ah, a headlines of this now a high level prison, the slow russian business with home also walden and take a didn't you as a custody exchange for american boss will play with right now. the u. s. government devised a plot, if you will, to create a crime of this retired russian citizen thinks of this lawyer gives us his exclusive insight. on the case saying, the main challenge with it is 30000 feet into the close of the hundreds of police officers in the briefly

regency control with to get everyone everyone in the world. welcome to our international is just the 9 am here in the russian capital and speak to have you with us. i'm run some money. let's take a look at today's top stories. a high level prisoner between moscow and washington . i was russian. businessman vis a boot in the u. s. custody for a decade has returned to his homeland. he shed some of his feedings off the landing at moscow airport. says i was awoken in the middle of the night and told to get ready. no additional information was provided. the most important thing is that i got their food was sentenced. voyeurs authorities back in 2012 to a quarter century imprison on allegations of armentaros icons for him to kill

american citizens. he denies all the accusations. moscow has said his case was politically motivated. he was exchange for american basketball player, brittany greiner, who had been convicted of drug offenses in russia. the slope was conducted in the united arab emirates of the month of negotiations with fanny was elated. heard the news of his release mccracken, i just the signal of course we always had ad hope that makes him when he returned home all these years, especially in the last 6 month and information began to surface that his release was possible level. when maria brought in and called me and said fine yeah, hanging there, i realised in heartbeat that the exchange has been carried out. so i mediately got the shakes in my heart was beating so fast. look at that in a new ski, we're very grateful. tell president and as a mother, i sincerely thank our foreign ministry, let by say gay lover 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 when you are the exhibits lawyer steve. this, it gave us his views about the case and the long, difficult baffle for his clarks release. let's say it was quite a journey abbey to be here and just thrilled that victor is back home with allah and their daughter and the rest of their family and back in the in russia. 15 years ago, the u. s. government devised a plot, if you will, to create a crime of this retired russian citizen living in moscow. committing no crime against anyone. they target him simply because they didn't like what they thought he had been doing. and previous years and, and at victor sentencing. and i don't, it's hard to believe this talk crime that nothing ever happened with the no one was ever heard. and no one was ever done at the sentencing. the u. s. government

prosecutors ask the victor be sent to life without parole, meaning he would never be released that's. that's the, that's the insanity. when i took over the case couple years ago, the 1st challenge, of course, was to correct the narrative 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 this retired russian citizens living in moscow was targeted by the u. s. was really a terrible affront to russia. sovereignty and as a result of that, i'm jumping ahead a little bit. as a result of that you, you can actually pinpoint the deterioration of relations between the us and russia to that moment when one victor was target. and as i've said many times the u. s. 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 followed a lot of helpful things happened along the way. and it starts with all a boot. victor's wife, who never gave up and never heard of trying to ensure that he would be freed president, couldn't who never gave up the notion that victor booth was wrongfully taken from, from, from his fellow citizens in his family. and that i should say for mister ralph, which was insistently in victor's corner, as was ambassador and todd 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. and we were

fortunate that the judge and victor's trial, a judge shalon, made some very important findings at his certain saying that were, that were really strong and supportive. and pointed out several of the things that, that undermined this 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, the record and the transcript and sensing 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 to migrate the 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 as if she had the ability. ready to do so, and then she went public, frankly speaking to anyone who would call her expressing those names, thoughts. i'm surprised. he's survived because, you know, you don't, 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 to fifty's now. and 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 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 swap. so, you know, we, you hear all over us news about for example, brittany greiner going to a penal colony. well, you know, there are penal cavities all over the united states. jack, you folks may know about the 13th amendment to that's the amendment that abolish slavery in the united states. but it abolished labor slavery for all but one category of person and that's prisoners in the us jails. 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 projections. they don't, you know, they get to choose where they work, work the conditions of their work. they don't get employment insurance, it doesn't contribute to the social security or, or medicare. so, you know, is that, i think that's one of the reasons it took so long. both victor boot,

i'm brittany glenn. i received further so partners before they were set free. i've seen correspondent k. moping looked into the details of a high profile case after almost 15 years in captivity and half the eye sting operation frame up the sham trial. and in addition to that, solitary confinement and difficulty even being able to visit his family, victor boot is now free and back home in russia. the negotiations were kept secret and even victory, why it had no idea what was coming. so let's review the details of this high profile case. while back in the 900 ninety's western leaders started psyching up the public against the british home office labeled him the merchant of death and hollywood movie demonizing, him called lord of war, was even released in reality. victor is the son of a book keeper. he served in the soviet military before starting his own cargo company. u. s. officials alleged that he ran guns for al qaeda and that he was

involved in supplying weapons to various sides of african conflicts and across eastern europe. user allegations, he has repeatedly denied while us leaders seem to have no problem supplying weapons to some radical groups. it seems like after this, hollywood movie was released. and after victor's name had been dropped by various officials, they felt it was time to grand stand against him. victor had his assets frozen, but there was no law at that point under which they could prosecute him for his international business dealings. so u. s. officials decided to go to the f b i. a sting operation was set up and eventually he was entrapped in thailand.

