you had a very difficult time in an american prison, and your health was greatly undermined, these guys who have now returned to their homeland, how difficult is it to return to society? everything probably depends on the mood of these people, on the help of loved ones, relatives, the main thing is to return not just home, to get out of this state to do what you love, to replenish. everything that has been missing over the years, yes, being with family, definitely going to see your relatives, visiting, just living a normal life, this is probably the most the best therapy, well, it’s clear that, of course, the exchange that took place is a huge job on the part of russia, on the part of all the special services, but on our broadcast there was also an opinion that the exchange took place thanks to the weakness of the biden administration, that’s what you think ? america is an amazing

country, everything that happens there, as always, has two sides, one of them, the biggest, is naturally the political moment and the benefits that americans will receive from this or that action, here, naturally, all this is presented as a huge merit, as biden personally, you see, he immediately even personally called the families of...

our heroes are returning, those who spent a lot, a lot of time there are returning and those, can you imagine what those people went through when they tell you, here you have a life sentence, and what to do, finally the moment has come, all their relatives, mothers, loved ones prayed for this, so i join, again, and i want to say that this is a great joy, this is a great victory, including yes, this is true, and let's hope that there will be new victories, that they are just around the corner, and maybe the americans will derive some benefit from this, politically, biden or someone else, but the main thing is that the guys really come back home, you are absolutely right, especially since in the united states there are at least 50 more of our fellow citizens who were arrested, usually in third countries, usually on trumped-up

charges, so naturally, we need to work hard to bring everyone back those who are there absolutely on fictitious reasons. i also wanted to ask about your experience, this is how such an exchange usually takes place in practice, what documents may need to be signed, yes, when relatives find out, and so on and so forth, maybe you can reveal some details? usually? they don’t require you to sign any documents, you’re just an object, not a subject of this transaction, so to speak, the guards come to you and say: that’s it, get ready, we have a warrant from the court, because the americans do that, they issue a warrant, the court - gives orders to the marshals, to pick up such and such a prisoner, send him - to undergo some court decisions for a certain period, and after that, if this ... does not work, return him

back, the marshals take you, take your things, and then the stage begins transfer, most of the time you are wearing handcuffs and other means, so to speak, of restraint, so that you do not run away, well, that is, there are some separate conditions, that is, they are not imposed, yes, that is, there is no such thing here, yes, that is, here , as they say, you said, yes subject, yes, that is, there is no such thing here, yes, that is, nothing depends on you, in general they don’t tell you anything special, where they are taking you, why they are taking you, it all depends on whether it is possible to somehow find some kind of contact, so that, well, you yourself understand what what is happening, especially in my case, as if they knew, despite the fact that the documents said something completely different, it was clear, well , they laughed, smiled and in general that’s all, the only problem was that i had to sign for the receipt of the originals, documents immediately before the exchange that i received them all, well... probably some

any moment, yes, that does not go according to the script, there may be some kind of leak in the media and so on, this exchange may be disrupted, yes , naturally, so you know, when... bloomberg published today and various requests for comments immediately began to go through, i always said, guys, let’s keep such things quiet, we must wait for the official statement and the fact of the exchange itself, any such statement or something can sabotage all this and stop the exchange. the place of exchange, how important it is, in this case, here is ankara, we see? well, that says it. that turkey is now trying to act as such a bridge, yes, that is, such a platform for such exchanges, this can take place, especially since this is the second such exchange that took place in turkey, well, thanks of course also

efforts, because they had to organize all this logistics, as far as i understand, the turkish security services gathered everyone in one place, they gave it. opportunity for everyone to verify that these are the people who were supposed to participate in this exchange, then we transported everyone to the necessary planes, so in this regard, i think we need to thank the turkish side for the work done. well, by the way, i would like to separately note that the footage that we are now showing on the screens during interviews is, after all, where we show american citizens who are first in russia, then this is footage, apparently from ankara... . they are there on buses and apparently are preparing to be sent home, but have you seen these shots? yes, i saw these shots immediately, probably for two hours already, as soon as the turkish news channel immediately began to publish them, conducting a live

report, yes, maybe you can somehow comment there, for example, about the condition of these american citizens and so on, something like yours, you know, it’s very difficult to say so , naturally. normal procedure, the fact is that when two planes are standing next to each other, at the beginning a representative of the other side comes on board each plane, makes sure that the person or people who should be there, they say hello, ask if everything is fine with you, all normal, this is the so-called check, and identification, after that they discuss who goes where, what, how and after that...

