[000:00:00;00] a with headlines right now. what are the international with the 2nd day of voting on the way there are dotsie. we continue our special coverage, the ongoing referendums, and don bath, ology, and about a song. the big question is, do they want to join russia or not? as we understand now, international observers are on location monitoring the post and see and just do mish finish. so we are trying to see a due process. it is free. yes, it is free. back on home, soil,

55 capture military personnel from russia. and that going back to republic 2 are released in a prison us with ukraine recount for us there or do with the beat me with the chair kicked me and hit me with them up. they beat me because of a broken chair. they said your cattle, you broke our chair and they started hitting me in the head again. did you have me with all sorts of needles in my ear and my nose just to mock me? and i made a week long protest raging in iran, the usa lifting internet sanctions for iranians. the question is why some say it's a move to a fuel the ongoing on ref with to have you with us for this program for moscow, this is all t international from all of us here are very well welcome to you. so it is a day to all the voting, it's all getting under way. now,

the historic referendums being staged in don baston to other regions. the big question is, do the people that want to join russia here at auto international? we continue our special coverage. ah the referendums are being held in 4 areas. donetta can lugens people's republic, the hot sun and separate orgy regions. now you may remember back in 2014 don,

yet gallo guns naturally voted to declare themselves independent offered. they refused to recognize the coolant, t f. now despite phase of shelling, 1st aid turn out was steady. the highest rate was indoor yet with 23 percent. no guns guns up at all g. it was just over 20 percent. and in her song, the 1st they turn out around 50. in the run up to today's voting, a number of local officials were targeted in terror attacks. but despite all of that, on the threats among them, the locals still wanted to make their voices heard. this is our choice. i've been waiting for this since 2014. i want to live a life without fascists. i'm fed up with them and god willing, we'll have peace and everything will be safe so that our children and grandchildren will live and grow up in peace so that everything will be fine with this means everything to us. my son has been fighting in the loo, ganske republic for 8 years. for me, this is everything. it's

a matter of life and death. we came back home. enough is enough. these 2, i'm sorry, my friend here in the city of tim. so as you can see, there are huge ads of people at voting stations. are this, if you this 5 weeks mugs of you creating an attempt step out of the population to scare them away from granting hear back days. so i'm apprehension left as much as them as yesterday when you're national, a paper ferry from both extensions for their own safety. many people have fear, but that's a bam. good bit loud that i've met with stations or another publication and i have terrible things out. a little common die with a little common out people have she in the on the 1st day of the referendum things

well well that was safety. there weren't any violations, any serious violations or did robin said now, now they're out of the the biggest turnout is expected, of course on, on sunday. but 15 percent was the turn out for a stay with which local officials are very happy with those same officials. by the way, election committee members, there was, there were threatened, they were born some of them a several cobblins planted. and that they received endless death threats. the houses of property were brought. a levels the ref. 2 to me is, is on the way you claim has of course try to any person here who routes who participates in this referendum with persecution and hall situation. perhaps even jail sentences. but there is a greater and greater understanding here in your song as well as a ne brings up an orange of the that you claim is

a going to come back. the busha is here to stay. lab report say there were, there was a strike by ukrainian armed forces on a civilian areas of tornado city. the attack did cause significant damage leaving at least one woman bed and one man injured a. we spoke to a national coordinator of the future team from cameroon. who says as an international observer, he's only looking for one thing. that is the truth. to be object chief, her visitor tool, oh, pulling or fish and see and just do wish of the population. so we are trying to see of due process. it is free. yes. it is free. we are looking for how many people are standing. we are seeing that a lot of people are ending and expressing that since 2014 to want to be

a part of the country they have susan. so know of an international observe. it's important for us to see what to do men conclusion over the rich and they'll read and do see if the process is transferred as well. you might find this interesting artie contribute of rachel martin has been reviewing the years of selectively applied policy by various western professional partners towards the right of people to self determination. question officials clearly don't support these people in ukraine having the opportunity to exercise their right to self determination is guaranteed under international law. you as a master ukraine, bridget brink and nato secretary general jens fulton berg called them quote sham referendums. and the european union's chief diplomat use of burrell dismissed them as quote, illegal referendums, which are quote, in violation of ukraine's independence sovereignty and territorial integrity and a blatant breach of international law. when territorial integrity comes in conflict with self determination,

