- We turn now to the view
from inside the Kremlin and an interview
with President Vladimir Putin's chief spokesman,
Dmitry Peskov,
he's also the Deputy Chief of Staff to Putin.
Special correspondent Ryan Chilcote who was just reporting
in Russia for us for the last several weeks,
spoke with Peskov this morning.
- Dmitry Peskov, thank you very much for joining us.
- Thank you, it's my pleasure.
- Over the weekend,
we heard President Biden call President Putin a butcher
and say that it is impossible for him to remain in power.
President Biden then said
that he was not advocating for regime change.
And yet you have said
that the Kremlin still finds these comments alarming, why?
- Well, it's quite alarming.
First of all, it's personal insult.
And one can hardly imagine a place
for a personal insult in rhetoric's of a political leader
and especially of a political leader of the greatest country
in the world, of the United States.
So we're really sorry about that.
And his statement about whether Putin should not
or should be in power in Russia,
of course, is completely unacceptable.
It's not for the United States president to decide
who is going to be and who is the president
of the Russian Federation.
It's people of Russia who are deciding during the election.
- Wanna ask you about nuclear weapons
and clear some things up.
There's still quite a bit
of confusion about Russia's position.
We heard yet another official over the weekend
this time former President Dmitry Medvedev say
that Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons
if it faces an existential threat,
even if the other side has not employed nuclear weapons.
So could you please clarify for us what exactly would amount
to an existential threat to Russia?
For example, if you were unable to achieve your objectives
in Ukraine, even though there's no one fighting in Russia,
there's no strikes on Russia,
could that be perceived as an existential threat?
- Well, first of all, we have no doubt
that all the objectives of our specialty military operation
in Ukraine will be completed.
We have no doubt about that.
But in any outcome of the operation,
of course, is not a reason for usage of a nuclear weapon.
We have a security concept that very clearly states
that only when there is a threat for existence
of the state in our country, we can use
and we will actually use nuclear weapons
to eliminate the threat for the existence of our country.
Let's keep this two things separate.
I mean, existence of the state
and special military operation in Ukraine,
they have nothing to do with each other.
But at the same time if you remember the initial statement
of the president when he ordered the operation
on the 24th of February,
there was a part of his statement warning different states
not to interfere in the affairs between Ukraine and Russia
during this operation.
He was very strict in his warning
and he was quite tough on that.
And I think that everyone understands what he meant.
- Right, he meant that he would use nuclear weapons.
He was suggesting he would use nuclear weapons
if a third party got involved in the conflict.
- No, I don't think so, I don't think so,
but he was quite bold in saying that do not interfere,
if you do that we have all the possibilities to prevent that
and to punish all those who are going to interfere.
- Look, Mr. Peskov, if you stick
to the dictionary definition of existential threat
that we were discussing,
clearly nothing that is taking place
or is even really quite frankly imaginable
that could take place could reach that bar
of threatening the existence of the Russian state.
So why not just clear this up right now?
Why can't you, on behalf of Russia, rule out the use
of nuclear weapons in this conflict right here?
- No one is thinking about using,
even about the idea of using a nuclear weapons.
- President Biden also this weekend warned President Putin
to not even, as he put it,
"Even think about going on one single inch
of NATO territory."
Can you imagine a situation
where Russia would feel it necessary to bomb
or send forces into a NATO country during this conflict?
- Well, if it's not a reciprocal act,
so if they don't make us do that,
we cannot think about that.
And we do not want to think about that.
- The US and other nations, as you're aware,
say Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine.
They say your forces seem
to be deliberately targeting civilians
in your operations there.
The International Criminal Court has launched
an investigation, and the prosecutor
at the International Criminal Court says
that Russia has not responded
to his request for contributions.
If you're not doing anything wrong in Ukraine,
why not cooperate with the ICC.
- We do not accept the jurisdiction of ICC.
We did not acknowledge it before
and we do not accept it right now.
And we're not going to accept it further.
