Top Russian general shot in Moscow

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0:30to make those markets work for you. Follow Merrin Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and at 1600 GMT on Friday, the 6th of February, a top Russian general has been shot in Moscow. Vladimir Alekseev has played a significant role in the war on Ukraine, and Russia says Kiev's responsible for the attack on his life. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian soldier who was believed to have died in the war has returned home alive. More than 30 people have been killed in a suspected suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

1:13Also in this podcast, it's the last day of election campaigning in Thailand. Our correspondent tells us why the country's progressive party is ahead in the polls, but that might not be enough. They think by dissolving our parties, by banning our leaders from politics, would make us smaller. In fact, we are getting bigger.

1:39Let's begin in Moscow, where a top Russian general, Vladimir Alekseev, has been rushed to hospital after being shot several times. There have been a string of attacks on Russian military officials since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago. This shooting took place in an apartment building in the city's suburbs. Vladimir Alekseev is the top military official to be targeted so far. He's a senior figure with Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. Alekseev has played a significant role during the war in Ukraine. Back in 2022, he took part in talks with Kiev during the Russian siege of Mariupol.

2:19A year later, he was dispatched to negotiate with the head of the Wagner Mercenary Group after its soldiers triggered an unsuccessful uprising against Russia's government. Christo Grozev is head of investigations at the news website The Insider and a specialist on the Russian military and intelligence services. My colleague Tim Frank spoke with him and asked him what we know about General Alexev. He's probably as far, as high as anyone can go in the Russian military intelligence structure, and the loss of a general like him will be felt profoundly. He's what you might call the chief operating officer of the GRU, the feared Russian military intelligence unit, and he survives several of his own commanders, and as such, he's seen by many as probably the most influential person in the organization, more importantly even than its commander, Igor Kostyukov.

3:12Over the last 10 years that I've been following his career, He has been involved with absolutely every significant operation that we know of, starting from trying to extricate and destroy the evidence of the shooting down of MH17 in 2014. He personally never felt the need to not get his hands dirty in operations. He smuggled the book, the weapon that shot down MH17, the airliner, back in 2014. He accompanied the team that shot it down and tried to hide the evidence. He was also involved with the actual operation of the annexation of Crimea. Later, he was sanctioned over his personal involvement in supervising the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter and the murder of Don Sturgis.

3:56That was the result of that operation. More recently, he was directly involved in probably the most trusted architect of the invasion of Ukraine. before the invasion started, he was tasked with organizing several quasi-private military companies of the like of the feared Wagner, so that they have the capacity to invade Ukraine. So literally, he's been across the board on all of these operations. You mentioned that he may even be more influential than the man who's normally his boss, General Igor Kostyukov, who's, of course, leading the Russian delegation at these negotiations with Ukraine. Ukraine hasn't said anything about this attempted assassination, but what influence do you think that might have on those talks?

4:37Well, first of all, he was probably the top target of Ukrainian intelligence services for years, not only because he was so significant in the invasion, but also partly because he himself is Ukrainian born and he's considered somewhat of a traitor in Ukraine proper. He did create a lot of powerful enemies within Russia as well, partly with his own criticism of the course of the military operation back in 2023. You may remember he was the person tasked with negotiation of the surrender of Yevgeny Prigozhin during his ill-fated attempt to take on the Kremlin in June 23. But he was seen cracking jokes and laughing in the sidelines with Prigozhin on the day of the attack on the Kremlin itself.

5:17So he was always seen as somebody who is not completely to be trusted. Now, since that failure of him to align himself with the Kremlin completely during the attempted coup. He was sent to the front line. And for the last year and a half, he almost never returned to Moscow. He did return a couple of weeks ago, and that's the result of the attack on him. I do believe it's most likely a Ukrainian operation, but I don't exclude completely the possibility that it may be also a domestic operation. Kristol Grosev, head of investigations at the news website The Insider, and a specialist on the Russian military and intelligence services.

5:51Well, Russia and Ukraine carried out a rare exchange of prisoners of war and civilians on Thursday after two days of peace talks in Abu Dhabi. In total, more than 300 individuals were exchanged. It was joyous news for the relatives of those allowed to go home, particularly for one Ukrainian family. Here's the moment one soldier's mother, who thought he had died, heard from her son on the phone.

6:24Some emotional moments in Ukrainian. The mother says, Nazachik, my dear son, I've been waiting for you for so long. My golden child, it's so great. I love you so much. Our Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford has been following the story. This is an extraordinary story and a very, very rare moment of happiness and joy, I guess, in four years of all-out war here. And it's the story of Nazar, who went to fight in 2022, but went missing in action. And his family at first thought that he'd been captured and taken to Russia. In fact, they even got a phone call from someone in Russia saying that they had the man and that he would be OK.

