no serving american president has ever met with a north korean leader. speaking at the white house, a south korean envoy, just returned from pyongyang, confirmed the meeting will happen, before may. south korea's envoy also confirmed that pyongyang has agreed to halt all nuclear and missile tests, while talks go on, and to consider denuclearisation. after months of missile tests, brinkmanship, and bloodcurdling threats from pyongyang and the us, it could be an historic game—changer. mrtrump mr trump described the development as great progress but stressed sanctions on north korea will remain and thejoint sanctions on north korea will remain and the joint military exercise between the us and south korea, to which the north koreans are strongly opposed, will go ahead. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk.

i'm stephen sackur. seven candidates are challenging vladimir putin in this month's russian presidential election, and not one of them has a hope of victory. to all intents and purposes, this is a show election to confirm the popularity and power of mr putin. but is there a danger for russia in this putinisation of politics? my guest is one of the seven hapless other candidates. boris titov, a vladimir putin appointee as government ombudsman for business. does russia need reform rather than authoritarianism 7 boris titov in moscow... hello.

welcome to hardtalk. you are going to be in the election that comes ahead in just a few days from now. to the outside world, it looks at the charade, a mockery of a democratic process. is that the way it feels to you? no, it's a democratic process because we are all by our own will participating in it. but of course the popularity of putin is very high, and that's why we, of course, understand that the chances are very low — our chances are very low. you're not really a serious candidate, are you? because during the course of the campaign, you have said that — hang on... ha—ha, very nice. i thought i am a serious man, i am a businessman. by the way, a british businessman. because i started my career in ‘89 in london. yes, well...

but i left london in ‘99. you have a track... yes... you said ombudsman. not a serious man i don't think could handle this job. it is a serious job. you said i am putin's ombudsman. de facto yes. but, i mean, in reality, i am protecting the rights of businessman from the state of russia. because in very many cases, their rights are abdicated using administrative law, criminal law, corruption. so i am protecting our businessmen from our russian state. mr titov, i want to get to yourjob, because it's an importantjob. but i didn't wish to offend you. i didn't say you were not a serious man, what wanted to say you were not a serious candidate. because you very publicly have said

you know, vladimir putin is the toughest politician of our age and he will be re—elected. of course he has a big majority against us. but every candidate has his own idea why we are participating in these elections. for us, it is very important, this move. we were thinking as a group of businessman in our union of non—core, non—oil business of russia, who are supporting me. and we were thinking for a long time to go for this election or not, but we decided to do it. why? because we need to promote our ideas. and the idea that we have is a strategy for russia. we, along with the best macroeconomical scientists in russia, have developed a programme,

and this is a very profound programme. a real strategy. we prepared it for two years. the main idea is that we have to change the economy of russia. we have to go from today's oil economy, resource economy, to a real market economy. we have to promote small and medium businesses. we have a full programme for that. we have to promote industrial, technological businesses. we have to make the country know about that. yes, but the point... let me stop you, let me stop you for a second. 0k. you say you are full of important economic... sorry, sorry, i'm too active, yeah. no, don't worry. you tell about these ideas of modernising russia, and you say that you need the country to know your ideas. i come back to this point, the election is a charade. vladimir putin has not even released a manifesto. he has refused debate with you and the other six challenging candidates.

he doesn't regard you as serious. the only thing the kremlin wanted the was for you and the others... the country regards me as serious. let me finish my point. the kremlin wanted you to stand as a figleaf to give the impression that they were some sort of choice. i am sorry. the kremlin did not want me to stand. the only question that i asked the kremlin, because really, i am working in the kremlin administration, so the only thing which i asked was it would be a conflict of interest. do i have to leave my day—to—dayjob to run for the election? they said, ok, we thought it was not a conflict of interest, so i am still giving thejob and going for a elections. otherwise, i would have to decide, because it is a big chance that i would have left the job to run for the elections. alexei navalny is by far the most prominent opposition voice

