Speaker 1: Boris Johnson resigned as the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Speaker 1: He'll stay on until they get somebody new, but he's done,
Speaker 1: so that little era is over all. I hope is
Speaker 1: that whoever becomes Prime Minister is as committed or more
Speaker 1: to defending Ukraine against the Russian onslaught. At the very
Speaker 1: beginning of the war, we started talking to Felix Light
Speaker 1: when he was still in Moscow reporting on it. He
Speaker 1: has since left there and is now in London. CBS
Speaker 1: Radio News. Felix Light joins us now on the Armstrong
Speaker 1: Getty Show. Hey Felix, Hey, how's it good. How long
Speaker 1: were you in Moscow? When did you leave? And why
Speaker 1: did you leave? Oh? Well, I was in Moscow for
Speaker 1: about a little under five years, I think its total.
Speaker 1: And I left a week into the war, you know,
Speaker 1: so that's about something like a third or the fourth
Speaker 1: of March this year, so a good sort of well
Speaker 1: four months ago now a little bit more, uh know,
Speaker 1: and and just sort of it had become very clear,
Speaker 1: I think sort of back then that you know, the
Speaker 1: situation was looking you know, pretty negative. You know, we
Speaker 1: were there were sort of not just sort of the
Speaker 1: Russian side bringing in laws against you know, essentially kind
Speaker 1: of criminalizing anyone actually like reporting the war accurately. But
Speaker 1: also you know, you had sort of you know, the
Speaker 1: Western sanctions would have meant that essentially I didn't have
Speaker 1: any money. You know, my bank cards were going to
Speaker 1: be cut off, my credit cards, so you know, it
Speaker 1: was it was a very difficult time. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of people I think made a lot of staff
Speaker 1: decisions back then. So that first week of the war, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually remember we're talking to you about that, and
Speaker 1: that made a lot of sense. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: the sanctions haven't hurt Russia as much as we were hoping?
Speaker 1: Do you know what I actually like depends? You know,
Speaker 1: the Russian economy is a bit of a joke kind
Speaker 1: of in objective terms, but it's run by some very
Speaker 1: smart people who you know, what to do it sort
Speaker 1: of you know, policy terms, you know, in this kind
Speaker 1: of crisis. But you know that being said, I think
Speaker 1: there are a lot of places when where you know,
Speaker 1: the the ordinary Russian really is hurting. You know, if
Speaker 1: you look at sort of a lot of these you know,
Speaker 1: like a lot of towns, a sort of Soviet style
Speaker 1: industrial towns, you know, sort of like Detroit style places,
Speaker 1: you know, big car manufacturing centers. These places are almost
Speaker 1: shutting down. You know, the supply chains are just completely
Speaker 1: busted with sanctions. So I think, you know, if you
Speaker 1: get a little bit out, a bit outside Moscow and
Speaker 1: maybe you know, get under the hood and sort of
Speaker 1: get away from the top line figures of the economy,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people in Russia are suffering
Speaker 1: right now. You know, if you look at auto sales
Speaker 1: in Russia, it's down something like Center Online crazy statistics.
Speaker 1: And then you know, this is sort of you know,
Speaker 1: this is this is not something you'll see in sort
Speaker 1: of you know, like deficit figures or you know, inflation
Speaker 1: or unemployment, but it is it's a really good indicator
Speaker 1: of sort of how actual Russians are feeling, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Yeah, well, I feel bad for the
Speaker 1: average Russian who probably if they knew what was actually happening,
Speaker 1: wouldn't support this war in any way. But I hope
Speaker 1: the pain gets bad enough that, you know, put some
Speaker 1: pressure on putting to want to go a different direction. Absolutely, absolutely, so,
Speaker 1: I know you're reporting on this grinder woman. She is
Speaker 1: a w NBA star who has grabbed in Russia because
Speaker 1: she allegedly had drugs in her bag. She has now
Speaker 1: pled guilty. I'm guessing that's something our government suggested. She
Speaker 1: talked to Joe Biden yesterday. What's the latest on that story. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: you know, this was about day three of the Grinder trial.
