Trouble at the Kremlin
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2023
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's been a difficult fortnight for Vladimir Putin. Russia has been losing ground in the key city of Bakhmut, the man in charge of the Wagner group of mercenaries seems to be publicly criticising him in expletive-strewn videos, and now there are even suggestions of betrayal…
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Guest: Mark Galeotti, author of Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producer: Olivia Case.
Clips: Reuters, CNN, MSNBC, Times Radio, Sky News.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Sharla Ivers, the political correspondent at Times Radio and a columnist for the Sunday Times. |
| 0:05.8 | Every day I'm searching for the humour in the comings and goings of our political masters, |
| 0:10.7 | and hopefully trying to hold them to account along the way. I wouldn't be able to do this without |
| 0:14.8 | the subscribers to the Times and the Sunday Times. Subscribe today and only pay £1 for three months. |
| 0:20.9 | Visit the Times.co.uk forward slash podcast offer, Terms and Conditions Apply. |
| 0:30.8 | It's a bright, clear day on the outskirts of Bachmout in the east of Ukraine. |
| 0:47.7 | In a video released by the Ukrainians, you can see the soldiers of their third assault brigade |
| 0:53.7 | as they're about to storm Russian positions. |
| 0:57.3 | It clearly worked. Over the past week, the Russians have been losing ground. |
| 1:14.8 | Russia is dealing with setbacks. Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister says Ukrainian forces have |
| 1:19.6 | captured more than 10 Russian positions near Bachmout. In Moscow, the blame game has already begun. |
| 1:28.7 | The man in charge of the infamous Wagner group seems to be turning on Putin and the Russian army. |
| 1:36.2 | And then there was this. |
| 1:38.7 | The foregoes in the head of that private Russian military group that is fighting |
| 1:43.0 | on behalf of Russia alongside the Russian military in Ukraine reached out to commanders in |
| 1:48.6 | Ukraine. You have Jenny Pregozion reportedly made an offer to Ukrainian forces back in January |
| 1:56.0 | that he would give up Russian troop positions. This would be an exchange for Kiev pulling its troops |
| 2:00.4 | from the area surrounding the in-battle city of Bachmout. If this offer was actually made without |
| 2:05.9 | knowledge of the Kremlin, that could result in quite a sticky situation. |
| 2:11.2 | You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 2:19.6 | I'm Manvin Rana. Today, trouble at the Kremlin. |
| 2:23.6 | I'm Mark Galliotti. I head up the Russia Focus Consultancy Mayak Intelligence. |
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