in russia today. he wanted to run in the election. he was barred from running on the basis of a conviction on jumped up charges which were condemned by the european court of human rights has been completely unacceptable, and after that, navalny said to all russians, "please, do not vote." he said that it meant fixing vladimir putin's problem by helping in disguise his appointment by making it look like serving like a proper election. why did you not heed his words? because if nobody will will go for the polls, putin will win with 100%. if everybody will go, business people, those who do not agree with the economical, who don't agree with the political, those who support ksenia sobchak, or support communists... if they will not go, the country and vladimir putin

will think that everyone supports him. every percent of people — 15%, 20%, they will come and they will say we are voting for other people as candidates. so we will see the picture, the social picture in russia, the picture of opinions in russia. so navalny, of course, we can talk about his legal situation. but if we talk about who supports him, not many people support him. only abouti.5 or2% of people support him. with respect, your current poll standing is less thani%, so... i won't compete with alexei navalny. we'll see final stand. at least in one week, you will see our result. of course we are not professional politicians, we are professional economists. but anyway, navalny has his

supporters, and he had to make them come and vote for him or if you can't vote because he was legally not in the list, but there was other possibilities to do there. so i think that we have to have more competition and every social group supporting any candidate and having the right to have very candidate and to come and vote. mr titov, we will talk economy, because that is a real interest. but before we do that, we need to talk about what vladimir putin seems to regard as the most important message in the election, and that is his message on foreign policy. a bellicose, assertive message to the russian people about restoring russian pride and taking on russia's enemies wherever they may be. do you support that element putin's message? do you support that element

of putin's message? that is not the message he gives to the russian people. he — the message is different. mostly the message is for the west. and this message could be read as "you don't want to talk to us when we are weak — we think that you will talk with us when we will be strong." i think the perception of the situation in the world is different, between the west and putin. he thinks the west made many mistakes against russia. i partly agree with that, because in the 90s, the west did not support russian in the democratic processes. we thought there would be huge educational programmes. thousands of russians will go to the west to learn about democracy and the market economy. it didn't happen. of course, nato is coming closer and closer to the russian borders. putin considers that not understanding of the russian

interest in the world. sorry to interrupt. i don't mean to be rude. there is a time delay on the line and if the answers are too long, we will not get through all of the important issues that we need to get through. on this point, i am mindful that you are an opposition candidate trying to remove vladimir putin from the kremlin. but your message to the outside world is what? that you support his invasion and annexation of crimea? you support russian trips in eastern ukraine? you support the intervention... we use different words fallout. i support some things, i don't support some things. crimea was never ukrainian. the mistake was made by yeltsin when they didn't even consider the talk — the issue of crimea when they signed the agreements.

because nobody even thought that crimea is ukrainian at that time. and he just let it go without any — even putting — because he was so fast and hard to move these agreements forward because he wanted to be the president of russia. he was the president of russia, but there was gorbachev who was the president of the soviet union. in order to push through the agreements he just destroyed the soviet union. i want your view on something topical in the united kingdom today. and that is the very mysterious illness, the critical illness, of a russian double agent, sergei skripal, currently in hospital fighting for life alongside his daughter. mr skripal was a russian agent who then seemed to be working for the uk, was imprisoned in russia, then was pardoned and sent to the uk in a spy swap.

that was a very long question. that was not a question, that was a position. do you think russia's response will for what has happened to sergei skripal? and have nothing to do with that, and i can say that you do not speculate on that. it you start speculating, even this guy didn't give his explanation what happened. there was no investigation about that. why we should put everything on the hard side? why should we think about the enemy psychology from the first thing, from the first thing? here's one thing... we'll never agree on anything. here's one thing you might want to think about... we will never agree on nothing. we might want to think about vladimir putin's responsibilities, because back in in 2010... you have already judged him about that. not at all. i want you to respond to this. if you don't mind, let

me ask the questions. back in 2010, at the time of the spy swap, vladimir putin said "traitors will kick the bucket, trust me. they have betrayed their friends for 30 pieces of silver and they will choke on them." of course, many people are wondering whether vladimir putin... i never heard about this — putin's expression, but i cannot comment on that. i never had anything to do with spy investigations or spy work, so let me free — to be free out of these questions. i want to talk about the economical side. what i will say to you, if i may, the world is very small. before we talked and signed, for example, the helsinki agreement with you, before that, churchill and stalin signed the agreement at yalta and further agreements post—war and fought together against facism.

