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 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 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
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
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 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, 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.
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
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, 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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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,
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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 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. 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