oh, oh oh, you are marble. oh, do you barber ah, headlines right now. what are the international with the 2nd day of voting on the way? here with our team, we continue our special coverage, the ongoing referendum and don bath, that but ology and about a song, the big question is, do they one could join in russia or not? as we understand now, international observers are on location monitoring the and see and just do mish finish. and 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. oh, do you want it? would it beat me with the chair picking 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. the chap me with all sorts of needles in my ear and my nose just to mock me. i made a week long protest raging in iran, the usa lifting internet sanctions for iranian. the question is why some say it's a move to add fuel the ongoing on the rest with 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 referendum is being staged in don baston to other regions. the big question is,

do the people there 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 song, unzip, ology regions. now you may remember. back in 2014, danielle gallow 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, apology, it was just over 20 percent. and the horse on the 1st day 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. ah, this is our choice. i've been waiting for this since 2014. i want to live a life without fascist. 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. they do have to run the yes in the city of tim. so as you can see,

the huge lives of people at voting stations with us, if you the spot weeks mugs of ukrainian attempts to terrify the population to scare them away from voting here back days. so i'm apprehension left as much as them as yesterday. you claim your national paper fairway from both extensions have their own safety. many people have fear, but for ben could be plowed that i've met with stations or another publication and a little common die with a little common. now people have she in the, on the 1st day of the referendum, things went well that was safety. there weren't any violations, any serious violations or, or did violence. and now now they're out of the,

the biggest turnout is expected, of course on, on sunday. but 15 percent was the 10 out for a stay with which local officials are very happy. those, those same officials, by the way, the election committee members were threatened, they were born some of them, them a several carbons planted, and that they received endless death threats. the houses of property were brought nevertheless the. 2 refund, the lease is on the way you claim has of course threatened any person here who routes who participates in this referendum with persecution and whole 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 you that, that you claim is a going to come back. the busha is here to stay. report say there

were, there was a strike by ukrainian armed forces on a civilian arizona at city. the attack did cause significant damage leaving at least one woman bed and one man injured in 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 have, is it a tool? oh, pulling or fish and see and just do wish of finish. and so we are trying to see a 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 the expiration that since 2014 to want to be a part of the cone today of susan. so know of an international observe, it's important for us to see what to do men conclusion over the rich and deal with

and do see if the process is transport as well. you might find this interesting author contributed rachel marston 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 against fulton berg called them quote sham referendums. and the european union's chief diplomat, joseph 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 costeo's 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 kim's attack since 2014. but unlike with the current situation in 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 favors 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 cheng 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 you got the lonia was not really 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 accounts for 19 percent of its g d, p. another of her and, and may be looking 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 rus, a 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 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. well 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 bass inside of kristi may own the things that the honda ukraine pressures, the people have gone bass, the more invigorated the locals become to join the russian federation this morning . the returned gun was not so quiet like yesterday there was a shilling of the center of the next. i was on this place i discussed with people who were there when the shill sales. ah, people said that i did not frighten them too, was on the contrary, pushes them to vote for the integration of the d. p r into russia. so the more ukraine is shinning ah, the don bus people,

the moral and they want to join russia. so for key feed, i think it's a very bad strategy. ah, i've seen that many people are older people i discussed with are for the integration of the dpr with the, with russia of not met for the moment one person was against. so the mooney is quite good, more people are voting actively. of course, we'll keep you totally up to date with the very latest saturday does mark day number 2 of voting in the referendums as something that will actually change the course of history and ultimately affect the lives of millions of people. ah. all right, so the u. s, our treasury department has expanded the range of internet services available to iranians. despite it sanctions on the country. it comes in response to web blackouts, 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. these changes, we are helping the iranian people be better equipped to counter the government's efforts to surveil and center them out 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, police stations, and vehicles and several cities. moreover, iranian women publicly burned their head scarves. 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

