even though we believe put in s advisers even though we believe put in s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, what advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, what is going on and the extent truth, what is going on and the extent of truth, what is going on and the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime. we talked to crystal clear to the regime. - talked to more victims of the failings of maternity services, ministers promise sweeping reform. welcome to the programme. we re going to start with that big news from russia president putin says russian gas must be paid for in roubles from friday and international contracts will be halted if the payments aren t made. this was the moment. translation: we suggest - to our counterparties from those countries that clear and transparent scheme in order to purchase russian natural gas, they should open rouble accounts in
secured for the gas and supply starting from tomorrow from april the 1st in case such payments fail and consider them as a nonpayment from different parties. vladimir putin s announcement seems to be an attempt to boost russia s currency, which has been hit by western sanctions. here s jane foley from dutch bank rabobank. behind this is put in s wants to strengthen the rouble. we saw the start of the war it has one back by a lot of ground but it still 17 or so percent weaker than it was at the end of last year. consider what s happening in the russian economy, there is a lots of inflation. economists predicting that the economy could contract in terms of the size if it s gdp for two consecutive years. it is a huge recessionary backdrop.
had test over the last week or so russia saying it was going to focus from its operations in the east and we had an air strike where i am here in the west. we heard just a few days ago russia saying again that it was going to reduce its forces around kyiv, and yet, since that happened, and as you heard from that resident, it has continued. there has been very little change. we have seen some shift of russian process. chernobyl taken by russian forces, they had made the residence, the people who actually work there and that they had kept them at their positions for a long time. there was some concerns, because obviously chernobyl is still a very dangerous site, we heard about some potential power outages. today, we were told two columns of russian forces like chernobyl. there are here and there are some moments that look like withdrawal, but what president zelensky has said is that in his assessment and in the assessment of ukrainian intelligence, anything that looks like a withdraw at
common in authoritarian countries, because there is an incentive not to give your boss the whole truth if the results may be you are losing yourjob, losing your livity or losing your head, and we ve seen this in many, many places from stalin s russia, stalin s soviet union facing operation barbarossa, the nazi invasion, all the way to saddam hussain in iraq. and this process and it russia began before the invasion. the fsb, which is one of the russian intelligence agencies that is a successor to the kgb, which of course we all know and have heard about, the fsb exaggerated the scope of its networks and its influence inside ukraine at every level, and so by the time these assessments landed on the desk of vladimir putin, it was very clear indeed that he had exaggerated picture of what was possible, and when that proved catastrophically wrong, of course, he himself having made such an astonishing misjudgment, would be looking for scapegoats, and that s probably
so, what does this mean for europe? here s our business presenter victoria fritz. this is, sort of, almost for europe, the worst april fools joke ever. nobody is laughing because what putin is saying here is if you don t effectively pay for our gas in roubles, whichever which way you want to do it, and via our own bank accounts, we will not give you gas. we ve heard from germany and france who have rejected russia s demands. the german economy minister says. and the french finance minister said. let s speak now to nikos safos, chair for energy and geopolitics at the think tank centre for strategic and international studies. thank you forjoining us on the programme. thank you for “oining us on the programme. thank you for “oining us on the rouramme. . ., ., m programme. thanks for having me. do ou think it programme. thanks for having me. do you think it is programme. thanks for having me. do you think it is a programme. thanks for having me. do you think it is a chance