a, a, with a high level prison us a lot more than a decade in us custody. exchange for american pop will play brittany right now. a middle escalation of tension over the break away with the info, making a milestone for multiple worlds. the saudi crown prince. try a mid with

do want to go really what ever you are in the world. welcome to all the international is just go on why they am here in the russian. capitalize great to have the with us. i'm at my mommy. let's take a look at today's top stories. a high level prisoner swap between moscow, washington as russia business when bits a boot in u. s. custody for a decade on arms trading conviction has returned, it is homeland. he was exchange for american boss, will pled brittany griner who had been convicted of drug offenses in russia. it was centered by you as the 3rd is back in 2012 to a quarter century in prison on allegations of arming terrace and conspiring to kill america. citizens, he denies all the accusations, while through her said his case will politically motivated, fixture and wolf conducted in the united m roof of the months of negotiations. that the bill to was elated to return to his homeland hon. you have in some,

you have no doubt to stay with commerce for c, but many thanks to everyone who participated but who helped who cared. so i'm just incredibly glad her great. and i guess the sink, of course, we always had ad hope that makes her was returned home all these years, especially in the last 6 months. and information began to selfish that his release was possible level. when maria brought in and called me and said, when you're hanging there, i realized in hug beating that the exchange has been carried out. office immediately got the shakes in my heart was beating so fast by miniature. right. not there said look at joe biden, how he's fighting for his son. he should think about all the kids. his keep him locked up. hopefully he whitewashed, his son in connection with ukraine and some other things in america were very grateful. tell president and as a mother, i sincerely thank our foreign ministry, little by say gay love off that diplomats their employees visit him no matter what it is. during a bizarre in new york, they make sure people do not lose hope and knows that their motherland does not

forget them all. o 6, a boot and brittany griner received further than so, potters, before they were set free boot was initially arrested in thailand in 2000. and 8, i was as a result of a you a sting operation of the years behind bars in legal limbo boot was expedited to america where he was later convicted. moscow was fighting for his release for more than a decade. washington categorical rejected. any cooperation with russia in the exchange came. nevertheless, we continued active efforts to rescue our citizen. as a result is became possible to organize the exchange with the american side, victor boot has returned to his homeland. well, we understand that the prisoner swap happened in our dobby. in the united arab emirates, the u. a. e. the individuals were exchanged and victor boot has returned home to russia after being held since 20082008. he was in thailand,

he was set up in some kind of sting operation conducted by us officials, us individuals operating and thailand. he was then taken to the united states. he stood trial in 2011 and was found guilty on conspiracy charges. he described the interview, the trial is essentially a sham trial where he wasn't really able to adequately defend himself. all the charges were conspiracy charges, no actual crime had been committed. it was all based on allegations that in some conversation, he hinted he might do something or something to that effect. and he'd been held in the united states in federal prison since that time. now, brittany griner was detained in russia in february and convicted of having a candidate based substance in her bag. and she was convicted of drug trafficking, drug charges. she's been, she'd been held in russia and we heard from biden,

he spoke and he did not reference any points and remarks that gave brassy simply reference brittany griner had relatives of brittany greiner with him. while he spoke to the press, he refused to answer any questions from the media about what exchanges had been made. but we understand at this point that victor booth is returned to russia and it was a prisoner's swap, this place in abu dhabi in the united arab emirates. now, i had the opportunity to interview victor booth from u. s. federal prison when he was being held and he described to me the conditions in which he was being held, how he wasn't able to visit his family until donald trump was elected president. and the trump administration made arrangements so he could even visit is relatives described being held in solitary confinement. dition that the united nation has described as torture, the highlighted, different cases of political prisoners in the united states. it was really

