He Hasn't Seen The Queen Yet! - Felix Light Talks With A&G

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boris Johnson resigned as the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
He'll stay on until they get somebody new, but he's done,
so that little era is over all. I hope is
that whoever becomes Prime Minister is as committed or more
to defending Ukraine against the Russian onslaught. At the very

(00:21):
beginning of the war, we started talking to Felix Light
when he was still in Moscow reporting on it. He
has since left there and is now in London. CBS
Radio News. Felix Light joins us now on the Armstrong
Getty Show. Hey Felix, Hey, how's it good. How long
were you in Moscow? When did you leave? And why

(00:42):
did you leave? Oh? Well, I was in Moscow for
about a little under five years, I think its total.
And I left a week into the war, you know,
so that's about something like a third or the fourth
of March this year, so a good sort of well
four months ago now a little bit more, uh know,
and and just sort of it had become very clear,
I think sort of back then that you know, the

(01:05):
situation was looking you know, pretty negative. You know, we
were there were sort of not just sort of the
Russian side bringing in laws against you know, essentially kind
of criminalizing anyone actually like reporting the war accurately. But
also you know, you had sort of you know, the
Western sanctions would have meant that essentially I didn't have
any money. You know, my bank cards were going to
be cut off, my credit cards, so you know, it

(01:27):
was it was a very difficult time. You know, a
lot of people I think made a lot of staff
decisions back then. So that first week of the war, Yeah,
I actually remember we're talking to you about that, and
that made a lot of sense. Do you feel like
the sanctions haven't hurt Russia as much as we were hoping?
Do you know what I actually like depends? You know,
the Russian economy is a bit of a joke kind

(01:50):
of in objective terms, but it's run by some very
smart people who you know, what to do it sort
of you know, policy terms, you know, in this kind
of crisis. But you know that being said, I think
there are a lot of places when where you know,
the the ordinary Russian really is hurting. You know, if
you look at sort of a lot of these you know,
like a lot of towns, a sort of Soviet style
industrial towns, you know, sort of like Detroit style places,

(02:11):
you know, big car manufacturing centers. These places are almost
shutting down. You know, the supply chains are just completely
busted with sanctions. So I think, you know, if you
get a little bit out, a bit outside Moscow and
maybe you know, get under the hood and sort of
get away from the top line figures of the economy,
I think a lot of people in Russia are suffering
right now. You know, if you look at auto sales
in Russia, it's down something like Center Online crazy statistics.

(02:36):
And then you know, this is sort of you know,
this is this is not something you'll see in sort
of you know, like deficit figures or you know, inflation
or unemployment, but it is it's a really good indicator
of sort of how actual Russians are feeling, you know
what I mean. Yeah, well, I feel bad for the
average Russian who probably if they knew what was actually happening,
wouldn't support this war in any way. But I hope
the pain gets bad enough that, you know, put some

(02:56):
pressure on putting to want to go a different direction. Absolutely, absolutely, so,
I know you're reporting on this grinder woman. She is
a w NBA star who has grabbed in Russia because
she allegedly had drugs in her bag. She has now
pled guilty. I'm guessing that's something our government suggested. She
talked to Joe Biden yesterday. What's the latest on that story. Yeah, so,

(03:20):
you know, this was about day three of the Grinder trial.
She did plead guilty. And you you think that this
is because basically, I think the hopes of the U. S. Government,
probably the hopes of Grinder herself, are basically on some
kind of prisoner exchange. You know, even in the last
few months, you know, during this war, we've had a
few quite surprising moments where actually, you know, some pretty

(03:41):
uh you know, I don't know if you were Trevor
Read the U. S. Marine who was jailed in Russia.
He was released a couple of months ago in a
prisoner exchange for a Russian jailed in the US. You know,
there is a little bit of this ongoing. But I
think kind of, you know, in a Russian court way,
you know that the outcomes, if you don't mind me saying,
you know, pretty pretty sort of effectively determined in advanced sure,

(04:02):
I think you know, a guilty plea was kind of
necessary almost to get that sort of standing with the
Russian government to try and you know, get in there
with a prisoner exchange. Really, you know, that's certainly what
I think to the Russians. For Deputy Foreig Minister, who
was discussing the case yesterday, pretty heavily alluded to you
know that, uh almost the U. S. Government needed to
stop talking about it, and they they you know, they

(04:24):
do they do a prisoner exchange when it suited. That
I think was the message. Yeah, Well, it was interesting
for me to find out that we have a number
of American citizens being held in Russia against their will,
and some of them have been there for years, and
some of their family members are wondering, hey, my my

(04:44):
husband or whoever who's being held in Russia is not
a w NBA star, and the President hasn't called us,
and nobody's like bending over backwards to trying to get
you know, my family member out of there. That's that's
a bit of a troubling situation. Well, yeah, you know.
The other and is another a lot of former marine
I think a guy called Paul Wheeler, who I think
Joe Biden has been sort of intervening with for some time,

