this is bbc news. the headlines. donald trump says he will be arrested on tuesday — and has called on his supporters to protest. it's not yet clear what charges, if any, he is facing. the former pakistani prime minister imran khan has left the high court in islamabad — the court said that the hearing is not possible amid protests outside. he's facing corruption charges which he says are politically motivated. the uk's home secretary, suella braverman, is in rwanda to discuss a controversial agreement to deport migrants who come to the uk illegally. some human rights groups say the plan breaks international law. us presidentjoe biden has welcomed the international criminal court's arrest warrant against russia's vladimir putin. the icc have accused president putin of committing war crimes in ukraine.

you're watching bbc news. now it's time for 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 thejudge, "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 neverfriendly 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 poorfamily, 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 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 ofjustice. 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.

for many of us this afternoon is looking quite wet with rain or showers, and the rainfall today is going to be added to these totals. in a number of places have seen a wet month already with more rainfall recorded than the first half of the month than we normally get in the whole of the month of march. i have to say there is a lot more to come over the next few days. looking particularly wet over western and north—western areas. it is going to turn out to be a wet month for all of us. today we have a band

of rain pushing across scotland and northern ireland, but for england and wales it is a day of sunny spells and heavy showers. the cloud is really starting to grow. you can see some of them blossoming in worcestershire, and those shower clouds are going to be not just widespread today, but potentially heavy with hail and thunder mixing as well. let's take a look at the weather details. here is our rain putting in across scotland and northern ireland. you might see the weather brighten up in northern and later on, but england and where is some showers can be heavy and thundery. most of them will be across wales, the midlands and northern areas of england. there will be some sunshine between the downpours, but often the weather looks cloudy for most of us. mild, temperatures ii—is. overnight the showers will fade away, but the weakening band of rain will then push its way across england and wales. clearer skies follow, with one or two mist or fog patches. temperatures dropping down into a low single figures. and and northern ireland, with a few patches of frost. frost free in england and wales. tomorrow, this is going to be

the nicest slice of weather we get around this weekend. a fine, if somewhat chilly start to the day with plenty of morning sunshine. however it is forecast to cloud over and outbreaks of rain in northern ireland through the afternoon, which could read western scotland, wales and western areas of england towards the end of the afternoon. mild side, temperatures 10—13 c. into next week, low pressure is continuing to pushing across the atlantic one after the next after the next, so we are looking at a prolonged spell of wet weather. the rain turning heavy on monday, more showery in nature as we head towards tuesday, but lots more rain waiting for the rest of the week and those rainfall totals are really mounting up.

welcome to bbc news. the former us president donald trump has claimed he expects to be arrested on tuesday over a long—running alleged hush money case. he made the announcement on his online platform, truth social, calling for protest and for his supporters to "take our nation back". mr trump is currently campaigning for the republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election. i'm joined now by our correspondent david willis in washington.

good to see you, david.