this is bbc news. the headlines: president putin has hosted a joint news conference with china's president xijinping in moscow. mr putin said russia will be forced to react, if the uk goes ahead with a plan to give ukraine ammunition containing depleted uranium. the leaders also discussed what they called a peace plan. the japanese prime minister, fumio kishida has been in ukraine — where he visited the town of bucha. japan has voiced its support for kyiv since the start of the war and joined other g7 countries in extending sanctions against russia. the us state department has said it is deeply troubled by a vote in israel's parliament to allow its citizens back into four

evacuated settlements in the occupied west bank. there's been widespread criticism of the move. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. china's president xijinping is in moscow for a state visit with a man now wanted for war crimes. such is the geopolitical fallout from vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine. the fact that the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for the russian president won't deter him for his continued assault on ukraine, but it does raise new questions about the long—term consequences for russia. my guest is russian mp and state tv talk show host evgeny popov.

how solid is putin's home front? evgeny popov in moscow, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for giving me yourfloor. it's good to have you on the show, mr popov. your president, vladimir putin, is a wanted man. the international criminal court has filed war crimes charges against him. do you recognise the symbolic importance of that? of course you are going to recognise some symbolic of this tremendously stupid decision by international

criminal court, but it means nothing for russia, it means nothing for the russian president and it will not change the way putin makes his decisions of course. first of all, you know, you are going to close all ways to legislate russia by this decision. it is the final step to close any possibility to negotiate with russia. the second topic is the reason for this decision. you know, the arrest warrant for putin for saving children, donbas children, thousands of children who were in danger during the war, during

the last nine years. and of course russia has to save their lives. and of course russia should and must give them normal life. the normal life is possible for them. and it's possible in russia. well, mr popov, you may or may not be aware that there are more than 16,000 documented cases of ukrainian children being deported, transferred to russia or russian—held territory, occupied territory in ukraine. more than 16,000 documented cases, but many more thousands, which the ukrainians believe have not yet been exposed to the world. now, that contravenes international law and to the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, those children have been used as "the spoils of war".

now, you are a human being, leave aside your politics. does it not offend you that your country is responsible for using children as the spoils of war? it is not true, of course, stephen. and you know we must save the lives of those children. and they are in families, in orphanage, and they are safe right now. they are in a safe territory. mr popov, you know as well as i do that many of these children were taken when they still had family. in some cases, parents, in other cases, grandparents, but they still had family in ukraine, and even if they had no family in ukraine, they could have been released to the ukrainian state. even now, as the chief

prosecutor says, russia has an obligation, if it has these children, to hand them back to ukraine. they are ukrainian children. we don't have any requests from relatives, from parents of those children. if we will get some requests from relatives, from parents of course, they can see their children, in russia or any other territories. but we did not get any requests from ukrainian parents, from ukrainian side. and, you know, it is a mockery. it is a political mockery on reality. if i may say so, the mockery here is russia pretending that it is acting in the interests of these children.

we know, from a yale university study, that russia has actually set up camps where these children are being "reeducated with pro—russia patriotic "and military—related education." we know that your child commissioner, the official in moscow who is the fellow inductee of president putin has already said she herself, adopted eight ukrainian child and she said this, "we are helping "the children of our country. "we don't leave them in war zones." of course, the problem there is it's not your country. it is the sovereign territory of ukraine. you know, stephen, you are still living in a world of myths and we can't leave children on a battlefield. of course we can't leave it at the war. we can't leave it in danger.

and of course, we are going to do everything to give them a new life, peaceable life in russia. but if these relatives or these parents want to see them, want to speak to them, they can do it. but we didn't get any requests. so you are giving me right now, a guarantee — and you speak of course as a russian mp and somebody close to mr putin in his own political party — you are telling me that you guarantee if the international community, the icc, the ukrainian authorities, whoever, demand the return of these children, russia will hand them over?