So about the civilian targets,
actually it's a very important question.
You have to know that from the very beginning
of the special operations,
Russian military had a very strict order
from the chief commander not to aim at civilian targets
and they're not doing that.
They're not shelling houses,
they're not shelling apartments.
They're not shelling civil objects.
They're only shelling and they're aiming objects
of military infrastructure in the context
of one of the main goals of the operation,
demilitarization of Ukraine.
Then who is ruining the civil infrastructure
of Mariupol, for example?
Those Nazi battalions inside Mariupol.
They're simply killing
those who would like to to escape from the city.
And these Nazi battalions, they are using the apartments
as a shelter for their guns, for their armaments,
for their tanks, for their snipers,
thus causing the reciprocal fire.
So it's not Russian military who are doing that.
- Dmitry Sergeyevich, I would say in all fairness,
everyone outside of Russia has been watching hundreds
and hundreds of hours of footage that has come out
of the country showing widespread targeting
of civilian infrastructure, apartment buildings,
theaters, hospitals.
I wanna ask you briefly about sanctions
and specifically energy supply.
Western European countries right now get a lot
of their gas, as you're well aware, from Russia.
They currently pay dollars and euros for that gas.
Vladimir Putin has said he wants them to pay in rubles.
So it looks like we have a stalemate here.
Will Russia turn off the tap?
Will it cut off its gas exports to Europe,
if those countries refuse to pay for that gas in rubles?
- I don't know what is going to happen
when they reject this possibility.
So as soon as we have the final decision
we'll look what can be done.
But definitely we're not going to make a charity out of that
and to send gas free of charge to Western Europe.
- It's kind of a binary thing, right?
It sounds like President Putin is insisting
to get it's paid in rubles,
they're insisting they will not pay in rubles.
So my question simply is, are you gonna turn off the gas?
- Oh, well it depends, no payment, no gas.
- How concerned are you Mr. Peskov, of that,
some of your best clients,
your best customers for European gas,
Germany, a number of European countries are now turning
their backs on Russia and Russian gas.
Doesn't that give you pause
about the future of Russia's economy?
- Well, this is, of course, this is what we wouldn't want
to see actually in our reality.
But we have to adapt ourselves to new conditions.
And unfortunately, those conditions
they are quite unfriendly and they are enemy like for us.
We entered the phase of a total war.
And we in Russia we feel ourselves amongst the war
because Western European countries,
United States, Canada, Australia,
they actually they're leading war against us
in trade and economy, in seizing our properties,
in seizing our funds, in blocking our financial relations
and we have to adapt ourselves to new reality.
You have to understand Russia,
what was the reason of starting that risk.
For a couple of the decades,
we were telling the collective West
that we are afraid of your NATOs moving Eastwards.
We're afraid of NATOs getting closer to our borders
with its military infrastructure.
Please take care of that.
Don't push us into the corner, no.
That was said, listen, guys
we are not happy with this coup in Ukraine.
And you have a guarantees by Poland,
by France and by Germany.
You would probably remember the document with the signatures
of the relevant foreign ministers, no reaction.
Then we said, listen guys, we are not happy
with the possibility of Ukraine's getting into NATO
because it'll endanger us additionally
and it'll ruin the balance of mutual deterrence
in Europe, no reaction.
Then we said, listen guys, we want equal relationship.
We want to take into accounts each other's concerns.
If you don't take into account our concerns,
then we will be a little bit nervous,
no reaction completely.
- There are so many more NATO forces now closer
to Russia than they ever were
as a result of this conflict.
Do you feel like in your efforts to address your concerns
you've made the situation worse?
- Well, the situation is quite concerning,
you're right, you're right.
But were wise enough to understand that previously before,
prior to the operation,
NATO was doing the same, but with a smile on its face
and gradually were deeply convinced that NATO machine
is not a machine of cooperation
and is not a machine of security,
it's a machine of confrontation.
- Dmitry Peskov, thank you very much for your time.
- Thank you very much for your invitation.