let me remind you that we spoke with viktor bout, who served in a us prison for more than 10 years and was subsequently exchanged on american basketball player britney greiner. so, russia and the united states carried out an exchange of prisoners, as a result of which eight of our citizens are returning to their homeland. my colleague anton podkovenko has all the details; he is joining us live . anton, greetings, we look forward to hearing from you all details, i give you the floor. yes, i welcome, well, indeed, a large exchange of prisoners between russia and belarus and the west, coordinated by the turkish intelligence service. an international event.

so, evan gershkovich, along with other prisoners intended for exchange, was going to the airport in moscow, before flying to turkey, and they brought him to the agency. vladimir karamurza, here brings out gershkovich and others, and this is footage from ankara airport, where planes from the countries participating in the exchange arrived. everyone involved in organizing the exchange, numerous parties fully complied with the agreement, as stated by a credible source in one of the russian competent departments.

russian soldiers. in vladimir putin’s interview with tucker carlson this winter,

this was clearly discussed. there sits in one country, a country of an ally of the united states, a man who, for patriotic reasons , eliminated a bandit in one of the european capitals. during the events in the caucasus. do you know what he did? i don’t want to say it, but i’ll say it anyway, he put our soldiers in this one was captured on the road, and then the car drove over their heads, what kind of person is this and is it a person? well, a patriot was found who liquidated it in one of the european capitals. the west betrayed it to russia. tyoma and anna dultsev, they got off the plane in kaliningrad, the couple were sentenced in slovenia to one year and

seven months in prison in a case of espionage, they spent about the same amount of time in custody, are now released and accordingly they were exchanged. the western press wrote about the spouses as russian spies under under deep cover, the moldovans pretended to be citizens of argentina. mikhail mikushin also returned, accused of espionage in norway; he worked in the arctic. university of tramsø. spanish journalist of russian origin pablo gonzalez, arrested in poland in 2022, has been returned. he is pavel rubtsov. roman seleznev, kidnapped in 2014 by american intelligence agencies in the maldives and sentenced in the united states to 27 years in prison for cyber fraud, also returned to his homeland as part of the current exchange. like russian entrepreneurs in it sphere, vladislav klyushin, detained 3 years ago in switzerland at the request of

an accused of illegally purchasing electronics for the russian defense sector, two minor children were also returned. and here’s who we gave in response: american journalist, evan gershkovich, sentenced in russia to sixteen years in prison for espionage. according to russian investigators, in march 1923 he was on instructions from the cia. it makes no sense to more or less keep him in prison in russia, but let our colleagues

our intelligence officers on the american side will also think about how to solve the problems that our intelligence services face, we are not closed to negotiations, moreover, these negotiations are underway, i hope that you will release it, thank you very much, mr. president, i wanted it too i wish he... i would also like him to go home in the end, i say this sincerely, completely, well, i repeat, the dialogue is ongoing, another person convicted in russia for espionage, an american, a former marine, paul willan, has returned to the states , by versions of the state prosecution, a career intelligence officer, he collected secret information in russia, tried to recruit employees of the fsb and the ministry of defense, a citizen of the federal republic of germany, rika krieger, who was imprisoned in belarus, he was charged with six articles from... he was sentenced to death, recently pardoned, and now

he has been released and extradited as part of the current prisoner exchange. also on the list of exchanged foreigners is patrick schobel, accused of smuggling, as well as russian and german citizen kevin lickg, who collaborated with western intelligence services. he also went to the west, like a whole host of agents and extremists close to the notorious party. those convicted mainly under articles of treason and fake news about the russian army, such as british russian citizen vladimir kara-murza, recognized in our country as an extremist, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison. for treason or a former deputy of the krasnoselsky district of moscow against agent ilya yashin. who else is on the list? journalist of the tatar-bashkir service of radio liberty agent convicted of fake news about the armed forces alsou kurmasheva, foreign agent oleg orlov, chairman of the board of memorial liquidated by the supreme court, foreign agent andrei pivovarov,

ksenia fodeeva included in the list of extremists, as well as liliya chanysheva, hermann moizhes. sasha skochulenko, demury voronin, vadim ostanin. each of these names has criminal cases and corresponding biographies. we exchanged, according to the fsb's formulation, a group of individuals who acted in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of russia's security. we returned our people to their homeland. 10 of ours compatriots. this exchange is the largest in russian history since the cold war. total in lists. yes, we don’t abandon our own. thank you, anton podkovenko, and the prisoner exchange that took place today, as a result of which eight russians are returning to their homeland. so, once again, russia and the united states have exchanged prisoners. as a result of the exchange that took place today at ankara airport , eight russian citizens are returning to their homeland. they

