Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today is widely respected as one of Russia's top economists.

Actually, that should be couched in the past tense as far as his own country is concerned,

because Sergei Gurir, formerly rector of Moscow's new economic school and advisor to former President Dmitri Medvedev is now regarded

as a traitor by Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin propaganda machine. The reason, Gureev decided to back

the anti-corruption anti-Putin political movement led by Alexei Navalny. By 2013, Guriev's position in Moscow had become

so uncomfortable he relocated to Paris and is now a professor of economics at the renowned

Science Poe University. And from there, he's been a consistent critic of President Putin.

And since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he's been a leading advocate

of drastic measures to inflict maximum economic pain on the Kremlin's war machine. He argues that

represents the best chance of bringing an early end to the Ukraine war and containing the damage done,

not just to Ukraine, but to the European and global economies as well.

But is that more wishful thinking than reality?

After all, the sanctions imposed thus far by the West appear to have had little impact on Putin's ability

or willingness to double down on his Ukraine military gamble.

Has Sergei Guryev misread the situation inside his own country?

Well, he joins me now on the line from Paris. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you very much,

Stephen, for inviting me. It's a pleasure to have you on the show. And if I may, I'm going to

start with some of your very own words, because recently you wrote, the only way to stop Putin is to

deprive him of the financial resources to continue this war. That's wishful thinking, isn't it?

After six weeks, we can pretty much say that's not going to happen. Well, that depends on the

resolve of the West, and so far the unity and resolve of the West has been unprecedented.

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