it's apparently the people's will. that matters most and least that's what the position was. the western officials had towards kosovo. independence. that is, after nato had bombed yugoslavia and carved out kosovo from russian allied serbia under the pretext of protecting its ethnic minority sounds. a lot like the justification for the referendums now in these ukrainian regions whose people have suffered under keams attack since 2014. but unlike with the current situation, ukraine, the international community at that time agreed that close to those minority shouldn't have to live under systemic oppression. today our armed forces joined our nato allies and airstrikes against serbian forces responsible for the brutality and kosovo. oh, what i'm really proud of is what we did in class. so i really found it very difficult to watch when people were being killed. i pleasure to united states would continue to work with those nations that have not recognized and independent kosovo,

to convince them to do so as quickly as possible. so apparently the western position only favor self determination if it harms their enemy and benefits the west. another example, what about of taiwan decided to hold a referendum to succeed from china tomorrow? it's hard to imagine that the westwood, denounce it, and argue instead that the taiwanese have to respect the one china policy that the west supports. all, all egging on taipei provoking aging and using taiwanese chinese relations and tensions as a pretext to rack up sales for the u. s. military. industrial complex. referendums are all equal in the eyes of the west. the democracy exercise by catalonia, in its bid for independence in 2017 from spain, was denounced by most of the you under the spanish constitution. yesterday's vote to cut the lonia was not only go countries like france, italy, germany and the u. k. were more interested at the time in what

a vote in favor of independence for catalonia could mean for their own countries as they struggled to contain independence movements on their own territories. in other words, these people over here are fighting for their own democratic self determination. but how does that affect me? that's what they were doing. as for madrid, it came down to a question of revenue loss as colonia, with just 16 percent of spain's population. also counts for 19 percent of its g d p . another referendum may be lurking on the horizon in scotland as separate a sentiment as festered since edinburgh voted to reject independence in 2014. but the u. k. 's newest prime minister list trust isn't keen on permitting a 2nd round. perhaps she's concerned that the result won't be the same. if i am elected as prime minister, i will not allow another. independent trust brings up the notion of family, but apparently isn't interested in acknowledging similar family style bonds that link the rust, the phone,

ukrainian regions to russia. the western hypocrisy and double standards of defending democratic principles to self determination only if and when it suits them, hasn't escaped the attention of the scottish leadership. if she governs as she has campaigned over the summer, she will be a disaster, not just for scotland, but for all of the you key. there's a tendency to denigrate or block referendums that don't suit the western agenda. but when the irish vote to ratify the lisbon treaty, that is the use constitution establishing a centralized leadership and foreign policy failed the 1st time. while that didn't prevent them from being allowed to vote a 2nd time to secure the desired result. similarly, the dutch voted to enter a referendum in 2016 against the you having closer linked to ukraine. but that didn't prevent the country's parliament for voting against the people's will. a year later, apparently it was enough to say that, well, hey,

they were asked. so given the tendency of western officials to cherry pick the referendums, they support or don't, in accordance with their political agendas, while they're hardly in a position of high moral authority to be telling anyone, seizing the opportunity for self determination, what is or isn't legitimate control tanika here on the program i spoke with john, listen, the founder of don boss inside a for still may on the things that the honda ukraine pressures, the people have gone boss, the more invigorated the locals that come to join the russian federation this morning. the returned gun was not so quiet like his to day. there was a shilling of the center of the next was on this place and discussed with people who were there when the shell, the sales people said that does not frighten them to work. on the contrary, pushes them to vote for the integration of the d p r into russia. so the more

ukraine is shitting, the don bus people, the more they want to join russia. so, 4 key feet, i think it's a very bad strategy. i've seen that many people are all the people i discussed with or for the integration of the dpr with the, with russia i've not met for the moment one person was against. so the moody is quite good. people are voting activity. of course, we'll keep you totally up to date with the very latest saturday does mark day number 2 of the voting and the referendums. something that will actually change the course of history and ultimately affect the lives of millions of people the all right, so the us treasury department has expanded the range of internet services available