7:04But then in 2023, the family, having given DNA for testing of any soldiers' remains that would be found, they got a call and they were told that there was a body that had been identified in a morgue using DNA as the body of Nazar. So Nazar's family buried Nazar in 2023, and it was only in 2025 that they got word, in fact, that he was in prison in Russia and he was actually alive. So after two years, after burying this man in the local village cemetery next to his father in the family plot, actually a released soldier let them know that they believed that they'd met Nazar in prison, that he was alive, he was OK.

7:45but there was absolutely no contact with him. Russian prisons and the authorities in Russia do not give the Ukrainian families a chance to talk to the prisoners of war. So basically it was only when this exchange happened that the family actually got to speak to Nazar for the first time, got confirmation he was alive and of course that ultimate good news, the fact that he had come home to Ukraine. They still haven't been reunited in person. It was just a phone call so far. There's a lot of rehab to go through for him after four years in a Russian jail. and of course coming to terms with the information that his family not only thought he was dead but buried what they thought was his body.

8:23Well I've got to say even the sound of that phone call gave me goosebumps. I mean we heard the reaction from the family. What's been the wider reaction in Ukraine? I mean to be honest I think they'll be sharing that joy. I think it's a video that's you know obviously zipped around the internet. Everybody's watching it. Everybody's commenting on it. It is so rare that there are happy moments in this war and this is one that's just so extraordinary. There are so many families here whose sons, wives, husbands, people who were fighting in the war have gone missing in action. And people are many families, I've met them over my time here.

8:56Many people are hoping that those people are prisoners of war, but they don't know, in fact, whether they've been killed. So there's this massive doubt for so many families who wait for that moment that tells them one way or the other. So for this family, it's amazingly good news. But of course, there's a body that was buried in the village cemetery. And that is a soldier whose own family have no idea where they are. And that soldier still has to be identified properly. So, you know, joy for one family, but there's going to be obviously grief for another one to come. Sarah Rainsford in Kyiv. To New Zealand now, the country's deputy prime minister has been booed after saying that colonization had a positive effect on the country's indigenous his people, the Maoris.

9:40David Seymour has since said he is unfazed by the reaction to his comments, which he made in a speech on Thursday marking Waitangi Day. It commemorates the first treaty with the Maori population. Then, a day later, during a dawn prayer service, David Seymour was relentlessly heckled. Bernadette Keogh tells us more.

10:07Thousands gather at events in New Zealand to celebrate the country's National Day. It marks the first signing of New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840 and is an annual gathering that also gives indigenous tribes a chance to air grievances. The current backdrop is increased tensions as the government pursues policies considered by some to be anti-Mauri. New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour, who has Maori ancestry, has been accused of trying to take back rights from the indigenous community. This is what he said in his speech. I'm always amazed by my opic drone.

10:48The colonisation and everything that's happened in our country is all bad. The truth is that very few things are completely good or completely bad. His comments provoked an immediate reaction. The next day, during a dawn prayer service, when he started to address the crowd, dozens of people started booing and shouting for him to stop, with one blowing into a conch shell. There will be so many joys up and down this country. and maybe, just maybe, with respect for each person and their right to speak their mind and make the most of their time on earth, we will all get along just fine. Those silent majority up and down this country who are getting a little tired of some of these antics.

11:37Thank you very much and God bless. A church leader implored the crowd to stop. Mr Seymour dismissed the protest, saying the hecklers were Muppets shouting in the dark. But the incident is a reminder that a day to commemorate a shared history can also bring divisions and grievances out into the open. Bernadette Keogh. Researchers at Oxford University say cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, used by millions around the world, may be far safer than previously thought. The results in the Lancet Journal come from trials involving more than 120 ,000 people. They suggest statins do not cause the majority of the possible side effects listed on packs, including weight gain and impotence.

12:24The lead author of the study is Professor Christina Reith. She's been speaking to Justin Webb. What we found was that the vast majority of medical issues are listed as potential side effects in statin packaging do not actually have a causal link with statins. So this includes seeing no increase in problems like memory loss, depression, sleep disturbance, erectile dysfunction, nausea, headache and many, many more. And this is really reassuring because this really gives us confidence to see the benefits of statins and significantly reducing heart attacks and strokes, which are serious, potentially devastating conditions.