a mean 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 it's a 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 this evening. so what do you make of 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 found 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 have said that there is no evidence that she was hit in the head by any heart mister miranda to the video you're talking about. it's 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 are questioning the official narrative on the death, the potential death of this woman. i've seen the video you've mentioned, we're gonna have to find a way to show this one r t international because there is apparently a whole nother side to the story. so i appreciate you raising that here on a china just briefly though, i've gotta veer away from that. i'm back to the angle of this. so i guess restarting us internet services in, in iran, this is what is it, ellen mosques and his star linked 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 a sanction iran in every way. or we have maximum pressure sanctions united states tries pete iran from importing medicine and food. many medical companies and many pharmaceutical companies refuse to cooperate with the one because of the sanctions. so the united 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 will be run a sanction you can i get them on satellite. the reporters 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 binded rioters who killed a number of police officers and you won't hear this in the western media. they slide 3 police officers and one of them died as a result. but a number of police officers killed, killed a number of innocent people as well. and the people have said that they carry these crimes out. marina 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. both 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 starling 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 need to have this information that the ron 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 any times. all right, so i will have him out on the professor at the university to ron, giving us a some pretty interesting perspective. i really appreciate the chat. thank you very much for your time. ah, now, after a long separation from relatives military personnel from russia and don bass republics,

who had been in ukrainian captivity have now returned to her maria phenomena, 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, fathers 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 are very worried. it's the latest and so far, the largest prisoners of war exchanged between moscow in 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 you, et cetera. but we believe that would be an exchange. we'd just believed it. of course, i'm happy that i am in russia. i would like to thank those who were involved in the exchange that it happened. 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. the same way,

i feel inexplicable euphoria from returning home as if there were an un teachable dream. but you actually reached it. now it's necessary to heal the wounds the injuries that i received. they will be treated for another 2 months. 10 of the many foreigners have been fighting on kia 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 both the yellows, dubuque, 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 theatre. so there was somebody up cuz 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, crash was on the home over the road. 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 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, me with the holes. they also explain why capturing members of the russian military and he's such a desired trophy for those fighting for key as response thaw on the bottom line is that they are nazis. now 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, a currently being treated in various russian hospitals. if military dr. permissions decide the our feet, the service men may soon return to the front lines. roshana 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. leticia ukrainian troops, we're getting close. we decided not to wait and headed to russia about us. we're going to so you don't consider returning back to crane in territory all goc. what are you talking about? i want to live in us because i lost lots of key local nationalists told us the ukranian troops were close and they would come for us with sleet, our throats, the snow in the dust in. they said they had killed lists with the names of those

who support russia, rushes victory. we came here to russia with the help of the russian border patrol officers. without them, we wouldn't have made it here. unusually immediately have no pit him neither for children. no, for any one 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 plans go a lot. locals claim their lives. have been at risk, particularly off the some comments from various key ever fissions says that was she 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 club on the listeners shoot as if these collaborates us all those incoming russians. 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 that will be no mercy for them,

especially for 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 triggered on friday 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 border 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 that most of the refugees now embellish colorado 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 reservists to strengthen. russia's military presence in ukraine hasn't gotten down well with everyone. protests are taking place in the 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 cost rep. 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 detained. so day the turnout 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 protestors themselves. so this is not what they were hoping for and not what they were expecting by why would i wouldn'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 had dinner. and, and the demonstrators, i saw that they were having a really lovely time. and 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, in the wake of the mobilization. yes. and there were urgent people. the organizers were urgent people to go to city centers. and let's talk a little bit about the organizers themselves. it's mainly active as groups. we have

a woman in black which has international affiliations. and then we have the vis snar, which it 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 have been very organized, who saw the power of social media during the arab spring. and here again, they're being, it's very coordinated effort through social media through telegram channels of the monitor and them over the past couple of days. and they've been telling people what to where, where to go, what's a shout, how track to the police as soon as 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, there will always these n g o z is non governmental, non profit organizations emitter who are just professional medals fermenting on wrestlers potential.