so under cover f b i agents pretending that they were members of the fark rebels group and columbia approached him and had a hypothetical conversation about a possible arms deal. no crime actually ever took place. that's what told me when i interviewed him back in 2019. this is a 100 percent qualify as a political prisoner because i'm healed off my nationality and i was denied to corporate side and i'm standing up. didn't do anything else and we'll fight for my innocence. i'm a state of bossman couple years ago, openly admitted cab. gonna keep him. as example, as a model was a boy for weeping. father rations would be more like the corporate with us when we go off. there are up through us. leaders clearly had a motive for grabbing him after he was dragged to the united states from thailand due to an extradition agreement. he was then allegedly offered a deal to bring forward dirty laundry about the russian government and president.

well, they've been doing trial during the trial where they've been through the public defender, they approach and said, well, we're going to get through it all your primary, green car and central you there. if you know that some dirt about food turn and how car off this regime times old, i said, i know you came to the person for all the deal. that's why i went through the trial . russian authorities offered victor support throughout the lengthy legal proceedings and they also describe how us officials abducting him and dragging them to the united states from thailand was an example of how they felt they have license to do whatever they want in the international arena. much times to us, there is no doubt that they have the doctor, the russians citizen in the 3rd country. we have a consular convention with the us and we have a treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. under these agreements, the u. s. should inform us of any suspicions they may have about a russian citizen when i see it yet, they failed to do so. this was the case in the number of instances with victor

boots konstantin yet shan't go for them. and a number of other people who are transferred to the u. s. with the tacit approval of 3rd countries. now, victor is journey home, did not come easily. the negotiations took place at a time when relations between the usa and russia or anything but good. needless to say, a lot of hard work has gone in to making sure this russian citizen could finally return home and be with his family taylor, marvin archie, new york. now looking at the other participant in this war, grandma has been detained by moscow, april customs officers back in february after a police dog found cannabis oil in her luggage. in july, she pleaded guilty to drug smuggling charges. despite saying it was an honest mistake, she was sentenced 9 years. she fallen appeal, which was rejected by a russian course. meanwhile,

there has been mounting dissatisfaction among us politicians about the prison exchange. republican congresswoman mardrey taylor green even cools for joe biden to be impeached over the deal. while former national security adviser, john bolton said, it essentially amounted to america, surrendering to russia the boot for greiner prisoner swap as not a trade. it's an american surrender. this is not what american strength looks like . terrorists and rogue states are smiling. we heard from former c i a analyst, larry jilson, who says the prison exchange reveal the degree of weakness in the conte us administration. i think from russia standpoint, this was laughable. is just that it underscores the weakness of the. ready foreign policy team that surrounds joe biden. as far as the families are concerned, it's a 1st swap. i would know the difference. now. what's interesting is there is

a lot of blow back in the united states. complaints that you left behind. i think it's phil wayland, former marine, there was arrested on espionage charges in russian that many say that he would have been a more appropriate exchange because he was actually there. ready for some, you know, perceived political pushback, as opposed to miss grinders case. she was, she was carrying drugs that were prohibited prescribed purely, the united states has lost some of its mojo. when it comes to these kinds of things . a massive blazes ripped through a shopping mall in a suburb of moscow. video for this shows how far 5 has contained. the office for the cost report is 7000 square meters, 6 lug below into the early morning sky and the buildings roof collapsed. for the job and apparent explosion in the vicinity was posted on social media for,

as he said, that one person was killed in the blaze. to central europe, serbia has been considering sending a 1000 troops into casa off the hundreds of police officers. in the break way. regency is part of the serb majority districts sada, which you recruited, has continued with the legal actions aimed at occupying north of kosovo and mentor . here 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 the so serve in government has said to call the police have committed crimes against majority areas in the breakaway province, including stealing wine from a vineyard, who reports a nickel, you of it sent us his report from belgrade. tonight, around 9 o'clock in the evening, will be over 200 armed men. came to the north. most was the sort of live we kept

over. they also presence of indian army or regular military courses of vignette which were present here in court and order parts, which is a violation of resolution or to or, or united nations and of every other agreement signed by serbia. and this is the 2nd publication of the day, or even 3rd, because during the day we already had the one incident in which one of the 4 municipalities in the north are most certainly we can station where police forces also entered kindergarten when, where children were over sleeping and they interrupted the work or also develop a survey and club near article that they took

