“What worries me most right now is that no one in the world is interested in the political prisoners who were first to speak out against the land grab in our neighbouring country”

“[Putin] knows very well the true value of European leaders. On the one hand they talk to him about human rights. He laughs out loud because, with the other hand, they sign agreements – or used to sign agreements – with Russia on trading oil, gas, diamonds…all that stuff. When they talk to Putin about European values, he truly laughs out loud. He knows the true value of people who preached to him those values.”

“Sorry, I don't believe all this talk about a split among members of the elite, about secret conspiracies. The country is run by Vladimir Putin. They're frightened of him. And this fear is reinforced in every way by his main support base: the Federal Security Service (FSB).”

“Tell me, has security increased? With Ukrainian drones now attacking warehouses of [Russia's largest online retailer] Wildberries; with the petrol crisis, the disruption to mobile internet, the political prisoners? Has security increased, or not?”

“All those political experts who say 'Putin thinks this' or 'Putin is scared of that'…they're all charlatans. It's in the same league with astrology. Nobody knows what's going on in Vladimir Putin's head. And I don't know. I see things only as a journalist. I study big data. And since the beginning of the year the need to use nuclear weapons has been mentioned more than 500 times. When wackos say this, I pay no attention. But I've heard it discussed on state TV. And at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a state-run event, one of the speakers talked up the use of nuclear weapons as something favourable, something good.”

“It seems to me that the situation with Ukraine now is this: you can destroy it, but you cannot conquer it. What do I mean by destroy? Continued escalation all the way to the use of a nuclear weapon.”

“Because what has been going on for nearly five years – no matter how it ends – can no longer be considered a victory. It cannot be a victory when two Slavic nations have ripped a million people to shreds. Or more than a million.”

“There will never be 'victory'”

“Figures vary, but at a conservative estimate, since the start of Russia's 'special military operation' [in Ukraine] at least 1,500 people are now in prison having spoken out against current state policy. That's three times more than during the savage days of the KGB in the USSR.”

“Most opinion leaders have been declared 'foreign agents', 'extremists' or 'terrorists'. Several hundred”

“Putin issued a decree and the newspaper's printing presses were nationalised. Its registration was revoked.”

“There is no newspaper anymore”