a great opportunity to speak to victor booth when he was being held in the us prison on trumped up charges. basically being held describe how he would force and not force but, but pressured rather to try and say negative things about the russian government to exchange for a better deal or exchange for release or the ability to see his family. all kinds of pressure was put on him to help feed into anti russia narrative, how he withheld, but yet he refused to make any deals. and now we understand that after years and years of being held and us federal facilities on trumped up charges that now victor boot is back home in russia. so this is from my interview with victor boot while he was being held in a u. s. federal prison based in colorado. this is the conversation that we had a lord of war and a merchant of death. and that's how western media describes victor boot. for moscow,

he's a political prisoner, rejecting his case as unfounded and biased from the start. at his trial, he pled not guilty, and he called the accusations against him, a bunch of alive the court decided otherwise and jailed him for 25 years. he's now served a 3rd of that sentence, and he's agreed to talk to me from prison. because your case is highly political, are you being treated differently? well, of course i've been through the differently because by some reason, be ok, deciding that online is special or is group or whatever. i'm a general population. but on the, on their very strict supervision and control, victor boot describes himself as a political prisoner. i asked him what that means. this is a 100 percent qualify as a political prisoner because if i'm healed off my nationality and i was denied to corporate side and i'm standing up. they didn't do anything else and we'll fight

for my innocence. i misstated bossman couple years ago. we met a cab, gonna keep him. as example, as a model was a boy for whipping. saw the russians would be the go bridge with us when the go off . there are up 3. she me. i asked him about deals that had been offered to him in the past and currently, well, there's been during pre trial during the trial where they've been through a public defender and they approach and said, well, we're going to get to it all your primary green car conceptual you there, if you know some dirt about food, you know how car off this regime saw and so i said, no, you can't do the person for all the deal. that's why i went to the trial. pick your boot offered up a pretty strong and consistent critique of the us legal system and how he says it has been used against russian citizens boot points to what he calls conspiracy laws as a method of imprisoning people. not for actually committing crimes, but for offhand comments made 2 undercover officers boot says he's not the only

political prisoner being held and that the efforts of the russian embassy have definitely improved his circumstances. hayward martin r t new york glenda had been detained by moscow. apple customer offices back in february, also police don't found cannabis oil in her luggage. in july she pleaded guilty of drug smuggling charges this white thing. it was an honest mistake. she was sentence, and 9 years, so far as an appeal which was rejected by a russian court. joe biden, and her says glenda was wrongfully detained in russia. despite the fact she had actually admitted to bring drugs into the country is relieved to finally be heading home. and the fact remains that she's lost months of her life experienced the needless trauma. she deserves space privacy in time with her loved ones to recover and heal from her time being wrong. 3, detained by discourse live. now to victor boots lawyer, steve,

this is steve. thanks so much for joining us here. our t, he won't take us for us to be a great day for you. i'm sure must be quite happy. what can you take us through the journey that you went through to, to seal the release of your client? well, it did say it was quite a journey abbey to be here and just thrilled victor is back home with allah and their daughter and the rest of their family and back in, in russia. where, where, where, well, 15 years ago, the u. s. government devised a plot, if you will, to create a crime of this retired russian citizens living in moscow. committing no crime against anyone. they target him simply because they didn't liked what they thought he had been doing in previous years. and as you know,

and your and your audience knows in the us and in other parts of the world he was, he was named or dubbed the the merchant of death. and so when i took over the case couple years ago, the 1st challenge, of course, was to correct the narrative. you know, some people say create the narrative, change the narrative. it wasn't, it wasn't that it was more accurately destroy, described as erecting the narrative. that was, that was the main challenge to get folks in the u. s. and around the world to appreciate the fact that this, this merchant of death, the label that they put on him was really unfair. and that the way he was, he was this, this, this retired russian citizens living in moscow was targeted by the u. s. was, was, it was really a terrible, a front to, to russian, russia sovereignty. and as a result of that, i'm jumping ahead a little bit. as