Speaker 1: She did plead guilty. And you you think that this
Speaker 1: is because basically, I think the hopes of the U. S. Government,
Speaker 1: probably the hopes of Grinder herself, are basically on some
Speaker 1: kind of prisoner exchange. You know, even in the last
Speaker 1: few months, you know, during this war, we've had a
Speaker 1: few quite surprising moments where actually, you know, some pretty
Speaker 1: uh you know, I don't know if you were Trevor
Speaker 1: Read the U. S. Marine who was jailed in Russia.
Speaker 1: He was released a couple of months ago in a
Speaker 1: prisoner exchange for a Russian jailed in the US. You know,
Speaker 1: there is a little bit of this ongoing. But I
Speaker 1: think kind of, you know, in a Russian court way,
Speaker 1: you know that the outcomes, if you don't mind me saying,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty pretty sort of effectively determined in advanced sure,
Speaker 1: I think you know, a guilty plea was kind of
Speaker 1: necessary almost to get that sort of standing with the
Speaker 1: Russian government to try and you know, get in there
Speaker 1: with a prisoner exchange. Really, you know, that's certainly what
Speaker 1: I think to the Russians. For Deputy Foreig Minister, who
Speaker 1: was discussing the case yesterday, pretty heavily alluded to you
Speaker 1: know that, uh almost the U. S. Government needed to
Speaker 1: stop talking about it, and they they you know, they
Speaker 1: do they do a prisoner exchange when it suited. That
Speaker 1: I think was the message. Yeah, Well, it was interesting
Speaker 1: for me to find out that we have a number
Speaker 1: of American citizens being held in Russia against their will,
Speaker 1: and some of them have been there for years, and
Speaker 1: some of their family members are wondering, hey, my my
Speaker 1: husband or whoever who's being held in Russia is not
Speaker 1: a w NBA star, and the President hasn't called us,
Speaker 1: and nobody's like bending over backwards to trying to get
Speaker 1: you know, my family member out of there. That's that's
Speaker 1: a bit of a troubling situation. Well, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: The other and is another a lot of former marine
Speaker 1: I think a guy called Paul Wheeler, who I think
Speaker 1: Joe Biden has been sort of intervening with for some time,
Speaker 1: and I think Trump before him was also sort of
Speaker 1: pursuing this case, you know. But you know, the Russian
Speaker 1: sort of justice system, the Russian criminal system, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a very sort of murky world, and you only
Speaker 1: really sort of know what sort of incentives are going on,
Speaker 1: why they're sort of acting in the way they are
Speaker 1: really when you're inside it. And I think very few
Speaker 1: people to really understand why they would see this NBA
Speaker 1: star or this X marine. You know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: very very curious world, toxic. Talking with Felix Light and
Speaker 1: uh CBS News radio News and the Moscow Times, and
Speaker 1: he lived in Moscow for years and we got to
Speaker 1: Felix through the whole war in Ukraine story. But the
Speaker 1: fact that you're in London, I can't help but ask.
Speaker 1: Just a few hours ago Boris Johnson resigned. What kind
Speaker 1: of an earthquake is that? As far as a news
Speaker 1: story there in London, Yeah, it's pretty pretty extraordinary, you know.
Speaker 1: You know, we we almost don't really whether he's really resigned,
Speaker 1: because he sort of said he's going to resign. But
Speaker 1: to resign as a UK premnisty you actually have to
Speaker 1: go to see the Queen Right of course, of course
Speaker 1: you do. Why wouldn't you have to go see a
Speaker 1: queen if you want to elected to face on the
Speaker 1: step down? Makes sense to me exactly. But Johnson has
Speaker 1: not gone to see the queen, so you know, he's
Speaker 1: holding that final cards sort of very close to his
Speaker 1: chest there, you know, so we will see what happens
Speaker 1: with that. But I think it was it was extraordinary,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't you know, the the this sort
Speaker 1: of scandal, the one that really broke him, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's been so many Boris Johnson scandals. Was you know,
Speaker 1: he sort of fled up last week, you know, related
Speaker 1: to sort of covering up for an MP who had
Speaker 1: been involved in sexual harasson It was extraordinary that it
Speaker 1: was actually someone else's scandal that any end broken, and
Speaker 1: not an actual Johnson scandal, because there's been so many,
Speaker 1: and he's such a sort of you know, colorful character
Speaker 1: and very prone to scandal that it was almost seems
Speaker 1: to these are that, you know, with someone else's wrong
Speaker 1: doing accord him in the end. Yeah, well, I think
Speaker 1: it was just a you know, he was warned by
Speaker 1: his own people, look not this guy, and he went
Speaker 1: ahead and appoint him anyway, it's just like, all right,
Speaker 1: you don't even care, do you You just don't care. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was pretty it was pretty pretty special. And then
Speaker 1: he uh, I think about fifty ministers that's sort of
Speaker 1: you know, govern Beneficials ended up resigning over the last
Speaker 1: two days, you know, in an attempt to get him out.
