a good to go beyond a as we take on the world. i do all this and we're all about the stories that matter to you. whatever it takes to find policeman a dealer we are your is actually on fire. made for mines. sham referendums in the occupied regions of ukraine and more russian troops are drafted into battle. but the protests are increasing across the country. i guess this week has his own unique protest, very spun very all foreign service veteran resigned in shame with the war and ukraine. the only russian government official to do so in public. what are the

chances of coaching, surviving the conflict? he started a, in these elect the mail press, it's the only instrument to try to get himself out as the war goes on. how real is the nuclear threat? and why do russian officials believe the west wouldn't retaliate against the nuclear strike from moscow? i responded, you're welcome to conflict zone hello team. before we talk about your personal story, i'd like to deal with some of the latest events going on in the russia ukraine war . let's start with the so called referendums, taking place in 4 ukrainian regions occupied by russian troops. asking people if they want to join russia itself, since no one is going to believe the result. why bother with this?

i think it's like this to consent to convince people within the rush it is. all right, and those people in these new creat it's republics, are really wishing to join my russian. so it's given the government. ready no reason to, to continue the world in order to get the people. ready regions so it's do more domestic relations and you think the domestic population is that gullible, that they're going to believe it. they know by now that russia doesn't hold elections unless it fixes them in advance of it. well, you know, the rest of the asian, which is the main problem is, has been so far, very different. what's going on, so to speak. so it's only these days,

some of them are starting to understand that the war is much closer than it was. then they thought it was and so yeah, i think. ready garland is still believing that they can't sell any anything to bit things 3 people. even now we've seen in the last few days after chaos over the partial mobilization, which put in ordered. the kremlin says it's drafting $300000.00 troops to ukraine. other reports say around a 1000000, how much difference do you think these extra troops will make because the failure so far haven't been caused by troops shortages have they, they've been caused by low morale, poor logistics weapons that haven't worked poor command structures. that's been the problem has live. yeah, i guess so. i believe that these new numbers do a new the come all at once to the front line. they will not change the course or

they will can only make it more slow. ready or russia to, to, to the war because the army hasn't been being so far, very confident in terms of stress in terms of military planning. so implementing the ration and so it's sort of so so for now the main superiority, say so, oh, the russian army in comparison to the brain or was it the numbers the numbers? so i think they can only fight with numbers. one of your most powerful criticisms of the russian government that you served is that it's part of a system that deceives itself. is that the military's problem as well. it's been deceiving itself about its capabilities, about its weapons, the state of its preparedness, this kind of thing. yeah, sure, sure, this is absolutely all branches,

the rest of it is all build on these lives cells. so cells competing records and so on. so we can see it by the database we bring the 1st place. it's just that he missed his own brain and the ability to bring in our direction of the west. it was all great. mystical ation based on misinformation you received from you to support a 1000000000 service from means of defense and so on. but do russian officials even know where the truth really live any more? well, it's hard to say that because i think the very low level people who work really in the field so to speak. ready you know the truth, but while they're being reported to it, it's in many ways. so it's no surprise that the decision makers on the

chain, they sell the information which is not reflecting reality for over 20 years that you worked in the foreign ministry. you said the level of lies and unprofessionalism was increasing all the time. is that what was demanded by the bosses? just tell the gram then what they want to hear. that's it. yeah. yeah, because if you reported to moscow. ready the situation is not always favorable to us. they might think that you don't work well enough and it will make your career prospects less right then you would expect. so everybody wants to please moscow to show that they were being very hard. and then you've got to re promotions and all. so that's, that's your belief that you said in may that you had recently seen misleading

information cable to moscow because that's what they wanted to hear. what was that information? mostly it was the, the russia, russian interest, the russian positions, regardless of the world, is very widely shared by many countries. but the russia isolated that the western. ready balls and everybody on this down the death balls for instance, it also goes to the chemical scandals about these 3 boys on the y and boys and. ready for instance, and some other things. so it is, you know, these reports being run. you don't have to report the truth, but you have to and you guys. and so nobody understands whether it's kind of what the beds are. you. you're very scathing about the 5 minutes. the

said a lot of rough. did you expect better from him? you say he sent to mind the degradation of the system? well, well, he seems it done a lot of very helpful to what we see now. another symbol of this says john, we should now deny and the reality so i don't expect anything from team anything from the galler. i'm here to present us. and i think that it will. ready all see collapses when it collapse. yeah. but i base based on what all the lives that they've told they suddenly realize, but nothing is true that everything's going wrong. and it's too late to do anything about it. is that, is that the scenario that you foresee?

