Tony Blair On Putin, Russia, And The World In Deadlock

What You Need To Know:

✓ Ukraine needs to have a framework going forward that is fair and takes account of the differences within the country;
✓ The UK, and other nations, need to stand up against the nationalist sentiment which is about blaming someone else for your problems;
✓ The UN security council should be de-mystified. It is a collection of countries with interests and not a objective supreme court;
✓ The West must be very clear where it stands on the Ukraine issue;
✓ The UK government should work with Ukraine on offshore issues and issues of transparency.

"If Tony Blair joins the Presidential Advisory team, he won't be paid for his work," insisted the President's press secretary Sviatoslav Tseholko.

The job offer was widely published in the British press. It is well known that the former British Prime Minister receives hundreds of thousands dollars for his lectures, speeches and consulting services.

The meeting between Tony Blair and President Petro Poroshenko took place after his interview with Hromadske. 

During his time in office, Blair improved Britain's relationship with Russia and Putin as well as supporting the US-led invasion of Iraq, and brokering a historical peace deal in Northern Ireland. For the last 7 years, Blair served as the Special Quartet Representative to the Middle East but stepped down in May 2015.

Hromadske asked Blair about the role of Britain as a guarantor of the Budapest Memorandum, how to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression, the lessening of London's influence on the world, his personal contact with Putin, the mistakes Britain made during decentralization which led to the Scottish referendum on independence, his success in brokering the Northern Irish peace deal and when should leaders sacrifice their popularity for the sake of peace.

Hromadske also asked Blair about how a country should protect itself against a foreign aggressor when international law does not function and also whether he supports the Labour party's mansion tax policy.  

Tony Blair was in Ukraine to participate in a youth forum for the global initiative Tomorrow. The forum was organized by the Pinchuk Foundation, a charitable organization owned by prominent, yet controversial, Ukrainian businessman, Viktor Pinchuk.

/ Nataliya Gumenyuk, Bohdan Kutiepov, Oleksandr Shpyhunov, Andrii Radchenko. Filmed 06.17.2015.