Putin can no longer claim victory in Ukraine, Nobel Peace Prize winner tells BBC

In an exclusive interview, Dmitry Muratov, a former chief editor of the now-defunct Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, speaks to BBC News about the country's deteriorating situation. Muratov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his dedication to free speech, describes the newspaper's recent collapse under the pressure of the Russian government.

Following the invasion of Ukraine, Novaya Gazeta's printing presses were nationalized, its registration revoked, and its online presence blocked. The paper's difficulties symbolize the intensified crackdown on free speech in Russia since the beginning of the conflict in 2022.

According to Muratov, more than 1,500 people have been jailed for speaking out against state policies, a number three times higher than during the Soviet Union's KGB days. In 1975, Andrei Sakharov, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, noted over 120 political prisoners in the Soviet Union. Amnesty International estimated there were more than 600 prisoners of conscience in the USSR a decade later.

Muratov remains skeptical about President Putin's claim that Russia will win the war, stating that the conflict cannot be considered a victory when a million or more people have been killed. He believes the situation with Ukraine is such that "you can destroy it, but you cannot conquer it." Muratov expresses his uncertainty about whether Putin would use nuclear weapons in the war, but notes a significant increase in the discussion of their use in recent months, including on state-run media.