Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. Russia's armed forces are

engaged in a multi-front attack on neighbouring Ukraine. It is an assault on the sovereignty of a European

nation, the like of which we haven't seen since World War II. The Ukrainian government has asked

the world to back its resistance to Vladimir Putin's

aggression. There have been pledges of crippling economic sanctions on Russia and supplies of arms

to Kiev. But ultimately, the message from Washington and the West smacks of realpolitik.

If Putin is prepared to endure the costs of his invasion, then Western forces will not be deployed to defend Ukraine. So the most important

question may be this. Is Putin's position in Russia strong enough to allow him to bear the costs of this war in the long term?

My guest is Leonid Volkov, a prominent figure in the Russian anti-Putin movement led by Alexei Navalny.

Putin projects an image of ruthless, impregnable power. What is the reality? Well, Leonid Volkov joins me now from California. Welcome to Hard Talk. Hello, good morning.

Now, Mr. Volkov, we are joining you in California because you are a political exile. You're a wanted man in Russia, a leading figure in the anti-Putin movement.

I just wonder how you feel watching Russian forces cross that border and invade Ukraine.

I feel terrible. I feel ashamed. I feel very bad because this is something that will have terrible consequences

for my country, for Russia, for Ukraine, clearly. And I'm afraid also for the whole world.

Well, Vladimir Putin is a for a criminal. We were talking about it for many years. We were trying

to explain to the people also in the West that like he's a criminal.

He has to be stopped.

He has to be deterred when he poisoned Alexei Navalny, when he poisoned people there in Salisbury in the UK.

And when he invaded Crimea in 2014 and soon we were talking about it a lot and

now we see apparently that was not enough because like the response came too little too late

and kind of untied Putin's hands. I don't want, of course, to blame anyone but him.

He has the full responsibility over the war crime that he is now committing being streamed online,

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