(05:08):
and I think Trump before him was also sort of
pursuing this case, you know. But you know, the Russian
sort of justice system, the Russian criminal system, it's it's
it's a very sort of murky world, and you only
really sort of know what sort of incentives are going on,
why they're sort of acting in the way they are
really when you're inside it. And I think very few
people to really understand why they would see this NBA

(05:30):
star or this X marine. You know, it's it's a
very very curious world, toxic. Talking with Felix Light and
uh CBS News radio News and the Moscow Times, and
he lived in Moscow for years and we got to
Felix through the whole war in Ukraine story. But the
fact that you're in London, I can't help but ask.
Just a few hours ago Boris Johnson resigned. What kind

(05:51):
of an earthquake is that? As far as a news
story there in London, Yeah, it's pretty pretty extraordinary, you know.
You know, we we almost don't really whether he's really resigned,
because he sort of said he's going to resign. But
to resign as a UK premnisty you actually have to
go to see the Queen Right of course, of course
you do. Why wouldn't you have to go see a
queen if you want to elected to face on the

(06:12):
step down? Makes sense to me exactly. But Johnson has
not gone to see the queen, so you know, he's
holding that final cards sort of very close to his
chest there, you know, so we will see what happens
with that. But I think it was it was extraordinary,
you know, I don't you know, the the this sort
of scandal, the one that really broke him, and you know,

(06:32):
there's been so many Boris Johnson scandals. Was you know,
he sort of fled up last week, you know, related
to sort of covering up for an MP who had
been involved in sexual harasson It was extraordinary that it
was actually someone else's scandal that any end broken, and
not an actual Johnson scandal, because there's been so many,
and he's such a sort of you know, colorful character
and very prone to scandal that it was almost seems

(06:53):
to these are that, you know, with someone else's wrong
doing accord him in the end. Yeah, well, I think
it was just a you know, he was warned by
his own people, look not this guy, and he went
ahead and appoint him anyway, it's just like, all right,
you don't even care, do you You just don't care. Yeah,
it was pretty it was pretty pretty special. And then
he uh, I think about fifty ministers that's sort of

(07:13):
you know, govern Beneficials ended up resigning over the last
two days, you know, in an attempt to get him out.
You know, he appointed a new finance minister who don't
said actually, you know, thank you for appointing me, but
you should actually resign. It was an extor. It was
absolutely extraordinary couple of days in the UK, to be honest, Well,
bringing it back to your expertise, my only question around
who who's Prime minister right now is because I don't

(07:34):
follow British politics that well. Is I wanted to be
somebody who really really is supporting the people of Ukraine
against Russia. Are both parties at this point supportive, so
that no matter who wins, it's likely Ukraine will still
get support from Great Britain. Yeah, definitely. You know, I
think support for Ukraine is very much a kind of
a consensus position in the UK. You know, there's no

(07:55):
one serious who sort of says that we shouldn't be
doing it. And I think that also to be quite honest,
towards the end of Johnson's Climate Office, it was really
sort of, you know, that was almost the only thing
he was popular for, right, sort of very much approved
of that, and they sort of they enable he was
awful on everything else. So I think there's no danger
that UK policy will sort of change on Ukraine, although

(08:15):
I do think probably Zelenski and Kiev would have preferred
for Johnson to stay, just because, you know, I think
what Johnson showed he was able to do with Ukraine
would sort of make promises but also keep them. You know,
the UK was doing very well in terms of delivering
what it was saying it was going to deliver, and
I think there is a worried uh, you know maybe
amongst the Zelenski allies that you know, it's not the

(08:36):
UK won't abandoned Ukraine, but it might sort of it
might sort of think down to you know, below priority
if you like, Yeah, the UK actually delivering on what
they promised, as opposed to, for instance, Germany and France,
which is a completely different story. Hey man, if I
may ask before we let you go, how old are you, Felix?
You are really good. I would talk to you anytime

(08:58):
you are there there I I don't have a lot
of I don't know. There are a lot of young
journalists out there who well I won't say anymore, but
you are really really good and appreciate you coming on today.
I appreciate that Felix Light reporter in London. Now, he
was in Moscow for five years, so he's twenty eight.

(09:18):
He left Moscow, so he was He went to Moscow
when he was twenty three, lived there for five years,
became an expert in that and you just heard him. Now.
I love the journalists because a lot of Martlin this
way anymore. I love the journalists who just like are
really really interested in what they're doing. You can tell
that they like for their own enjoyment, are searching out

(09:44):
the background on all these different stories. So if you
get up off on a different topic like we just did,
he's got something to say about it. Um. We talked
to journalists all the time that they clearly have read
like the first paragraph of some story and they're not
really into it, and it drives me nuts. And part
it's because they get paid so little in the modern
world because of the Internet, in the way everything has changed.

(10:04):
But there's a guy who's really really good. It's not
like I'm his agent or something, but appreciate having him
on art strong and