13:02But these benefits substantially outweigh any risks. I mean, the risk, I suppose, is that someone reads that stuff. And I've been on statins for a decade more, actually. And I can remember originally thinking that I did have some of the side effects. And then actually, as time went by thinking, you know what, I don't think I do really. I mean, aching legs were one of the things I was told about when I was first put on. In other words, the risk is that people read this stuff in the package and then believe that they've got these things or that these things that they have got are linked to the statins and they're not.

13:35Indeed. I mean, you have to weigh up the risk of not taking them versus these very small risks we identified. And I agree with you. When patients look at leaflets, it can be quite alarming. It's a wonder in many ways people do take things. Of course, people may develop some symptoms while they're in statins because these things go on all the time. But what we've been able to do robustly with our data set is really work out how much more common, if at all more common, these things are. So we need to change the leaflets, don't we? Well, I think they should open up a discussion with regulators and indeed other sources of health information.

14:07Lots of people have been reluctant to start taking statins or stop taking them because they've been concerned or confused. And we really hope our research adds clarity to that. I don't see my job as to tell people to take statins or not. I see it as to help produce the most reliable evidence. And I really hope our study, which is the most robust to date, will enable people to do that and make those choices. Because statins really do reduce heart attacks and stroke. It can be devastating if you have them, if they don't kill you outright. Professor Christina Reith. Still to come in this podcast.

14:40When I painted my first mural on the wall, I had around 15, 18 students standing behind me. When I did the second one, they were like double. And when I did the third one, there were 200 children. We meet a teacher in India who's been awarded a$1 million prize.

15:01This is the Global News Podcast. Now, the latest on a potentially crucial set of talks. negotiations between the United States and Iran, which could avert or maybe just delay armed conflict between the two. The two sides met in Oman with the U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Arachid taking part. The indirect talks have now ended. Iran's Foreign Minister said the discussions were a very good start, but that negotiators must now speak with their leaders. Mr. Arachid added that both Tehran and Washington officials have agreed to proceed with negotiations. A lot is at stake, and these meetings come amid a continued American naval buildup near Iran.

15:46Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if it does not reach a deal over its nuclear program. And he's also vowed to attack if Tehran continues its crackdown on anti-government protesters. Thousands have already been killed. Our reporter, Nafise Konovar from BBC World Service is in Oman's capital, Muscat, where the talks took place. She joined us from there. For now, the negotiation has finished and both sides have said they are reeling for more rounds of talks. What has really been discussed, we are not clear about that. Everything that has come out based on unknown sources probably mainly have been speculation and part of both sides' attempt to kind of control the narrative.

16:37But we don't know that what exactly has been discussed. Now, Fisi, I know you've been around the many capitals in the Middle East in recent weeks. Was there any sort of representation for the Arab states? We know that the Americans are in close contact with the Israelis, but what about the interests of the Arab states and who is representing that? It was expected, for example, here, it was expected that maybe Qatar's prime minister will join this meeting. He was so vocal saying that this round of negotiation should consider all regional countries, first, their role and also their concerns. So Turkey also was trying to set up a meeting before Muscat and inviting all these regional countries.

17:29But from Baghdad to Beirut to here in Muscat, regional countries are worried, are worried about escalation because of their own benefit. And because they are worried that such escalation between the US and Iran this time might be different and might affect entire region. And Mr. Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, recently has threatened that this time, and it was for the first time that he used this sentence, saying that this time, if Iran was attacked, the war would be a regional war. And somehow this was a message to not only the regional country, but also for pro-Iran armed groups, that it was the first time that Iran's supreme leaders sent such a message.

18:23All these things have made regional countries so worried that they want for now the de-escalation. It doesn't mean that if the time comes and if, for example, Mr. Trump decides to go for war, these countries wouldn't really work with the U.S. because they are hosting the U.S. troops, they are hosting the U.S. military, and they have close relationship with the U.S. Nafis-e-Khanavar, who was speaking to Christian Fraser. For more on this story, you can go on YouTube, search for BBC News, click on the logo, then choose Podcasts and Global News Podcast. There's a new story available every weekday.

19:10To Pakistan now, where at least 31 people have been killed and dozens wounded in an explosion at a Shia mosque in the country's capital, Islamabad. The motives behind the attack are not clear, but violence towards the country's Shia minority has increased in recent years. Our Pakistan correspondent Caroline Davies gave us this report. This explosion happened around lunchtime during Friday prayers, which means that the mosque would have been packed full of worshippers. We've been able to speak over the phone to one eyewitness, a caretaker for the mosque who was outside the building at the time.