now we need to find ways to meet each other. i understand your point, boris titov, but it is not working away, right now, because of russia's actions in ukraine and elsewhere. it will never work like that, when you start your question...what is the right word in english? ..with accusations and not trying to find the right way to find each other. mr titov, i keep trying to remind myself you're an opponent of putin not his spokesman... i am an opponent of vladimir putin but i'm in favour of russia and the russian federation

and i'm a big patriot. when i see what happened, i have been living in london for many years. my children have british passports and what i see now happening... i do not how to call it... it is a circus or whatever, that people just do not talk to each other, and this is complete nonsense. but mr titov, you want reform, you want to open up the russian economy, you want to modernise it and get massive international investment in russia, do you not see, with the foreign policies and the attitude of vladimir putin right now, you are going to get none of that. you are going to get sanctions, more international isolation and less investment... maybe you think like that but with more free economy in russia, there will be investment and foreign investment. the politics are politics but we know, we are practical people, businessmen,

we know that to the soviet union, there were foreign investment from britain, for example, that were coming, because if there was a trust even at that time, we can talk, and when we talk figures, investments, mutual projects... maybe it's news to you but in fact, it's going the other way. no, it's not going the other way. exxonmobiljust pulled out of a majorjoint venture with rosneft because of the sanctions regime. both the un and the eu are talking about strengthening sanctions. ijust had lunch in mcdonald's. we have all the main brands staying in russia. i hope you enjoyed your burger but the fact is that... ilike... the fact is quite simple, you can eat as many cheeseburgers as you like, but foreign direct investment in russia has plummeted in recent years and you are a man

who is supposed to be advocating... it's true. thank you. but what you can say is we have a big potential in our possible economical development. russia is a huge klondike of possible growth. we are saying we can do it by ourselves. we have quite a strong russian business community. we have technologies. a lot of experts are still working in russia. you're the ombudsman responsible for safeguarding the interests of business in russia today, would you agree with me that for example, the use of the law and the courts by big companies to intimidate smaller companies, to manipulate... no, no, not right. the biggest problem now in russia is corruption. and threats from the

state to businessmen. we have criminal law used against companies. we have to protect the rights, we have to take people out ofjail because, according to the russian law, businessmen before the court couldn't be jailed. it is a recent law. but they are still jailed. i havejust been in london and we had the list of russian businessmen who have escaped from russia and they are living in london, in greece and spain and different countries and they can't return, they have small businesses, one of them just returned this week... mr titov, this is really important. and you are being very frank about the degree of corruption in your country and that matters because you are the ombudsman for business and it is difficult for businesses to believe in their ability to safeguard their interests if corruption is corroding their system.

a very simple question, do you think that vladimir putin and his cronies and he friends, many of them from st petersburg, are crooked? i can say i don't know this. i can say to you, i talk to vladimir putin about our strategy of growth. i mean, this is our programme. and what he did, he tried to move this way for more competition... no, i'm asking you whether you believe vladimir putin is corrupt and those around him? i've never seen any deals with putin on corruption. i've never seen this anywhere. really? really! no but, corruption where? let me read to you the latest helsinki commission report, highly respected, on russia. they say, "endemic corruption is the defining characteristic of the putin regime. while the president is the prime

beneficiary, cronies maintain the system of corruption. these loyal supporters are necessary for putin to ensure the status quo and they often pursue the government's illicit interests." that's the helsinki commission report putting the blame on putin himself. helsinki... yeah. i don't know about helsinki but i have never seen anybody from putin's administration asking from anybody, from at least business, for a bribe. i have never seen, i cannot comment on that. you're trying to beat putin in this election, wouldn't it be worth your while digging away at navalny‘s claims that putin and his inner circle are corrupt? i am saying we have to work and go forward.

