The Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle, is back on the BBC Question Time panel for his second appearance in 10 months.
The discussion on the BBC television programme, hosted by Fiona Bruce, in Norwich, was dominated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Kyle, Labour’s Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, was joined by two other members of the House of Commons and two people with experience and expertise in Russian affairs.
The two other politicians were the Conservative Trade Minister and former Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt and the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, Kirsten Oswald.
One of the other panellists was Bridget Kendall, the former BBC journalist who served as the corporation’s diplomatic correspondent.
She became the master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 2016, the first woman to head the college.
And the final panellist was Konstantin Kisin, a Russian-British political commentator, and – like the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy – a comedian.
Mr Kisin writes regularly writes for a number of publications including the Spectator, the Daily Telegraph, Quillette and Standpoint on issues such as tech censorship and “culture war” topics.
Mr Kyle criticised the government’s defence cuts over the past decade and accused ministers of turning a blind eye to Russia.
But he said that the Russian president Vladimir Putin chose war when there were alternatives and he added: “Vladimir Putin is a gangster. He has surrounded himself by gangsters.”
Mr Kyle said that too many of those gangsters – the “oligarchs” – had come to London and they should now be taken on one by one and “we should do it without delay”.
