The global impact of Putin’s war

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: The global impact of Putin’s war

Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, March 30th, and this is your FT News Briefing.

[MUSIC PLAYING] 

Russia and Ukraine are working towards a peace agreement. We’ll hear what sceptics are saying. Barclays is paying a hefty price for a clerical error. Plus, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is rippling through the global economy. The FT’s Martin Wolf suggests how governments might respond.

Martin Wolf
They should target their fiscal support on the poorest. These are the people who are going to be worst hit by these massive rises in prices of energy and food.

Marc Filippino
I’m Marc Filippino and here’s the news you need to start your day.

[MUSIC PLAYING] 

Moscow said it will dramatically scale back its military activities around Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Yesterday’s announcement by a top Russian military official came after the latest round of peace talks in Istanbul. The FT’s Ben Hall says Western countries are taking the announcement with a grain of salt.

Ben Hall
So I think what the Russians claim they were trying to do was to build trust around those talks and that this signal was intended to build confidence and build momentum behind these talks, I suppose. At the end of the day, there is a huge amount of scepticism about Russia’s game here with these talks. Are they really committed to finding a peaceful way out or an end to the fighting? Or are they just playing for time to allow them to regroup and to reorient their military and potentially to focus their fight on the east? So I think it’s very unclear exactly what the Russians have in mind.

Marc Filippino
So, Ben, just backing up a bit. What do we know about the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine?

Ben Hall
They’ve essentially agreed the broad kind of contours of a peace agreement, but much of the detail still needs to be worked out. Ukraine now seems…