this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, as newsday continues — straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur — and today, i'm in nice, on the french riviera, a glamorous corner of europe, which has long been a favorite haunt of russia's oligarchs. and my guest today, sergei pugachev, is one of them, or at least he was — the billionaire businessman helped vladimir putin make it

all the way to the kremlin. but their relationship soured. pugachev was accused of massive financial crimes. he fled from moscow, first to london and then here to nice, where he enjoys french citizenship. he now has his own private security and an extraordinary story to tell, which gives us insights into both the strengths and the weaknesses of vladimir putin. sergei pugachev, welcome to hardtalk. hello, thank you for the invitation. it's a very great pleasure to meet you. let me start with something you said three years ago. you said theoretically, "i think i am number three on vladimir putin's hit list."

do you still do you still think that? yes, sure. do you have evidence to back up the feeling that you, like navalny, like browder, are an enemy that putin wants to eliminate? yes, of course. what is the evidence?

what does this do — this feeling you have that you still represent a threat that putin would like to eliminate, what does this do to your psychology, for example? we're sitting here talking to each other in a luxury hotel. you didn't want me to come to your home in nice? you also you walked in here with a bodyguard — and i'm just wondering, do you have this constant feeling of anxiety in the back of your mind? why should vladimir putin care about you today? because i've looked at your record, i mean, you told a judge in london, when the russian state was taking you to court in london seven years ago, you said to the judge, "look, i am in grave danger." i'm not sure the courts really believed it then, but why

should we believe it now? because you've been living in nice as a private citizen for the last seven years. why should putin worry about you now? i'm very interested in your background with putin. you just said to me, "i was never friendly with him." that surely flies in the face of many facts. you essentially were one of the key campaigners for putin to take yeltsin�*s job

back in 1999. i think you called yourself one of the key reasons that brought putin to power. you said, "i worked day and night for months to achieve this." we know that you went drinking with putin. i believe, you went to the steam baths with putin. yes, right. you were his friend. the truth is, putin, when he became president, when he moved into the kremlin, he was clearly grateful to you. you were given great political access to him inside the kremlin. he made sure that you got a position as a senator

in the russian senate. and when he called meetings of the oligarchs, you were in those meetings? yes. so in a funny sort of way, why are you denying the truth of your closeness? no, no, no, no. did you, when you worked so hard to get putin into the kremlin, did you think he would be good for russia or did you think he would be good for you as a billionaire, one of the oligarchs who had made so much money out of the political chaos in russia?

putin was a relatively unknown person in moscow, he was from st petersburg, he was from a poor family, he'd been a middle ranking agent in the kgb. is not the truth that you and the other billionaires, the oligarchs, you thought you thought you could control putin in the kremlin? no, no, no. and what happened was that... no, no, no, no, no, absolutely not. no, no, no.

but even as you tell that story, i'm thinking you and many others in the russian business elite, you underestimated vladimir putin. do you recognize that now as you look back on that period?

did you personally overreach yourself, push yourself too far in russia? you were supremely wealthy for a time, i think you claimed at one point you were worth $15 billion. your interests went beyond your bank, but they also included shipbuilding, also included one of the most valuable coal fields. mining company, it was biggest in the world. yes, but you were building these assets. i built it before putin, you have to understand. yes, but then you need to understand that those assets became strategic. they became things that the kremlin wanted to have close control of. and, therefore, when you and your bank hit huge trouble in 2008, that was an opportunity for the kremlin to move against you.

that story would be fine were it not for the fact the russian state believes and claims that you took basically $1 billion of russian money with you that they had given to your you say it's not yours any more, but the bank was given this vast sum of bailout cash, and the russians claim you put it in your pocket.

i guess the common theme of this conversation and why it matters when we bring it to the present day is, how much did you then and do

you today really understand vladimir putin? maybe you don't understand him as well as you thought because even when you said, "i'm cutting my ties with russia, i'm going to live in europe." and the russians obviously instructed by putin, the russian state chased you all the way to london. they took you to court in london. and they were actually making a very strong case about your corruption in the courts in london. my corruption? yes. of course not. well, then why did you run away? you ran away from the court in london. they took your passport and you fled to france? yes. why did you do that? that was legally. no, it was absolutely not legal. if you go back to britain, you face years in prison... no, i mean... ..for contempt of court. no, you have to understand...

excuse me, we're actually talking about the royal courts of justice. rather than face that justice, you ran away to france illegally. it depends. well, you know that if you go back to london, you will be locked up for contempt of court. no... before, yes.

