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What will happen to Putin’s opposition if he wins again? “It goes without saying that Putin will tighten screws after his inauguration in May 2018,” says journalist and author @albats.

Is there political freedom in Putin’s Russia? “It’s a dangerous and risky vocation to be in opposition to Mr. Putin’s regime,” says @vkaramurza. “Please don’t exaggerate,” says @albats. She says every week she speaks her mind on a nation-wide radio broadcast.

“Wow… that’s the first time that’s happened on UpFront,” says @mehdirhasan in response to Vladimir Pozner walking off the programme in the middle of the discussion.

Vladimir Pozner leaves the debate, saying “I’m going to let the two people talk and agree with each other on all the negative things they’re going to say, and I’ll do some other stuff that is much more interesting for me.”

“Putin has a very high percentage of support,” says Vladimir Pozner, “and it’s not because people are stupid.”

Alexei Navalny is a prominent opposition leader who was planning to run against Putin, explains @vkaramurza, but “Russian authorities have deliberately disenfranchised him with a politically motivated court conviction.”

Is Russia a democracy? “It’s not a democracy,” says @albats. “It’s not a dictatorship either. It is a country which is run by a corporation.”

“I admit there were mistakes, that Presidents of the United States pushed the CIA to get involved in,” says @john_sipher. “The CIA follows the orders of the President of the United States.”

Mehdi asks former senior CIA officer @john_sipher if there’s irony in criticising Russians for alleged election interference when the CIA has a track record of the same. Sipher: I’m not going to apologise for being an American.

Is there hard evidence for alleged Russian-Trump campaign collusion? “I do acknowledge we don’t have evidence to go to court,” says @john_sipher. “We’ve seen behaviour that’s either unethical and unpatriotic… there should be a political price.”

“Mr. Trump’s behaviour puts him in a position where he could be blackmailed, or put himself in trouble,” says retired CIA Station Chief in Moscow @john_sipher.

Will Putin win his 4th term? In the Arena to debate Russia’s 2018 presidential race: @albats, @vkaramurza and Vladimir Pozner. Watch it live: http://aljazeera.com/live 

Coming up on #UpFront, we talk alleged Russian election meddling, the CIA, and Putin’s chances in the upcoming Russian election, with @john_sipher, @albats, @vkaramurza and Vladimir Pozner.