to iranians. despite it sanctions on the country. it comes in response to a web blackout following protests across iran over the the reported death in police custody of a 22 year old woman. as courageous iranians take to the streets to protest the united states as redoubling its support for the free flow of information to the iranian people. at these changes, we are helping the iranian people be better equipped to counter the government's efforts to surveil and sensor them. now it all comes off the violin classes are triggered by the death of a woman who had been arrested by morality, police for wearing a hid job that was deemed unsuitable. there are actually conflicting reports on that protesters at tours to police stations and vehicles and several cities. moreover, iranian women publicly burned a headscarf. i demonstrated that the mining justice for the death of my excuse me, must be a meaning for the government to stand down. despite lifting internet access sanctions, washington is reportedly looking to impose others on the country. like when iranian

own companies, the main international airport to iran or the u. s. is also aiming to sanction iran's ministry of intelligence and security and it's minister. well, it sounds pretty convoluted. let's learn more now. crossing lived and the site will come in about on the professor at the university of toronto to further discuss this subject. thank you so much for joining us here at this evening. so what do you make this move by america to lift internet sanctions, all of a sudden, i guess what are they trying to achieve? well, 1st of all, i should point out that the lady who died initially, i thought it was police brutality. but when the footage came out, when she left the police bench, she was not hancock and she showed no signs of being in pain. and then she went inside the building, building with a lot of other people sitting there for a long time. and it doesn't show her physical pain while she was standing

speaking to someone, she suddenly collapsed that footage has been shown. and also her position said that he operated on her brain when she was 8 years old. and physicians that have studied documents of the autopsy has said that there is no evidence that she was hit in the head by any har. mr. miranda material, the video you're talking about is very interesting because it's a shame we don't have it right now. i've seen the video, you're talking about a lot of people, a questioning the official narrative on the death, the potential death of this woman. i've seen the video you've mentioned, we're going to have to find a way to show this one r t international because there is apparently a whole another side to the story. so i appreciate you raising that here on the channel. just briefly though, i've got, i've got to veer away from that. i'm back to the angle of this so i get restarting us internet services in, in iran, this is what is it, ellen mosques and his star link satellites?

is there a reason all of a sudden now with a week of protests that washington is now opening up internet access for the people of iran? well, it is ironic because the united states has sanctioned iran in every way. or we have maximum pressure sanctions united states tries to iran from importing medicine and food. many medical companies and many pharmaceutical companies refuse to cooperate with iran because of the sanction. so the united states apparently has no problem killing iranians. but then on the other hand, the united states has sanctioned all of the running media. every single media that be run a sanction. you cannot get them on satellite. their records cannot before the united states. it's, it's, it's extraordinary how the, the united states behave on the one hand itself,

yet it expects other countries to behave differently. but with regard to the attempt of the united states it on your, i think this is wishful thinking on behalf of the americans. what they want to do is to help those teams and groups that are organized because we do see organized groups in the right. we have p s which are sporadic across the country and we have very, very violent writers who kill the number of police officers. and you will hear this in the western media groups of 3 police officers and one of them died as a result. but a number of police officers are killed, a number of innocent people as well. and the people have said that they carry these crimes up tomorrow and i will not. i have spoken to some other people, some other other people from your country and, and they,

they told me they told me that they were external players that came in to incite violence. and you know, if you want to go back to the 2014, just briefly might on to in key if there was snipers on the rooftops. that really made everything a lot worse. and a lot of people later came out with information. bo snipers were foreign players. it's a very convoluted story that you're talking about right now. and i'm for, i'm running very, very low on time to just quickly going back to the internet issue. i'm sorry to go back to this but, but the tesla found a lot mask. you know, he's offered a way to get free internet access to people all over the world. and of course the people of iran threw his stalling satellite company. but let's be clear about this elan mosque and his billions comes from the d o d, the u. s. department of defense. should that give you any reason for concern? definitely, but i actually want to go a step further and point out that the united states is on the decline and u. s. officials and they're in the they are constantly being fed information from