are you saying that in your experience, some of the uk's key institutions, politics, judicial, whatever, were corrupted by russian money? of course, of course. and yet you are still a wealthy man. you are now completely cut off from russia. you cut your ties just from

putin, from your former court. tell me how strong you think putin is within russia today. but that ability he has had for 20 years to mold the russian mindset — why then do you say he's not strong? that makes him very strong.

see, we, in a sense, turn to people like you for insights into putin's mind. but i end up being puzzled by the things you say, because at the same time you say, a, putin is driven by money. you make him sound in a way like the sort of boss of a criminal enterprise, maybe a sort of quasi mafia boss.

but on the other hand, you also say that, and i'm quoting you now, everything in putin's consciousness flows from the soviet union and his feelings about the power of the soviet union." so which is it, money or ideology?

tell me about those oligarchs, vastly wealthy people like yourself who, unlike you, did not fall out with putin. i'm thinking about people like abramovich, deripaska, friedman. do you think they have any influence over vladimir putin today? if they said to him, mr putin, "mr president, this war is not good for russia, this war is killing our economy and its prospects," would he listen to them?

how does this end, do you think? you, as a native—born russian — i know you're now french but you were born in russia, you made your big money in russia. in the soviet union. yes, very fair point. but to russians, that means you are russian. but you are telling me you absolutely want ukraine to win this war, to destroy the russian military?

whose will do you believe will be stronger, putin's or the west's? we've established your long relationship with putin, your closeness to him. catherine belton wrote a book, putin's people, in which she described you as putin's banker. it's arguable that without you, putin would not be in the kremlin today. are you ready to actually say to me that you feel a real sense of regret or remorse that vladimir putin is there in the kremlin today, and you have to take your share of responsibility?

with respect, mr pugachev, you want to believe it's a different putin today, but maybe, maybe you just got putin wrong from the very beginning.

sergei pugachev, we have to end there, but i thank you very much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you. hello there. the snow was melting on sunday, temperatures were widely in double figures, but that doesn't mean the cold weather has gone away because we've got

warnings from the met office through monday and into tuesday for snow and ice across northern parts of the uk. and it's cold in the far north of scotland, temperatures close to freezing first thing in the morning. otherwise, it is a very mild start to monday. we may well have some early sunshine across eastern parts of england before we see a few showers, other parts of the uk, more cloud, showers or longer spells of rain, and the rain in scotland is going to be turning more to snow, particularly over the hills as a northerly wind strengthens. it's going to be a windy day. we'll see gales developing in the north of scotland later and strong to gale force winds widely across england and wales, where we've still got temperatures in double figures on monday afternoon. but it's getting colder in northern ireland and particularly in scotland, and that rain undercut by that cold northerly wind will be turning to snow. more fresh snow, particularly over the hills, 5—10 centimetres above 300 metres, could be a bit of snowjust for a while at low levels too. and that mixture of rain, sleet and snow, mainly for the hills, will sweep down across england

and wales after dark, clearing away by tuesday morning. and then we're all in a northwesterly wind, which will bring down colder air once again. and it will bring a mixture, really, of sunshine and scattered wintry showers. initially across scotland, northern ireland, they'll push down into england and wales, not much, though, arriving in southern england or south wales, and the afternoon may be drier in scotland and northern ireland. but it's colder, typical temperatures are going to be 4—5 celsius, but there'll be a northwesterly wind as well, which will make it feel even colder. and those temperatures will fall very quickly overnight, as we see skies clear and the winds drop. wednesday morning will start with a widespread frost. temperatures in scotland could be about —8 celsius or so. and whilst it's a dry start, we'll see the cloud increasing during wednesday. rain coming in a little more quickly with some snow over hills in the north, particularly for scotland. still quite cold air, temperatures around 5—8 celsius. so over the week ahead, whilst we've seen some mild

weather over the weekend, things are turning colder. we've got the risk of some snow and ice, but then things turn milder from thursday when we're more likely to get some rain.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: it's hollywood's biggest night of the year at the oscars. jamie lee curtis wins best supporting actress for everything everywhere all at once. earlier ke huy quan won the best suppoting actor 0scar for the same film it isa it is a dream come true for two of the stars of everything everywhere all at 0nce. of the stars of everything everywhere all at once. the first big awards have been handed out at the oscars. we'll have all the latest. also on this edition of newsday: the us government announces a rescue plan to ensure all depositors in the failed

silicon valley bank can to retrieve their funds