19:45He told us that he heard gunfire, then ran towards the mosque, and by the time he reached it, the explosion had already happened. The head of the PIMS hospital has told us that the explosion was huge and that they have continued to see more injured come in throughout the course of the afternoon. We understand that there are several people that are in critical conditions and you can see the true extent of this explosion by seeing how quickly the number killed and injured has risen throughout the course of the last few hours. We've also heard from Pakistan's Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif who has talked about an investigation into finding out who is responsible for this.

20:21Caroline Davies in Pakistan. To Thailand now and opinion polls leading the Thai general election happening this Sunday point to the same thing. The People's Party, which is popular with young people pushing for change, will once again come out on top, possibly with even more seats than in 2023. They embody the hopes of millions of Thais who want profound reform within the system. And yet, Thailand's conservative establishment has shown time and again that it will not tolerate a progressive reformist government. The People's Party has been dissolved twice before by the notoriously conservative constitutional court.

21:02And the party's most charismatic candidates have been banned from politics for 10 years. If the People's Party wins, everyone expects the same to happen again. Jonathan Head has more.

21:20In the north-eastern city of Nakhonrachitsima, an excited crowd cheers a row of candidates from the People's Party. Centre stage is a slightly gawky young man being mobbed by the crowd. This is Natapong Roon Panyawat. who, at just 38 years old, is the most popular candidate to be the next Prime Minister of Thailand.

21:46We're leaving the old politics behind, he says. We need a politics of hope. If the polls are to be believed, the People's Party, with its promises of sweeping reform, will win the most seats in this election. But we have been here before. People have been through enough of lost decades. Today is a new day. That was Peter Limger-Renrat, leader of what was then called the Move Forward Party, speaking after their shock election victory three years ago. Despite winning more seats than any other party, Move Forward was blocked from forming a government and eventually dissolved. Its leaders banned from politics because they had dared to suggest amending the draconian royal defamation law under which hundreds of young activists had been jailed.

22:38So today the party's candidates, like Mackie, focus on more bread-and-butter issues. These are nearly all economic. Ahm is 28 and about to lose his job. The printer factory where he works is closing down, a pattern repeated across Thailand these days as manufacturing moves to lower-cost locations like Vietnam. I only have basic education, he told us, His prospects of finding another job are bleak. The status quo is very powerful in Thailand and resistant to change. This is Prime Minister Anutin Chowirakun at a rally of his Thai Pride Party. He's the current standard-bearer for conservative Thais and hopes to beat the People's Party with a mix of patriotism and populist giveaways.

23:31I will defend Thai soil with my life, he thunders. He's making much of his tough stand against neighbouring Cambodia in the recent border clashes and his support for the Thai army, an institution which has often overthrown democracy here. But there are many other ways to block reformist parties from taking power, in particular the Constitutional Court, which has dismissed five sitting prime ministers, dissolved dozens of parties and banned hundreds of politicians, nearly all of them opponents of the status quo. Siripan Nogwan Sawatdi is a political scientist from Chulalonghorn University. We have continued elections, sometimes interrupted by the coup d 'etat.

24:14And that is what everyone expects will happen if the People's Party wins again. I asked the movement's founder, Tanaton Junrungrungkit, how he felt about that. They think by dissolving our parties, by banning our leaders from politics, would make us smaller. In fact, we are getting bigger. But if the past is any guide, what Thais won't see is a government committed to the kinds of changes its ageing society and stagnating economy need. Or if by chance that does happen, few think it would last very long. Jonathan Head. We end with the work of Rubal Nagy, an Indian artist and teacher who transforms neglected and broken walls into large-scale interactive murals.

25:04She set up more than 800 learning centres across India, in places where children have never attended school. Her work is so inspiring that she's just been awarded a $1 million Global Teacher Prize. Rubal Nagy has been telling James Koppnell more about what she does. You know, when I started almost two decades ago, when I painted my first mural on the wall, I had around 15, 18 students standing behind me. When I did the second one, they were like double. And when I did the third one, there were 200 children just standing and watching at the wall. What is she doing? And then they could relate to it.

25:39It's out of curiosity that they were standing behind me, just looking at me that what is teacher doing? Art has been that beautiful medium. Art is so versatile, creativity is so great that it breaks that barrier and helps you connect to children and to people also very easily. We always say let's make learning fun because when you're learning something and having fun, that is something you're never going to forget. And if we talk about murals, what you call these living walls of learning, what would I see if I saw one of them? What kind of things are painted on them? We pick different topics. Sometimes we talk about landscapes.