i believe that that is all but it depends on the war and, but i don't see russia can achieve the real story of this. this can be used on an even worse than congress dot sublime and you bring it all the way around this depletion. well, so just be the. ready way, in all other scenarios, you will have to retreat. you will have to bed down and down. it will be very hard blow because it'll be in the run up to the invasion when russian diplomats all over the world were ridiculing the idea of war. did you know the putin was going to invade the us knew about it last autumn and said, so did, did you know, did people in your embassy? no, this was going to happen. no. well, it was the information. all the decision on was not the word close to almost

anyone. so it was only personal guessing whether you will decide to wait or not. i personally didn't believe because i would foreseeable the consequences that this invasion will do. ready house, i was pretty sure that law school also has this knowledge, this understanding, but evidently they didn't. evidently, they missed me, as i said, how moscow lied to its own embassies as well as to everyone else. oh, well yeah. i wouldn't say. ready like they just don't tell and being that they don't want. ready the talent, the embassy, just thing for that. you said what disturbed you most in the russian embassy was the casual way. some of your fellow diplomats talked about nuclear strikes against the west, even though they worked in control. did they have no idea how these nuclear strikes

that they were talking about might lead to world war 3 or the consequences of that? you know, these very dangerous thing is that the whole. ready thing about this stuff to do with you. ready to, to make you strikes against the west. again, the 1st place people are sure that there will be knowledge of age that the west will just swallows and just to the knees. and let's say let's again, ok, we're ok. let's, let's make it really believe that what, what makes them believe that i think it's a very old and con prejudice regarding the western is irrational, that there were some people. ready very weak, and where it pamphlets, because they are very used to construct the black, you know, and that they're not ready to sacrifice like the war because every war makes it

makes, it makes people live uneasy. and we were known to all the world that we can stop up or as long as it takes. well, it's not the prejudice worse, but it and the people who me big decisions, they also share this view. at one point you asked your former colleagues if they'd be happy for their children to live in radioactive ruins, and they simply reply, this is about values traditional russian values as opposed to those of the decadent west. so in their minds it's ok to blow out the west if the west doesn't share these wonderful russian values because it's all these talk about imaginary because no one can really imagine what will be what that what . ready will be and of course they just tried to,

to make themselves more confident about that. but i believe that some decisions can be made on these are ross and fortunes. in the last few days, we've heard more threats from mister, put in more unrest across russia itself. some common trees have suggested that amid all this chaos putins power is beginning to drain away, do you by that scenario. i think that this is asia ranch and other of k is reading, but the last reserves you mailed it to me to me. so i rest in the, in the, in the regions different 3 years. so i could still address and to remodel will be

the rising coming days. how long can you make as many mistakes and joke up as many failures as he has and remain in power. these days in russia it's hard to say it's hard to say, i think the faith regime is very strongly dependent on the bill already that is hard to potentially successful. we did make the blog station of the russian army, the russians are even with the in the supporters. so he will continue and i will. ready continue getting or defeats by an army that will drill. it'll be. ready you korea might be i guess my question is more about the,

the hotline political insecurity elite in moscow. they're not exactly known for having a forgiving nature. how much of this, how much more of this will they put up with? do you think? i mean, we've got a long list of failures. we have the failure to take care of the failure to arrest the landscape. the failure to hold on to the territory that they've captured high casualties. hardware that doesn't work, poor morale has to put in has to be running out of political capital at home. doesn't do well. well, because we cannot judge because we don't have any information. it's very close. but there's no doubt that the russian us, please now and a lot of them want to to change the fact that the john paul. but i think the for now the most powerful figures around which all armed forces, special services, they still stick into even for some reasons,

maybe they don't believe that we can resolve the situation. like people are general . we're loyal to human, to the very 1st. so all they can cannot nothing like a nation to think about the future without themselves without power. so it's very difficult to break it, but it's, it's natural that there will be most believes and we will, i think we will see it by nea. if you strip away over the lies the accusations, the propaganda. do you and your mind have a clear idea why putin started this war? yeah, she started this war because he wants to stay in power once you're struggling for lifetime. and since he cannot sell in any success because economy is shrinking,