if we will claim that everything is bad and this, this, and this — by the way, not very proved. because navalny, his accusations... at least i have not seen the proofs, but coming back to the main idea — we need to go forward. we understand the problems which we have in russia. corruption, it's not the biggest problem but the main corruption is a huge... i do not know how to say it in english... the huge sector of russian society which we call it the russian middle—class, which are all bureaucrats, all, you know, the people from the government and this practically middle—class pushes the russian politics forward. i mean, they are influencing

all the politics in russia. they don't want changes, they don't want anything to go forward because they rely on their budget salaries, corruption and we see it every day. when businessmen are put injail, the next day comes somebody who says, you want to sit in jail or you give some payment to this company and you will be released. practically 60% of businessmen who went injail... mr titov, we are almost out of time... the main problem of russia is this corruption. you've talked very frankly about corruption in russia. you say you're a reformer. in a few days, there will be an election and i hate to say this but you are not going to win, vladimir putin is going to win. how damaging will six more years of vladimir putin be for russia? so i'm saying again, this election is not about electing a president, speaking honestly.

yes, he has a big advantage against all of us, but this election is about how russia will be after the elections. and who will influence the economy to go to the side of market competition and for diversification of the economy, to do it modern or we have to go the other way, and the other way is back to the 90s, back to the soviet union, i'm afraid to say. this is a very possible alternative, so we are fighting for that. that we don't go back, we go forward and we go economy and a free economy and this will lead us to a free society in the future. boris titov the we have to and

there. i do thank you for speaking to us. sorry ifi there. i do thank you for speaking to us. sorry if i was too long and not for a correct. —— very correct. good morning. it's been a bit of a rollercoaster start to spring. this weekend, we could see some of the warmest air of the year so far. but, whilst we finished yesterday with some clear skies around, those clear skies overnight will lead to a frosty start to friday morning. so a cold start, but a bright start across many areas. we've got some rain and snow flurries across the highlands of scotland, and any early brightness will be hazy sunshine towards the channel islands, devon and cornwall. and that cloud will drift its way northwards, turning the sunshine hazy through the morning across other southern areas. best of the sunshine,

really, through the day — northern england, southern scotland and northern ireland. parts of southern scotland will see good sunny spells at times, but one or two further showers to come here. a pleasant day, though, once you're in the sunshine. but by the end of the afternoon, whilst temperatures could reach ten or 11 degrees, we could see rain spread across devon, cornwall, and other southern counties of england. that's going to work its way northwards as we go through friday evening, pushing through wales, into the midlands, and parts of east anglia as well. and it's all linked in to this warm front. now, on it, we'll see some heavy pulses of rain through the night and into saturday morning. but it's what follows in its wake which many of you will notice. some very mild air working its way to all but northern scotland by the end of the day. now, it means it's going to be a fairly mild weekend, compared to what we've been used to of late, but you'll have to cater for at least a little bit of rain at some points. now, the wettest weather to start saturday will stretch from east anglia, northern england,

north wales, into northern ireland. as that hits colder air across scotland, on the hills we will see a spell of snow, before it turns back to rain as the milder air pushes its way in. england and wales will see some sunny spells for a time, another batch of showers working through. but the big story, note the temperatures — 15, maybe 16 degrees, with a little bit of brightness through the middle part of the day, across parts of the east midlands and east anglia especially. now, through saturday night and into sunday, that area of rain and hill snow clears its way northwards, takes the milder air into scotland as well. so it's a frost—free night forjust about all as we go into sunday morning. maybe one or two spots in the east could see a temporary frost, but a little bit of morning sunshine. but sunday at the moment not shaping up to be too bad a day. we're likely to see some breezy conditions in the west, with some showers around. just got to watch this area of rain pushing out of the near continent. looks like it will stay in the north sea, but it could be a bit further west. so east anglia and the south—east, check your forecast for sunday

nearer the time, because there could be some rain very close by. some of the brightest weather will be in scotland. a frosty night to come here, to take us into monday, but low pressure to start the week means many of you will start the week with showers. bye for now. hello, this is the briefing. i'm samantha simmonds. our top story: president trump agrees to an historic meeting with north korea's leader after months of threats and counter—threats. kim jong—un agrees to stop further nuclear and missile tests but the white house stresses sanctions must remain in place. in other news: widespread condemnation as the us president signs off hefty new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. two decades after being forced from power, the life of yugoslavia's former president, slobodan milosevic, is brought to the stage, in a controversial new musical. and in the business briefing: up, up... and away... is the dream of the flying car finally set for takeoff? and we'll have a report from the signing of one

of the world's largest free—trade pacts,