Speaker 1: You know, he appointed a new finance minister who don't
Speaker 1: said actually, you know, thank you for appointing me, but
Speaker 1: you should actually resign. It was an extor. It was
Speaker 1: absolutely extraordinary couple of days in the UK, to be honest, Well,
Speaker 1: bringing it back to your expertise, my only question around
Speaker 1: who who's Prime minister right now is because I don't
Speaker 1: follow British politics that well. Is I wanted to be
Speaker 1: somebody who really really is supporting the people of Ukraine
Speaker 1: against Russia. Are both parties at this point supportive, so
Speaker 1: that no matter who wins, it's likely Ukraine will still
Speaker 1: get support from Great Britain. Yeah, definitely. You know, I
Speaker 1: think support for Ukraine is very much a kind of
Speaker 1: a consensus position in the UK. You know, there's no
Speaker 1: one serious who sort of says that we shouldn't be
Speaker 1: doing it. And I think that also to be quite honest,
Speaker 1: towards the end of Johnson's Climate Office, it was really
Speaker 1: sort of, you know, that was almost the only thing
Speaker 1: he was popular for, right, sort of very much approved
Speaker 1: of that, and they sort of they enable he was
Speaker 1: awful on everything else. So I think there's no danger
Speaker 1: that UK policy will sort of change on Ukraine, although
Speaker 1: I do think probably Zelenski and Kiev would have preferred
Speaker 1: for Johnson to stay, just because, you know, I think
Speaker 1: what Johnson showed he was able to do with Ukraine
Speaker 1: would sort of make promises but also keep them. You know,
Speaker 1: the UK was doing very well in terms of delivering
Speaker 1: what it was saying it was going to deliver, and
Speaker 1: I think there is a worried uh, you know maybe
Speaker 1: amongst the Zelenski allies that you know, it's not the
Speaker 1: UK won't abandoned Ukraine, but it might sort of it
Speaker 1: might sort of think down to you know, below priority
Speaker 1: if you like, Yeah, the UK actually delivering on what
Speaker 1: they promised, as opposed to, for instance, Germany and France,
Speaker 1: which is a completely different story. Hey man, if I
Speaker 1: may ask before we let you go, how old are you, Felix?
Speaker 1: You are really good. I would talk to you anytime
Speaker 1: you are there there I I don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of I don't know. There are a lot of young
Speaker 1: journalists out there who well I won't say anymore, but
Speaker 1: you are really really good and appreciate you coming on today.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that Felix Light reporter in London. Now, he
Speaker 1: was in Moscow for five years, so he's twenty eight.
Speaker 1: He left Moscow, so he was He went to Moscow
Speaker 1: when he was twenty three, lived there for five years,
Speaker 1: became an expert in that and you just heard him. Now.
Speaker 1: I love the journalists because a lot of Martlin this
Speaker 1: way anymore. I love the journalists who just like are
Speaker 1: really really interested in what they're doing. You can tell
Speaker 1: that they like for their own enjoyment, are searching out
Speaker 1: the background on all these different stories. So if you
Speaker 1: get up off on a different topic like we just did,
Speaker 1: he's got something to say about it. Um. We talked
Speaker 1: to journalists all the time that they clearly have read
Speaker 1: like the first paragraph of some story and they're not
Speaker 1: really into it, and it drives me nuts. And part
Speaker 1: it's because they get paid so little in the modern
Speaker 1: world because of the Internet, in the way everything has changed.
Speaker 1: But there's a guy who's really really good. It's not
Speaker 1: like I'm his agent or something, but appreciate having him
Speaker 1: on art strong and