were exchanged for a group of individuals acting in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of russia's security. this was reported to tsus fsb. the russian side is completely satisfied with the exchange, this was stated in one of the competent departments. the exchange became possible thanks to the systematic work of the russian government department, as well as foreign partners. this was noted by the fsb. in the footage, you can see right now, russians boarding a plane. so, today is president vladimir putin. signed decrees pardoning paul willan, kevin leak, even gershkovich, demuri voronin, vladimir karamurza, alsou kurmasheva, liliya chanysheva, vadim ostanin, ksenia fodeeva, alexandra skochilenko, ilya yashin, andrey pivovavarov, oleg orlov. the decision to sign the decrees was made with the aim of returning russian citizens

who were detained and imprisoned on the territory of foreign states. the russian side is grateful. president of belarus alexander lukashenko for a gesture of goodwill by pardoning german citizen rick krieger, sentenced to death. moscow is also grateful to the leadership of all countries that assisted in preparing this exchange. now about another topic. sverlovsk authorities are allocating more than 240 million rubles to help victims in nizhny tagil. the money will be used to resettle the residents of the damaged house, provide assistance to the victims and... debris clearance continues at the scene of the emergency. rescuers rescued another person, a twelve-year-old girl, who was sent to the hospital. the body of a woman was previously discovered. by this hour, it is known that two people died in a gas explosion in a five-story building. according to the regional ministry of health, 16 people were injured, eight of them children. one child in

in serious condition. albert musin reports from the scene. it is collapsing, the first minutes after the collapse, the slabs and ceilings continued to collapse in front of the residents. the blast wave collapsed two entrances of the five-story sibirskaya street at once. rescuers quickly arrived at the scene and began searching. they carried out a three-month-old little boy there. almost immediately , two newborn children were pulled out from under the rubble, and a little later two more babies were rescued. risking their lives, rescuers dismantle the collapsed ceilings, periodically announcing minutes of silence again say loudly there is someone there rescuers quickly discovered everything and pulled 12 people out of the rubble, among them six children; these footage shows the rescue of a thirteen-year-old boy and a forty-eight-year-old woman.

there may still be several people under the rubble; people are worried about relatives and friends. 13 years of hell. he seemed to take it, answered the phone that his legs were pressed, great-grandson, great-grandson, small, big, 7 years old, yes, he was with friends there, they didn’t find him, and also, no, one adult, three small patients were taken by helicopter to regional hospitals yekaterinburg, three were hospitalized in the nizhny tagil city hospital. the first patient was operated on urgently, the threat to life was eliminated, the second patient is currently in the intensive care unit, the third patient of moderate severity was hospitalized in the trauma department. all emergency services are on site, hundreds of rescuers and equipment, search dogs are combing every hard-to-reach area. corner, local residents claim that a few minutes before the emergency they saw two unknown people posing as gas service employees and a woman

who kicked them out of the entrance, well, they walked around the apartments, that’s where we checked the gas equipment, when they ran away from the entrance, these women say that they knocked on a pipe there for some reason , nizhny tagil police officers together with colleagues from the counteraction center extremism, the main... departments of the ministry of internal affairs of russia in the sverdlovsk region are processing all information received from citizens about an emergency with a residential building, including information about allegedly false gas workers. investigators are now inspecting the scene of the incident, the six-aisle the five-story building is exactly 50 years old, its wear and tear is estimated at no more than 30%. the last time scheduled maintenance of gas equipment was carried out here was on june 24. we are currently conducting an investigation into the manager. companies servicing this house, as well as companies servicing the gas equipment of the specified house. in addition, we have organized a mobile reception office for the prosecutor’s office at temporary accommodation centers

for affected citizens; we will monitor how payments will be made to them. more than 70 people were evacuated from the damaged house, a temporary temporary accommodation facility was deployed for them in the hotel, and water and hot meals were provided. a criminal case has been initiated into the collapse of two entrances. during the day the search was carried out for fourteen-year-old anya and her friend polina, her parents and younger sister left for the village a few days ago, in the evening the rescuers heard their voices, from the basement a girl named polina responded to the call of the rescuers, right now, the ministry of emergency situations employees are actively trying to reach her to get there, doctors are already running with soft stretchers. there is also information that a few minutes ago, from the other side of the house, another girl was also taken out alive. both schoolgirls are alive, and a rescue helicopter flew straight to the house to pick them up. news from nizhny tagil, sverdlovsk region. now