a result of that, you, you can actually in point the deterioration of relations between the us and russia to that moment when, when victor was targeted. and, and as i've said many times, the us agencies involved decided to target victor brewed. because because they could, without any giving any thought to whether or not they should and the repercussions that follow. so, you know, step number one is when you take over a case that, you know, when i took it over, is 13 years old. but, but by that time you had to struggle with to change the narrative, but a lot of a lot of helpful things happened along the way. and it starts with all a boot victors wife who never gave up and never hired of trying to ensure that he would be freed president,

couldn't who never gave up the notion that. and victor boot was wrongfully taken from from, from his fellow citizens in his family. and i should say for mister ralph, which was insistently in victor's corner, as was ambassador, and taught off who even recently went to visit victor in, in the prison. that is, that is referred to as in america as the, the guantanamo of the north. that's how bad the conditions are there. i tell you about this, and this is i had to assess the condition that it's a boot was held during his him in his imprisonment. but you know, i'm sorry he's, i am surprised. he survived because, you know, you don't, you know, it's not like, you know, the older you get, the more, the more likely you are to suffer some sort of catastrophic illness suddenly. and victor was getting up there in years as well into the fifty's now. and you know,

you just don't, you can't interest, don't you just don't call 911 there they don't have actual physicians. you know, they don't ship you off to a hospital unless you're in a coma. so he had several serious elements. but victor is exceedingly strong. man. he knows how to take care of himself to protect himself. he made sure to to the extent that he can eat properly. so there were times when i was concerned that he would, he would even survive to make it to the swat. so, you know, we, you hear all over us news about for example, brittany greiner going to a penal colony. well, there are funeral cavities all over the united states. jack, you folks may know about the 13th amendment. that's the amendment that abolish slavery in the united states. but it abolish lever slavery for all but one category

of person and that's prisoners in the us, jones. and so you have, you have folks who are forced to work in a lot of states and some federal prisons. they make their paid, you know, $0.35 an hour. they don't have any protections. they don't, you know, they get to choose where they work, work the conditions of their work. they don't get employment insurance doesn't contribute to social security or, or medicare. so, you know, is that, i think that's one of the reasons it took so long. but, but don't know your original question. the challenge was, what was changing the narrative. and we were fortunate that the judge and victor's trial, a judge shin 1 may and some very important findings at his sentence that were, that were really strong and supportive. and pointed out several of the things that undermined this merchant of, of merchant of death the narrative that had taken hold in the us. and so when i 1st

took over the case and i looked over the record transcript sensing and material, i noticed how powerful her words were. and i noticed that they had never been brought to anyone's attention that i knew of anyway. and so the 1st thing i did was i gave her call, she had been retired at the time. and so i thought, well, what we'll have to lose, but the goal, the judge and, and see if she, she will talk to me. and to my great surprise, she, she not only spoke to me, but she stood by her words and was willing to go public with her views that the sentence that she was forced to impose. ready on on victor was way too high and she would have given him a much lower sentence if she had the ability. ready to do so, and then she went public, frankly speaking to anyone who would call her expressing those things, thoughts, remember, this is a united states that are all judge. a member of one of the 3 week will,

branches of government in the united states is only 600 of them in the u. s. federal system. and so these are, these are, these are, these are powerful. this is a powerful allies bill. it was a struggle because again, as you get attention to, to from folks who are willing to change the narrative, i'll jump ahead for a little bit and explain to your, to your, to your listeners. what the effect of brittany griner is for rest had on that process. and it was, it was really very simple. before her arrest, getting folks to pay attention to what i was saying. frankly, you know, listen, there's more to that as i would say, the more do the story ball a judge goal is one. look at this tramp strip and before brittany got arrested,

you know, even reached out to several family members of americans that were held in russia and they, you know, they refused to communicate with me until later on. so we kept at, it was trying to build the case for victor and build, explain the direct narrative. but when, when, when brittany grow got arrested, things started to change in the change because more folks in the media and the us media, who wouldn't normally be paying attention to, to, you know, foreign affairs, things starting to pay attention, those, those, those journalists, many find journalists to work the sports desk, right. and, and you know, they're paying attention to sports, they go all the sudden, brittany's part of the equation and they're starting to ask question and 111, right? or i will remember always she's, she's a sports writer for the wall street journal name is louise randolph ski. she

