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Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator.

Every week we take a look at some of the most important and intriguing stories from the issue with the writers behind them.

I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor.

And I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor.

This week, how are the citizens of both Russia and Ukraine processing the war?

Plus, is Rishi Sunak politically incompetent? And finally, why do so many of Africa's leaders support Putin?

First up, our Russia correspondent, Owen Matthews, writes in this week's spectator that he has been stunned

at how easily some of his Russian friends have accepted the Kremlin's propaganda.

He joins us now to explain why he thinks this is.

Owen, in your piece, you look at why it is that so many Russians, including indeed some

old friends of yours, will defend outlandish

propaganda from the Kremlin against all evidence. What are some of the reasons for this?

I think it's actually something that we've been through in the West rather recently,

so it's not so incredibly difficult to understand that a certain

proportion of the population are willing to believe crazy theories. I mean, whether it's anti-vaxxers

or, you know, crazy theories about the alleged benefits of Brexit, which has believed in very

strongly in Old Queen Street, or Trump. I mean, there are lots of people

who are in the business of self-delusion. And I think that's the main message of my piece. And

unfortunately, it's not a very optimistic message. It would be very comfortable and nice for us to

believe that Russians are deluded

...