Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today has become one of Russia's

most prominent public defenders of Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. Yvgeny Popov represents Putin's

United Russia Party in the State Duma or Parliament, but he has an arguably more powerful platform as host of a talk show, 60 minutes,

on the state-owned Rossia 1 TV channel, where he appears alongside his wife,

who's also a Kremlin ultra-loyalist.

This past year has patently not gone to the Putin plan.

The war has cost Russia dear in terms of men and

resources. Ukraine's resistance has been staunch and backed by an expanding arsenal of Western

weapons. Now, this spring promises to be pivotal in terms of renewed offensives in the east and

south of Ukraine. The Russians retreated from swathes of

occupied territory in the second half of last year, and there is no guarantee the next phase of the

war will go the Kremlin's way. Meanwhile, Russia continues to face wider fallout, a complete

diplomatic and economic rupture with the West, and now

international opprobrium that comes with the International Criminal Court filing war crimes

charges against Mr Putin. This week's visit to Moscow by China's President Xi Jinping points

up Moscow's growing reliance on the alliance with Beijing.

So are cracks appearing in Moscow which no amount of propaganda can cover up?

Well, the Evgeny Popov joins me now from Moscow.

Welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you very much.

Your president, Vladimir Putin, is a wanted man.

The international criminal court has filed war crimes charges against him.

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