actually wrote the very 1st story that i could find that that, that explained victors case in a fair way and, and did not use the phrase and merchant of death. and this was the very 1st, very 1st thing that's started the ball rolling. other folks started paying attention, then the relationships with other with other american citizens health and russia started to develop. then you've got folks like former, and actually the rest of like mcfall him coming forward to say, yeah it's, it's time to make this trade. i would, i would do it, i would make the straight. and so folks started to actually be honest about what was going on. still the vast majority of people who didn't know what we're talking about. you know, we're, we're, we're still, you know, criticizing and as they did all day today. but eventually, what we did was,

even though many of the families were not communicating with us, except for one trouble reads, family eventually agreed to who to who to form a, a relationship with us. even though they weren't speaking to us, what we would do is feed them information, talking points breeds memorandums. and even though they weren't responding, we were explaining to them and helping them explain why it's fair to trade victor booth for brittany griner, giving them, in other words, the ability and the wherewithal to make the case, to the state department and to the white house for why it's fair to trade, victor booth, brittany grind or all well and frankly, i could care less who who victor got traded for so long as he was sent home to his family and right, it's that he's my client declined comes 1st. could i could care less who. ready was

who they sent him for, but you know, we were able to make these folks understand that, you know, there for that, that don't, don't buy this merchant of death stuff. there's more here than meets the eye and, and that's when the ball started to roll. that's when that's when that's when the state department finally made what they call a strong or offer as, as they call it wasn't really because they wanted a victor for pull. well and, and brittany grider and, you know, we knew that was, that was not going to happen. it wasn't fair to the russian side. frankly, i could care less whether the russians agree to it but, but we understood it was fair. and so the job from that point continued to be having to explain to the families. ready why it's unfair, and eventually, eventually trevor reads family and he came part of the

asian and, and the way that happened, i'm happy to explain it unless you, unless you want to continue doing this thing to continue. like for the way, the way that came up was at 1st again is the us state department advisors. all these families don't talk to z. so you don't talk to victor boots lawyer. you will take care of this and you know, what are you going to do? you listen to your state department makes, it makes sense just like russian citizens would, would listen to the foreign ministry us citizens are going sarah, we got, we can't risk it even though. and even though i consistently said to, to these families, look, we, we have a common interest here, and that's repatriate in my client. you want to repatriate your loved ones and you know, we should at least explore whether or not we can help each other obtain that you know, the response was, was, was, was not inviting. i,

i should point out in particular from the wayland family is brother was particularly offensive about it. and so, but, but eventually it, trevor reads family member trevor, read the young man. i think it was 2027 years old. when he, when he got in trouble and in moscow and his parents, this is my 20 year old. it's our kids right there. their children, to me even though they're grown up, they lost contact with trevor for whatever reason. and so eventually i got a call, a reluctant call asking if i could help to arrange a phone call. and it didn't happen right away. but, but when i heard that, that, that this, somebody's mother was not getting to speak to their child. i was,

i was i rate and i made it clear to anyone would speak to that. it was, it was unacceptable. i didn't care. you know, i don't care what trevor is doing or not doing in jail. you just prohibit somebody who's thousands of miles away from, from their mother and not get a phone call. and a short term later driver started getting phone calls again and that and that started a relationship of trust. and as a result, you know, when, when we would, when we would have confidential discussions, i'm going to share with. ready they are about about the, about the fairness of the trades and what they were hearing and reading about victor. and i put it into honest terms about giving them transcripts and explaining to them, you know, what was going on. you know, all of a sudden you consensus softening and folks are saying, yeah, why are we holding our to victor? boot is going to be home and 5 years anyway. i mean,

