ah, but what happens when people can't touch it? physical distancing, makes it more difficult. we explore the power of gentle touch in 30 minutes on d. w. a y sham referendums in occupied regions of ukraine, and more russian troops are drafted into battle. but the protests are increasing across the country. i guess this week had his own unique protest. very spun very all foreign service veteran resigned in shame, the war and ukraine, the only russian government official to do so in public. what are the chances of

putin surviving the conflict? he started, he put himself investigation where it would edit them. in these elect a instrument, you 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 respond that you're welcome to conflict zone loading. 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 the mystic consent to convince people within the rush that it is, all right, and those people in these new creat it's republics. i really enjoy my rush so it's given the government to. ready 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 to 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 the government is still believing that they can't sell any anything to bid 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 now. yeah, i guess so. i believe that these new numbers do a new the com all at once to the front line. they will not change the course, or they will, can only make it more slow or rush to to,

to the war because the army that had been being so far very incompetent in terms of stress, in terms of military planning, implementing the ration. and so it's sort of so, so for now the main superiority, i say, so oh, the russian army in comparison to the brand it was. ready the numbers, the numbers, so i think they can only find the 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 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 lies on cells. so cells competing records and so on, so we can see it by the database in the 1st place. it's above us that he missed his own strength and the ability to bring in our reaction. louis, 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 lives anymore? well, it's hard to say that because i think on the very low level people who work really in the field so to speak. ready you know the truth, while they're being reported prior 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 gramm then what they want to hear. that's it. yes. yes, because if you report to my. ready school the situation is not whole is. ready favorable to us, they might make things that you use won't work well enough and it will. ready make your career prospects less right than you expect. so everybody wants to breeze now school to show that they are working very hard and then you've done some 3 promotions and all. so that's, that's your belief. and 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 most that it was the, the russia, russian interest, russian positions regarding the world is very widely shared by many countries. but the russia isolated that the western. ready physicians balls and everybody understands the death balls, for instance. it also goes to the chemical, scandalous about these 3 boys on the boys and for instance, and some other things. so it is, you know, these reports. ready being when you don't have to report the truth, but you have to you guys and so nobody understand blevins. it's kind of what that this is a very bad art. you're,

you're very scathing about the foreign minister said a lover off, 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 illusions where we are unable to what we see now and other symbols of this system. we should now deny the reality. so i don't expect anything from anything wrong with the galler i'm here to present and i think that it will. ready all see, the collapse of this is really 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 it is all, but it depends on the war and, but i don't see russia and achieve the real story of this. it can be used on the worst. and congress dot sublime and you bring it all the way around as well. so just be doing it in all other scenarios, you will have to retreat. you will have to bet it will be very hard blow because it's been 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 thought him and said, so did. did you noted 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 foresee this consequences that it's an invasion. we'll do. ready house, i was pretty sure that law school also has this knowledge of this understanding, but evidently they didn't. evidently they basically they were, as i said, how moscow lied to its own embassies as well as to everyone else. oh, well yeah. i would say. ready like they just don't tell anything that they don't want to tell. and they the embassy, just the thing 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 dangerous thing is that the whole. ready thing about this stuff to do is to. ready to, to make a new purse right against the west. again, the 1st place people are sure there will be knowledge of age. the west will just swallows. and just to the knees. and let's say let's again, ok, we're here. ok, let's, let's make a read that. what, what makes them believe that i think it's a very old and con prejudice regarding the western, it's irrational that the wisdom people. ready are very weak and where it pampers because they are very comfortable that you know and that they're not ready to

sacrifice like well the or because every war makes it makes, it makes people laugh uneasy. and we, we are known to all the world that we can stop up or as long as it takes. well, it's not the worst, but it is. and the people who made big items, they also share this with you. 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 imagined because no one can really imagine what will be what that what. ready will be and they just tried to make themselves more confident about

that. but i believe that some decisions can be made on the run around ross and fortune's 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 aisha ranch in the in the k is reading, but it's the last reserves you mailed it to me to me. so we have a rest in the, in the, in the region, the front 3 years. that's still the unrest and model 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 these days in russia? it's hard to say it's hard to say. i think the faith of regime is strongly dependent on. ready that the heart of offensive, but it's successful, give me a blow additional, the russian arm, 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 rail, it'll be career might be i guess my question is more about the, the hard line,

political and security 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, you have 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 a very close, but there's no doubt that the russian that leads 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 deal, sticking to him for some reasons,