their their people in the persian media that they funded that they own nbc persian b o. a persian iran international, which is a saudi outlet to mother and all these and their online army, their, their cyber army in albania, funded by nieto and supported by their had this information that iran is about to collapse and so on. and this is all wishful thinking. the fact is that the united states does not have the ability to undermine iran. iran is rising, is ascending as the united states and its european allies are declining. the smart thing for the united states to do is to change his behavior and to behave more realistic, realistically. but i don't see that happening in the times. all right, so i will have him out on the professor at the university to ron, giving us some pretty interesting perspective. really appreciate the chat. thank you very much for your time. thank you. ah. now, after a long,

a separation from relatives military personnel, from russia and don bass republics, who had been in ukrainian captivity have now with time to her, maria, an optional, a correspondent, folks with a happy day for what had been some very anxious families as 55 military personnel from russia and the dunbar. republics, sons and husbands, father and brothers, who had long been held in ukraine in captivity. have come back home vice zebra thorn. thank you that he's alive. that they returned my son to me. thanks everyone . god bless everyone. we are proud of him. we were afraid to lose him. not that we believed we knew that he would return. we prayed every morning and every evening. the whole city was waiting for him. every one was waiting for him, all the relatives, his wife, was very bori. we were very worried. it's the latest and so far,

the largest prisoners of war exchanged between moscow and key f since the beginning of the russian offensive in february and both sides a hail and into a success summer. the most important thing is that they didn't leave us there. when we were there, there was a sense that no one wanted us in our country, but you see how it turned out. our guys quickly took us away quickly, pulled us out. among the 215 key of prisoners. the allied forces traded for the men were 5 notorious as old battalion commanders. but it was a freedom at any price deal to them. they said that no one was worried about you, your country will not exchange your et cetera. but we believe that would be an exchange. we just believed it. of course, i am happy that i am in russia. i would like to thank those who were involved in the exchange that it happened. but i hope that the rest of all people we taken out of that and they will also be at home. the most important thing for me now is to see my family friends, wife. i haven't seen her since january. we signed our marriage certificate and i

just left right away. sometimes i talked to her via video link, but basically i haven't seen her in almost a year. and december, for my feel, inexplicable euphoria from returning home as if there were an un teachable dream. but you actually reached it now is necessary to heal the wounds the injuries that i received. they will be treated for another 2 months plan of the many foreigners have been fighting on key if side were also released. 5 bridge citizens, to americans and fighters from the rocco, sweden and croatia, some of the release prisoners who spent months in captivity talk about torturing humiliation, and also confirmed that more and more foreigners are fighting on ukraine's side. and thus the yellows begin. yes, they stood armed with clubs from the very beginning. they began to beat me with a baton and used electric shocks. then with every incorrect answer or action i said or did they shocked me beat me with a baton on my legs until i had bruises or through a pedestal or whatever would occur. they beat me with the chair,

kicked me and hit me with them up. they beat me because of a broken chair. they said your cattle, you broke our chair. they started hitting me on the head again. the jagged me with all sorts of needles. my ear, my nose, just to mock me from was on the home over the river. they threatened me with a knife, then they threw me into a pickup truck and we drove off somewhere. another 15 people ran up there and they started taking pictures with me. look there, they caught an orc and occupier took pictures and filmed a video. they lifted me by the head and took pictures of what it was clear from their voices that there were not only ukrainians. their foreign speech was heard. arabic speech was heard a little after that. they took pictures with me there while they continued to beat me to put a knife to my eye, they put a knife to my groin. they said we will cut everything off of you now if you do not confess, any of the holes. they also explain why capturing members of the russian military and he's such a desired trophy for those fighting for keith response. so on the bottom line is that they are gnats,

is not the armed forces. denazi's receive money for the military prisoners for surgeons. it's about $300.00 for officers after 1000 being, although his former pre and as release during this recent exchange are currently being treated in various russian hospitals. if military dr. commissions decide the our feet, the service men may soon return to the front lines. rush, not naughty moscow region. the russian origin of belgrade is continuing to welcome ukrainian refugees who have fled from the honeycomb region and some of whom had some pretty harrowing tales. look through blue, the shaft that the ukranian troops were getting close were decided not to wait and headed to russia. uppermost. we're going to so you don't consider returning back to crenan territory all goc. what are you talking about? i want to live in us because i did not solicit you. local nationalists told us the ukranian troops were close and they would come for us with sleet,