if it seems design team the in the daily life, most people. ready in russia has the deteriorate instead. ready he can only sell some military successes. that's why he wanted to read because it is all right. life look raised russian ruler who defends russian interest. and so that were for some years like to work with bringing and he just wanted to repeat this, bring me an excess. so this idea that he felt threatened by nato, and he thought nato countries were trying to, in circle russia. although how you in circle a country that has 11 times ends and is 10 percent or 11 percent of the wealth land mass, it's difficult to imagine, but all that's nonsense. all that was nonsense. was it that may be a 2nd thing. it was thinking about,

but i think the interest over securing the person of power, the most important looking also this is it's not about me. it's about possible western interfering listening to domestic affairs in order to instigate progress within a few places. they feel the all. ringback within the boundary cannot just be created by the people that they said despite it's only it's only rated by the west. ready it's another thing, but the 1st reason is just you do to semantic, to great power. does he want to fight with nato? i hope not. but you know, he put him still in the worst. if there's no, would. i think these blackmail reps, the only instrument to try to get some fill out considering how you've denounced the war and the lies of the russian government. how worried to

you about your own safety? i. i don't really think about this very much. i believe that now when i leave it in such a dangerous time that we all must think about the safety of more than our individual . ready so that's, that's my, that's my answer. well, i know, i don't think much about a whole space of key figures, business men, people in society who may or may not have opposed the war have landed up dead recently. many seem to have had an unexpected accident or jumped out of upstairs windows. not a coincidence. is it opperation underway? isn't there in russia? yeah, it's very suspicious going into the answer. yes. i have no information about that. i think both these cases should be together. but why wouldn't let me come back to

the issue of nuclear weapons because several, west, and officials among them, america's national security advisers say they've spelled out to the kremlin the exact catastrophic consequences of going nuclear. do you think in any way that will deter putin your control business will well deter us even worse when both sides a whole lot to this by the session, both are reasonable and they don't want to die. and of course they just want to to keep your diversity at the distance in this case which is simulating, but that's what is that he is not quite reasonable or maybe is. ready reasonable, we don't know. so we've done that. he may come to talk to starts and

strikes we don't know. so in this case if we deal. ready with man or that if it's okay to start, what then determines may not work. if russia really intends to use a nuclear weapon, what would be the signs to look out for? do you get any of these signs now? do you see any of them signs that moscow is reading its nuclear arsenal for use? well, i'm not. they need to know that's difficult to show out of this multiple is really . ready raising its troops or drivers. so i believe that the intelligence gathered by the western classes is much more reliable and they know that they know such science. but i got to read the whole bliss

tempered by the rush and some troops can distribute the some i and all radiation radiation deals. so something, at least they will be ready for an invoice. i don't know, maybe it's just a propagandist. so i don't know the rhetorical russian leadership and a nuclear live in my own way, february 24th. so if we judge by rhetoric, you can say that they were ready to. ready new tribes since the beginning of the war, but it's not so evident. so whether they will be ready to start the new. the awesome that's, that's a big question. as it appears that some of the fail safe mechanisms designed to prevent nuclear war have in pop, been eroded. i'm talking about direct communications between senior russian and american military leaders. these appeared to have stopped how dangerous is that?

it is very dangerous because those general communication channels been very useful . see the current being process. and they did it aloud to the key military commanders to talk directly with each others that degrees in their bus routes and war. but the current situation when both sides do not trust the child, so to speak, the channels me, i'm just working so under those circumstances, how easy would it be for one side to miss read the signals of the other and launch a war on a false understanding of the facts is very, very probable. right? i'm very, very nervous about any possible science. i don't know,

attack, or any other interference from the western united states into the brain war. so they can, i don't know what, what, what the read last. what was they are some read life so they can be very well is we always assume the rational hasn't been very inevitable since the so it's very hard to state and how they. ready perceive the information they get from the front line from the navy classes so they can decide something, something in the, in imaginable without real real reasons for that. so the reason. ready i mean the potations so what you're saying is that this could all get out of hand very quickly. i would say that if john get out of

but also the rest of that is old. i think it up to the native countries do not. so i don't know one for them to style. maybe maintain wanted to do is it rationally it around maybe a 2nd or 3rd ashlyn brush power to, to present them that which is the only obstacle at the end of the normalization of relations. the gallons which must be gone with his blows, blows, policies, and then the situation may be like 1st that i think that may may go to those people. ready to, to rally with the tech vital to try and keep us many communications open as possible communication. yep, yep, sure. maybe not. maybe he shouldn't be isolated from he's the reporters that the work lead the russian i lead it's. ready but he spun that you're off.

thank you very much for being on conflict. so it's good to see. i came to ah blue blue with

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