we return to the main topic of this day, the prisoner exchange. joe biden welcomed the release of american citizens as part of a prisoner exchange between moscow and washington. and he added that the united states will continue to work to return the remaining detainees to their homeland. our own us correspondent dmitry will tell you the details melnikov, but just after a short pause, because we have new footage from the fsb at our disposal, we see this in our footage of american citizens who are apparently already in flight, now returning, and before that there was footage of how he was taken to airport, first in moscow, they put us on a plane and then on. there were already shots from ankara, where they are also boarding the ship from the bus, well, we see that russia is written on the seats, that is, these are still apparently shots from the flight from russia to

ankara, this is in our shots of gershkovich and just krieger, so dmitry melnikov is in direct contact with us, greetings, what do you know up to this minute? hello anton, well, indeed, about an hour ago, us president joe biden made a special statement about this exchange, calling this deal a diplomatic breakthrough. as biden said, today they are finally returning home, three american citizens, one holder of an american green card. he meant, of course, paul willan, evan gershkovich, olsa kurmasheva and vladimir karamurza. in the statement biden also said that in total. the us emphasizes that this exchange does not mean

any change in relations between moscow and washington, i hope we have the opportunity to listen to a fragment of president biden's speech. such transactions are subject to strict requirements, and never happen. there are no guarantees, nothing is more important to me than protecting americans at home abroad, so we will continue to work for the release of all illegally detained americans around the world. this deal would be impossible without our allies in germany, poland, slovenia, norway and turkey. they all stepped up and were with us, they were with us, they made bold decisions, released prisoners held legally in their countries, and provided logistical support to bring americans home. well, here in the usa this deal is called the largest exchange operation in recent years, some even say that this is the largest exchange between russia and the west.

contemporary with the second world war, and they really call it historically and by the number of prisoners exchanged by the number of countries involved in this process. it is known that the deal included the exchange of persons who were in prisons in seven countries at once, except russia and the united states. these are germany, poland, slovenia, norway, russia and belarus. well, as you saw, as part of the operation , a total of seven different aircraft arrived at ankara airport today, two, two aircraft from the united states, one each from germany, poland, slovenia, and norway. russia, the first footage was shown from the runway turkish tv channel, then, of course, they spread all over the world, now the wall street journal, in fact, the publication whose journalist gershkovich was, who was detained in russia, convicted of espionage, tells the details of the exchange of prisoners between russia and the west, so, for example, they say that white house officials, american diplomats, cia employees participated directly from the us side in

the exchange, that they carried out several...

in the cia, william burse, and cnn, citing its sources, also talks about how negotiations took place, negotiations were conducted with russian intelligence, this is reported by cnn, a meeting, details were discussed both over the phone and in personal meetings, and as an unnamed source told cnn, in june of this year intelligence representatives met on the territory of a third country, where the united states put forward proposals about the parameters of the exchange that took place literally the day before, and a few days later, representatives... of russia , during a direct conversation with burns, gave agreement in principle to an exchange in exactly this format, i again i repeat, these are the data provided by the american side. it is expected that american citizens who are heading here to the usa will arrive in the next few hours, the flight from turkey to the usa is approximately 10 hours, we don’t know which airport they will land at, but we know that today there are families of american citizens in the white house were present at this address,

which was delivered by... biden, and we know that tomorrow kamala haris will specially arrive in washington to welcome the american citizens and those whom america, to whom america has now granted asylum. anton, yes, dmitry, thank you, well, you see, it’s certainly interesting to find out the details, and i think there will be even more of them now, our own us correspondent, dmitry melnikov, was in direct contact with us. well, the european media are calling the prisoner exchange the largest in recent history, and the first reaction from the outside has already appeared. governments of some western countries. and we’ll find out the details from the head of the berlin bureau of vgtrk, mikhail antonov. he is with we are in direct contact. mikhail, greetings. how is the exchange between russia and the united states assessed in europe? well, you know, i have to say that in europe they focus more on, let’s say, the humanitarian nature of this whole situation. this cannot be said to be particularly happy about this

, especially here in germany. freedom, physical well-being in some cases, ultimately the lives of innocents were negated by the need to preserve people imprisoned in russia. our commitment to protect german citizens and solidarity with the united states were important motivators. we hope that all those released will recover from their physical and psychological suffering in the company of their family and friends.