he's been in jail for 15 years. you serve the 85 percent of the sentence. the mandatory minimum was 25 years, which figures out about $21.00 or something like that. so you know, in march, victor and had you not been released would have been at full 15 years. so he was out about 5 years to go, what are you holding onto for? let's get something for him. you know, whatever you may think about, victor, what do you think is a good 1st or a bad person? you know, let's get something for me. and so it became more difficult for the white house in the state department to effectively make the argument that victory was untrained . and eventually it came to be that that this agreement was reached and we're grateful to know that victor is back with his family. absolutely. actually no say i was going until a little bit about how he was arrested. i believe i was reading about this. so

it was so like a maybe i know a sting operation in bank called a crime wasn't really committed here. these are just here say i'm looking to observe a little bit about our yeah. so the reason you're struggling with it is because no other country in the world has these kind of, of crimes, if you will. certainly not russia. no, no you country does this where law enforcement agencies are allowed to create a crime out of whole cloth from, from, you know, and i'm not talking about infiltrating a criminal organization that's already involved in conduct. i'm not talking about somebody for example, who, who's involved in hacking or some sort of bank fraud or, and you infiltrate the organization and develop evidence that way. i'm talking

about the only country in the world that actually creates crimes. and in this case, they pay, at least the government paid at least $10000000.00 to, to real criminals, to pretend that they were members seeking to buy arms and all there was, was a conversation about it. no arms river changed. the money was ever exchanged. other than the $10000000.00 that was day to these, you know, these, these, these bankers get, this is a public record they, they testified to this victory struck no wonder the other in the country in the world punishes this kind of conduct. i shouldn't say that no other country than i am aware, certainly not russia. and as i said, certainly not the american european allies. the u. s. is the only one, nor does any other country extend the extent of their jurisdiction that far away to bargain a man who's living in moscow to oak him to go to thailand,

to create this crime. and then, you know, part of the script is something about america. and that, that alone gives, according to us chords the jurisdiction to lock victor up, kidnap him as, as i'll like to say and bringing back, bring him to a country that he's never been before. and that's, that's what this was now, you know, whether you like what the conversation was about or where you believe. what might have happened is irrelevant. it's simply not a crime anywhere else. so folks like you are like, you're scratching your head saying, what if, what would they do? they did what the out. where did that over? well, and that's what they did here. and again, naturally when, when the russian government gets winded with their, their apoplectic right. i mean, like, how do you do this? well, how can you treat one of our citizens that way? and that's, that's really, that's really how it happened. it gets worse too because under american law,

under our law, the punishment for this fake crime is the same as if the crime was actually committed. meaning there's a mandatory minimum of 25 years and a maximum sentence of life and at victor sentencing. i know it's hard to believe or this talk crime that nothing never happened with and no one was ever hurt. and no one was ever done. at the sentencing the u. s. government prosecutors ask that victor be sent to life without parole, meaning he would never be released. that's. that's the, that's the insanity of the very, very worrying. but i guess he did say it was in the end, even though 15 years is a lot of time spent in jail for sure. something you didn't really do. all right, thanks so much for joining us here. at r t or was a pleasure. thanks again for your time. it's been great. good luck and goes, go, stay out of it for me when you see, we'll do. thanks again. okay,

this is on our server has been considering sending a 1000 troops to caught up of the 100 of police offices in the break way region seas. parts of the majority city sada, you may which you li, curtis has continued with. the legal actions aimed at occupy the north of kosovo, a mentor here or belgrade will consider the return of 1000 members of our security forces to the area of kosovo metal here, in accordance with resolution, 1244, not part of the serve in go has said cause of a police have committed crimes against the 3rd majority areas in the break way region, including driving an armored vehicle into the yard of a kindergarten and stealing wine from a vineyard low who corresponded nicola, you'll, which sent us this report from belgrade tonight around 9 o'clock in the evening group of over 200 armed men came to the.