maybe they don't believe that can resolve the situation like he was general, were loyal to human, to the very 1st. so all they can not get 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 in your own 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 order to get. ready any success because the economy is shrinking. if it's going to start with team the

end of the daily life, most people in russia has b or 8. instead, he can only sell some military successes. that's why he wanted to read it, was it? it was given, all right, like all of the raise brushing rules defense russian interest. and so that would work for some years like to work with brain and he just wanted to repeat this premium excise. 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 world's 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 you 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. ringback all this 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 to do to semantic, to group to power. does he want to fight with nato? i hope not, but you know, he put him still in the gauge and where he does know. i think these black reps only instruments. he was to try to get himself 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. i don't think much about the whole space of key figures, business men, people in society who may or may not oppose the war have landed up dead recently. many seem to have had, i'm expected accidents or jumped out of up stairs. windows. not a coincidence. is it opperation on the way? isn't there in russia? yeah, it's very suspicious incidentals. 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 advisor 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 this disease. this by the session, both parties are reasonable and they don't want to die. and they just want to keep your and the male at diversity at the distance. in this case we've done well, it's simulating, but the best one is that he is not quite reasonable or maybe he is. ready reasonable, we don't know. so we've done that. he may come off to talk to us in your strikes

. we don't know. so in this case if we deal. ready with a man or that if it's ok to start, what then deterrence 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, they need to know that's difficult to show that most is a really. ready rate in its troops or drivers. so i believe that the intelligence gathered by the western classes is much more reliable. and they went out and they said, no such science. but i got to read the whole bliss temple

by the rush, and some troops were distributed in all radiation radiation fields. so something, at least they were being 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 webmail way, february 24th. so if we judge by rhetoric, you can say that they would read into. ready new bus driver since the beginning of the war, but it's not so evident. so whether they will be ready to start the new offering . that's. that's a big question. it appears that some of the fail safe mechanisms designed to prevent nuclear war have in part, been eroded. i'm talking about direct communications between senior russian and american military leaders. these appear to have stopped how dangerous is that

it is very dangerous because those general, those communication channels very useful, see the current being process. it allows to the key military commanders to talk directly. ready each other's degrees in. ready wraps 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 probable, very probable. rational, i'm sure is 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 are what was that they are some read life. so they can be very well is we are always in the russian leadership has been very inadequate. cindy, so it's very hard to say how they. ready perceive the information they get from the front line from the native classes so they can decide something or something imaginable without real real reasons for that. so the reason for. ready the potations understand 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 and, but also the rest of that is i think it is up to native

boundaries due to people not. so i don't know someone from them to styles, so maybe maintain wanted to do is it rationally it around maybe in the esl and rush hour to to present them, which is the only obstacle at the end of the normalization of relations, which must be gone with his blows blows, policies, and then the situation may be like reversed 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 channel. yes, sure. maybe not. maybe it shouldn't be isolated from he's supporters that the work lead the russian i lead. it's very important,

but he spun that you're off. thank you very much for being on conflict. so it's good to see. thank into it. ah ah, ah, with

it's a powerful form of protection for the body and soul gentle touch. it's crucial for human survival for our health and psychological development.

but what happens when people can't touch it? physical distancing, makes it more difficult. we explore the power of gentle touch coming up on dilute destination culture. hannah homer is on the road again behind board in the northeast of germany. magnificent coffee. miss serious. grayson romantic for a cultural tour thunder in 90 minutes on d. w. o. 2 o. 3 or not to own what about

a sharing economy instead? a change in thinking is changing the economy to create something new the economics magazine read in germany on d w. oh okay, and again, all the harvesters are immigrants, dolock, if they come in, everything you enjoy, eating at home with your family, was harvested by people who are being exploited. if the like is for free and we're going to need to. uh huh. we can keep doing what we're doing. we need to become as sustainable as possible, and that's why you're green revolutionaries is absolutely necessary. europe review the future thing, determine now our documentary series will show you how people,

companies and countries are we thinking everything and making later changes were made on food. but if a massive cyber attack or something like that happens and we can reboot our country from the outside, welcome, i'm going to be sure a lot more from it. so we're future after all. and if we don't do something, our children won't be able to enjoy fresh air will be mostly, you know, want to sit on your 3, be this week on d, w. ah, there's a c w news, and these are our top stories. ukraine is mocking the anniversary of the hollow, double rushes, deliberate starvation of millions of ukrainians in the early 19 thirties president, holiday mister lens, e like a come a ramp come am.