i did not say that. i told you that, first of all, we don't, as united states and many other countries, recognise icc. but if parents of those children want to see them, want to take him home, want to speak to them, of course they can do it. but, again, we did not get any requests from relatives of those children and from parents of those children. you say that this makes no difference to vladimir putin or to russia — that is not true, is it? it makes a big difference to vladimir putin. there are now 123 countries, signatories to the treaties that created the international criminal court, which are now obliged to arrest vladimir

putin should he step onto their soil. vladimir putin is now the president of russia, he is unable to travel to most countries in the world. most countries in the world will no longer even agree to talk to him or meet him because he is a wanted war criminal. this changes things. of course this changes things. i told you that this decision is stupid. because icc or people who are behind this decision are going to close even a little possibility to talk with russia. because, of course, we should talk to finish this war. and we now can't do this. but if you are talking about putin's travel possibilities, he is going to join a summit in south africa

in august, and nobody is going to arrest him. he is going to travel to countries, which are our neighbours, which are friendly neighbours, and nobody is going to arrest him. because president putin, as every other world leaders, have immunity, immunity to international criminal court or other stupid organisations because... maybe you should have told that to others sitting presidents that ended up before the international criminal court. your ideas about immunity may not last. tell it to george bush. and you know what, i want to move on from international justice, but one final point

on this — the united nations recently received a report from the international commission of inquiry on ukraine, which catalogued a whole series of other alleged abuses and war crimes, including systematic killings, systematic torture, the deportation of children, of course, which we have already discussed, and ijust wonder this — you are very well—connected in moscow. do you think there are people in the kremlin who are now worried when they have seen what the icc have already done that ultimately they will be an accounting for what russia has done over the past year and more, there will be an accounting and many individuals, notjust biden himself, but many individuals inside your system will ultimately be held to account for what russia has done? you were going to change our regime. of course i know it. i know the west wants to divide my country. wants to change putin into a conveniently wielded

politician. but you will lose this war — publicly, economically, militarily and other sides. because of course putin is the president of russia. the most of russian people have elected him. most of russian people voted for him. he is legitimate president of russia, head of my state. and you will deal with him of course, if you want to finish this war because we have no other president. we have no other head of state. and the world, the western world should deal with our authority. the person dealing with...

hang on. let's, if i may, get to something that is happening in your city right now — president xijinping is in moscow talking to president putin. there is a power imbalance there because xijinping represents a country with an economy ten times the size of russia, and russia desperately needs that friendship without limits that the two of them talked about more than a year ago. what do you think xi jinping is going to deliver foeradimir putin? ah, stephen, first of all, if we are talking about russian economy, i think we already showed you that our economy is not a simple 2% of world economy. it is strong economy because we are now against 50 states.

against all nato states and our economy feels pretty good. our economy is stable, our economy will be stable for many, many years. and we don't have a vegetable deficit or some other deficit in russia. we don't have inflation. it's good to know the vegetable supply is fine in moscow but what is not so fine is the weapons and military production capacity and i am just wondering whether you believe china is going to supply you, russia, with weapons? i don't know. i don't think we need it. of course, china is the most important economy partner right now.

and our trade with china is around $200 billion right now. and of course we have close relationship with china because we are together against western hegemony. against western tyranny. and we are going to stay close. we will develop our relationship. for sovereign policy. we want to save our way of living and we will do it with china. you say the one thing we don't need is weapons. that does fly in the face... i don't know. and no evidence. there is plenty of evidence that the russian military is struggling in terms

of its ability to rearm those forces fighting, in the heaviest fighting on the eastern front in ukraine. it's a myth. no—one knows the situation. let's analyse if it is a myth. you sit in moscow. yevgeny prigozhin, the leader of the wagner private military corporation, according to his own telegram videos, a lot of time on the front line, has been desperately seeking over the last month and pleading with the russian army to provide him with more weapons. he said his fighters are being starved of ammunition and, "my people are dying in droves." why do you think he is now so furious with the chief of the army and defence minister?

i know nothing about this conflict. i have heard him, of course, but his conflict is solved for now. and mr prigozhin and wagner group got everything that they need for now. and of course they are successful military division and they are fighting bravely in bakhmut and other territories. and they should get everything that they need. we are a big country. and we of course in a huge war with nato and other countries right now. if i may... we last spoke in september. you assured me then that russia was winning the war and was going to win the war.

here we are in march of 2023, you have not even yet taken bakhmut. and the losses incurred by the russian military are staggering. tens of thousands of soldiers have either lost their lives or been taken out of action with wounds in that fight for bakhmut over many months. and you still have not taken the city. can you honestly sit here today, so many months after we last spoke and say that you are still confident russia is winning this war? i am strongly sure that we are going to win this war, of course. you left us no other chances. we must win because it... why do you think mr prigozhin in just the last couple of days has been extremely pessimistic about the fighting? he has said that the prospects for russia are to use, his word, foggy and that he is deeply alarmed that russia

is not doing what it should be to prepare for a major ukrainian offensive in the spring. prigozhin is worried that your own military, defence minister, chief of the army, are not preparing properly for what is to come. of course i understand, stephen, that you are going to divide our society. but you cannot do this. of course we can see some public conflict between wagner and the minister of defence but as i know, i know that the conflict between the minister of defence and the wagner group are solved for now. and no other problems

which we have between minister of defence and prigozhin. of course we cannot win tomorrow. it is a long—term process. of course, we are going to defend our state for months, years, until we get security guarantees. what you have done is increasingly wiped out all dissent inside your own country. when i say you, i mean the kremlin. why is the kremlin so frightened of its own people and criticism of the war? we live in a democracy country and people can speak whatever they want.

