukashenko was on his way. he could have waltzed into the room, sat down, there wasn t much small talk.
but i did as best i could. well, i think you acquitted yourself very well on that front. i wonder if you had any journalistic doubts or whether people who are opponents of president lukashenko in belarus had doubts about the merits of giving him bbc news airtime. yeah, certainly, i did have doubts and certainly, when the news came out on friday that the bbc had recorded an interview with alexander lukashenko before the actual interview, the content had been put out there was some criticism of the bbc, you know, for actually sitting down and recording an interview with this particular person. and certainly, some of the criticism came from the belarusian opposition. but once our interview aired, the 24 minute version and now a 33 minute version, most of that criticism has gone and the interview has been, i think, pretty much welcomed and well received. has it been watched in belarus? can people see it? interesting question, because in belarus, you can they can see it on youtube, th
and i think her comment she made a comment about channel 4 which sort of showed that she s got some work to do to get her head around the brief where she said it s taxpayers money to look after, and of course channel 4 is commercially funded, so there s no taxpayer money involved in that situation. so, basically, she is new to the brief and we don t really know what we re going to get from her. chris, you are staying with us for all of this edition, and for those of you listening, you can hear the whole of katie s interview with nadine dorries on a bonus media show podcast via bbc sounds, either via browser or by the bbc sounds app. now, next on the media show, let s bring in steve rosenberg, the bbc s moscow correspondent who is with us from moscow. steve, good to speak to you. thanks very much, ros. now, we invited you on because you ve done quite an extraordinary interview with the president of belarus, alexander lu kashenko. it has been going viral on social media, it s been wid
alexander lu kashenko. we re also going to consider the new editor of the daily mail. how much control will he have over which political stories in the uk last, notjust for a day or two, but for much longer? and of course, we ve got to talk about peppa pig. i m sure lots of people saw the prime minister s speech at the cbi this week which featured peppa pig. let s begin the program by talking to the deputy political editor at itv news, anushka asthana. i wonder how itv covered that story. we certainly did cover peppa pig and i can imagine that my itv colleague in northumberland, who was there, was watching as we all were slightly through his hands at that speech not onjust peppa pig, but at a few things, and of course, he had the opportunity straight after that interview to ask the prime minister some questions, so did all broadcasters, but it was his turn to ask the questions and you will remember that he i think spoke