our throats system in that us didn't. and they said they had killed this with the names of those who support russia. precious victory. we came here to russia with the help of the russian border patrol officers. without them, we wouldn't have made it here. i mean, usually immediately they have no peut him neither for children or for anyone else. they can even kill those hide. and in the basement, i can literally get killed simply for speaking russian. i myself, for example, don't speak ukrainian. my language is russian, so will speak russian no line. scully, locals claim their lives, have been at risk, particularly off the some comments from various key f officials says night we'll see. come and let the collaborators know that ukraine will not forgive any one or anything. ukraine will not forget, we will find you and we will make you answer for what you have done. the quote unquote new suit. as with these collaborators, all those incoming russian specialists, members of the government, who they appoint, teaches and kindergarten workers should keep in mind. they not just some lovely

ladies, they are criminals, and there will be no mercy for them, especially the ukrainian ones. a traitor is a traitor. i want to address them with this. the best thing you can do is get the hell out to your so beloved russia. otherwise it is prison, and old death for you. for the term collaborate is applies even to those who simply continue to do their work off the russia to control of the region. for example, that includes teachers, housing, and utility workers, police and civil servants. if found guilty, they could face up to 20 years in jail or even death. some people said they just had no choice but to flee. to seem of to room when we were all examined by doctors on arrival, my child was treated, they calmed her down. she was scared when it all started. i ran home from work as soon as it started. she threw her arms around my neck, wailing papa,

papa. we quickly packed up and moved here to order guards explained everything provided transport and brought us here. no, i will never go back. i'm social worker and key of blocked all my bank accounts at once. i had nothing to eat at that time. when the russians 1st came in, we were relieved. the russians began to give humanitarian aid mat since as soon as the came, people began to be given. a pension payments for children started to be made the most of the refugees now in boca rata being provided with health by state resources and volunteers from well, all across the country. on wednesday, the russian president vladimir putin called up 300 a 1000 reserve us to strengthen. russia's military presence in ukraine hasn't gotten down well with everyone protest start taking place in a number of cities. the reports of a number of arrests being made. i discussed the story a bit earlier here in the studio with ortiz marina casa ref. this is actually the

2nd wave of protests. the 1st one we saw took place on wednesday, right after vladimir putin announced this partial mobilization. and then we saw protest across 38 cities in russian, over a 1000 people were detains. so day the turnouts was quite low and we can see from the video footage there, in some cases, there is more press and they're more police officers than the protesters themselves . so this is not what they were hoping for and not what they were expecting by when i couldn't possibly jump in. i went past one of the demonstrations or what about 36 hours ago. started out about the main pedestrian thoroughfare and central moscow, a very trendy place to be live music, people having typically you go there for a nice time on a drink and a dinner. and, and the demonstrators, i saw that they were having a really lovely time. i, when i just drove off by didn't pay much attention, but apparently though you said that these little demonstrations have been fairly wide spread in the wake of the mobilization. yes. and there were earth and people, the organizers were origin, people to go to city sensors. and let's talk

a little bit about the organizers themselves. it's mainly activist groups. we have a woman in black which has international affiliations. and then we have the vis snar, which means spring movement, which has european affiliation, are alluding to la arab springs, color revolutions is kind of stuff exactly. and they're not just column people to protest, as they say, for the sake of protesting. they want to achieve regime change. they want to see the government out, they want someone else installed. and we are doing very organized who saw the power of social media to really arab spring. and here again, they're being, it's very coordinated effort through social media through telegram channels of the monitor. and them are over the past couple of days. and they've been telling people what so where, where to go, what to shout, how track to the police officer. that's what i mean, that there is some sort of choreography going on behind these demonstrations. and of course, you know, if you look back to the color revolutions the arab springs, for example, it will always these n g o is non governmental,