of course the most russian people are supporting our military. democracies don't lock up people for writing a social media post against the war and they certainly don't detain 12—year—old girls who are accused at school of drawing a picture which depicts russian soldiers attacking ukrainian civilians. these are things that do happen inside russia today. you understand that we are at war. and of course, no—one can wish our military to die. no—one can wish our state to divide. no—one can wish our power to defeat or our regime to change. by military, by unlawful hoax or some other things. and of course in england you arrest much more people for social media posts. much more people.

i don't know where you get that idea from but i am interested that you would defend the detention of a 12—year—old masha, a well documented case. her father was interrogated and beaten and is now in an orphanage and he is now facing three years in prison on charges. you would defend that as part of healthy society? i don't defend any unlawful moments. i defend my country and my state which is at war with nato countries right now. and of course if we have some strange cases, we will solve it. and we have prosecutors,

we have courts and law in our country and we are going to follow law to defend every people who is in a strange situation like that. i don't know anything about the situation, but i will of course study and if she needs help, i will help her as a deputy. and you should understand that in great britain, you, i mean your crown, your prime minister, your scotland yard are arresting much more people for social media posts than in russia. and i have some numbers. 2016...

give me a second. we are out of time. i can't give you any more seconds. 3,000 arrested people for social media posts. great britain for 2016. all right. 3,000 people. mr popov, you have made that point, sadly we are out of time i thank you very much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you. hello. scotland had its warmest day of the year so far on tuesday,

with temperatures reaching 16 degrees in fyvie castle in aberdeenshire. overall, it was a brighter kind of day, but we still had a number of showers around and those rainfall totals continue to mount up. of course, it's already been a wet month. there are quite a few places now that have seen more than one and a half times the march average rainfall, but there's loads more to come. and, indeed, as we look at this satellite picture, we've got a current batch of rain falling from this cloud, working its way eastwards right now. and the rain's quite heavy, actually, across parts of scotland, england and wales. it will be clearing over the next few hours in northern ireland, but we'll have some heavy showers flowing in here. all the while, south—westerly winds will be picking up in strength. of course, it means it's going to be a mild start to the day on wednesday, temperatures for some into double figures. but for wednesday, it is another unsettled one. more rain around. and we're going to see some strong winds particularly affecting western scotland. it's here where, through the morning, we could see gusts of around 75mph for a time, so potentially seeing some disruption from those very strong winds.

elsewhere, it will be blustery, gusts of wind generally around 40—50mph. and it is a day of sunshine and showers. the showers will be heavy and thundery at times, but at least they won't hang around. they'll be blown across the sky pretty quickly, thanks to those strong winds. another mild one, temperatures up to 1a or 15 degrees. thursday sees another showery day and, again, the showers will be heavy, some of them with a bit of thunder mixed in. temperatures still on the mild side and anotherfairly blustery kind of day, the winds still coming in from a south—westerly direction. now, thursday night, we may well see a more prolonged spell of rain work into parts of eastern england, this and certainly it looks pretty wet across western areas of the uk as well. well, that sends us on to friday's forecast and the low pressure is still with us. still fairly brisk winds around, still loads and loads of showers, some of them heavy with hail and thunder. 0ur temperatures just coming down a little bit across northern scotland — highs of around eight or nine degrees here — but otherwise, we're staying into double figure temperatures. now, for the weekend, we're going to start to get some slightly cooler airjust

working into northernmost areas of scotland. there will be more showers around, so for most of us, it's more of the same, really. but across the far north of scotland, we'll start to see some of those showers turn wintry for a time.

this is bbc news. i'm sally bundock with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. fighting for his political life. the former british prime minister borisjohnson is due to be questioned by mps over whether he misled parliament. france's president macron prepares to defend the new law on pension reform, as protests continue against raising the retirement age. a global water crisis, due to pollution and excessive consumption — that's the stark warning from the un. -- translation: to think that all those who are in really trying jobs will have to work until they are 64. a global water crisis, due to pollution and excessive consumption — that's the stark warning from the un.

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