Former Russian state TV journalist claims Putin ‘doesn’t have enough Novichok’ to kill growing number of critics
A former Russian state TV journalist has claimed that an “isolated” Vladimir Putin “doesn’t have enough Novichok” to kill his growing number of critics.
Russian dissident Marina Ovsyannikova, who made global headlines for her on-air protest against the war in Ukraine last year, spoke to Beth Rigby Interviews where she provoked the Russian president once again.
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“I think that Putin doesn’t have enough Novichok for all his opponents. Because actually when the war started, many more people started speaking against the regime and many more will do that,” she said.
Novichok was the military-grade nerve agent used in the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, and to attack the Russian opposition politician, Alexei Navalny in 2020.
Ms Ovsyannikova, who worked for the Channel One Russia television channel from 2003 until last year, expressed hopes that the Russian president could be toppled by those around him, and addressed recent criticism of Mr Putin by the Wagner mercenary group leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin and another wavering Putin loyalist, Ramzan Kadyrov. He is currently serving as the Head of the Chechen Republic and is also a colonel general in the Russian military and has openly criticised the performance of Russian forces in Ukraine.
Ms Ovsyannikova said: “I think Ukraine will start winning the war and then this will just divide the elites.”
“Look what happening now…. what Prigozhin is saying. Prigozhin is speaking up. And then [Ramzan] Kadyrov is also saying something else. And I hope that the system will break up from the inside.”
Asked if it could be Russia’s elites that overthrow Putin, Ms Ovsyannikova said that since opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in prison, “there is no leader who would be able to consolidate people”.
She added: “There is no active organisation. So I think the elites will divide and well, we don’t know – this might not be a classic coup. No one, probably, is going to kill or poison Putin, but someone from his inner circle might come to him one day and say, Vladimir, we’re losing the war. It’s time to go.
“On the last day of war, when Russia loses the war, this will be his last day. This is clear. He fears for his life. He is in his bunker. He’s isolated.”
Marina Ovsyannikova and Beth Rigby
Ms Ovsyannikova described Navalny as a “hero” but said even his death would not be enough to bring people out to protest on the streets.
She also expressed fears over his deteriorating health, telling Sky News: “We know that he’s being tortured just in front of the world’s eyes. God forbid he dies. But I don’t think that will trigger any mass protest, because you need to understand Russian people are intimidated and there is nothing that will make people take to the streets.
“The police are everywhere and you just raise your head from the ground and your life will be upended.”
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Ms Ovsyannikova also touched on the detention of American journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russia, describing it as Putin’s way of sending a “signal” to foreign journalists to stay out of his country.
However, she did say Mr Gershkovich could be released in a prisoner swap.
“Evan Gershkovich was taken hostage and he will be used as a token. He will be exchanged as an exchange for other people loyal to Putin who are now in American or British prisons,” she said.
“But at the same time, I believe that with this, Putin sent a very strong signal to all foreign journalists. Don’t stay here. Russia is a dangerous place”.
Recalling her protest against the War in Ukraine live on the Russian state TV channel where she worked, Ovsyannikova described how she felt compelled to act after seeing Russia’s invasion begin.
She said: “When the war started, well, I couldn’t look away. Blood was spilled. There were millions of refugees. And I could see all that on my screens. But this is not what propaganda was saying. It was all smoke and mirrors.
“I can say that the war became a point of no return for me, and that I could no longer keep silent. I could feel that I was living in a parallel reality. That the country was going completely totalitarian.”
You can watch Beth Rigby Interviews on Sky News at 9pm tonight
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
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It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
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Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
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Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
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Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
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