over 40000 please. there's a wind from local, turbulent producers, wind. and they also banned construction workers for, for, from putting on and bathing the road, leading to only serving left in the region, the prime minister of so called close keys provocation. and his intention to violently solve the problem of leaving this, of course, a month ago. and to try to impose his will on them due to the fact that he needs to organize your elections, which will boycott as things are for now. that's africa. african languages have been receiving a renewed prominence in nigeria with assessing as an educational policy to promote the study of local languages and schools. the reason they improved national

language policy is aim to shift the focus from english to local languages in the west african country. students are to focus on developing their skills and their mother tongue during elementary school, and then combine it with english only later on. however, the initiative has been complicated by the huge number of local languages which will require the government adapt school books and other educational materials. we heard from a nigerian school director who expressed an overall public view of the new measures . when i heard that instruction from the gulf may trudy official gazette, i was so blood anesthesia that the family as wills, know these are the primary gentle socialization. that is the 1st school that is shide is born into that the side is introduced into.

so starting our quality monta monta language, starting the 1st stage of education of a child with the use of the mother language. that is but evil outside the case may be is the best that should happen in the education sector. we also spoke with the head of a nigerian teachers union in may go through all those 1st appreciation for the referral wayne. you treat or teach we do use of what act on it is. so natural does eat, has on death. standing on the side of the student, isn't it? we are killing the potentia in our younger generation by him

voicing another luggage i see medium of communication. no doubt there was landed so that the account favorably compete in time off. you know, sick in job internationally. that way you understand english or you understand french or you understand gemma didn't outperform your local language that were has your chess, you know, to secure job across the globe what you cannot give what you don't ah you as a secretary of state anthony lincoln, the has said is basically a done deal for sweden and finland to join the nato alliance. i'm confident the nato will formally welcome finland sweden's member. soon since the nato summit in madrid, ah, both countries had taken significant concrete actions to fulfill their commitments,

including those related to the security concerns. on the part of our i'll, i, turkey, sweden has refused to comply with data member since he is request for it to expedite to people suspected of tires to inter organization. so it is a thought is of said they did not have sufficient grounds to believe those people committed. a criminal offense sort of here has said that it would not let sweden join the allies unless it conducts those expeditions, saw sara founder's a co direct. so the international action center and to war when i was asian says the us hasn't properly addressed to use security concerns. sweden and the us of course, are talking out of both sides of their mouth. they're saying we have a deal. no, we don't have a deal. and no matter how you look at it, they want turkey a to a acknowledge that there's

a deal so that this nato official membership can move forward. certainly, it's a us who is behind this deal. and it's also the united states that was pledged to be the protector of the courage. but as we can see, once again, they're just willing to use them as a bargaining chip. whether or not this officially goes forward in a real sense, it is a done deal. and it shows that the us is absolutely has no interest in peace and diplomacy or negotiation. they are all about aggressive us war planning. they want nato expansion official or unofficial employees of the european central bank have been left fuming off the authorities, rejected the demands for payroll is to keep up with inflation. we're not happy with inflation in germany and the euro area likely around 8.5 percent. this year,

a lack of a pay rise means a substantial loss in purchasing power. this is damaging workers morale and also their trustworthy institution who wanted a pay rise of just over 4 percent, but the current inflation rate in the largest economy. germany has been reported at about twice that amount. there michael peters thought spoke with financial technology. entrepreneur chris, ems and mr. ems knows it. the same and institutions that created inflation in the 1st place and now the ones that are suffering so well the funny thing is, although not for the stuff is that you know, the c, b missed its own inflation targets on its employees now seem to be paying for it, do you think it was a duty of care or the geopolitical factors or just out of his control? absolutely, i think that definitely is the duty of care. but there is a great irony that you've just mentioned, the very people that have cause this massive inflation and al, paying for it. right. and i think, you know, when we're looking at, when we're looking at these institutions in the way they operate and run,

it's really, really morally bankrupt to say, look, pay for something that we ask you to do. and that goes across everything from transport to any kind of public service. right. why should the public service worker have to pay for the mistakes made by that employer? that just happens to be a state institution? there is we say not as we do. absolutely. now the c, b a said that he doesn't want to increase the wages of its staff because he's worried, as it says that it would fuel a damaging wage price spiral. do you find the argument convincing? not at all. i think anyone with half a brain cannot believe that argument. if you've got to a business, an organization, a company, and your employees are struggling due to inflation. it, you know, in my opinion, it's your moral responsibility to make sure that they can feed themselves and close their children if people can't eat and they can't feed their children. and really, i mean, they're saying that inflation is up. this percentage reality is real times inflation for people is

a lot higher. you only just have to ask any one living in europe right now, as we know a lot of people living in europe coming from there originally and, and the price, the real terms, price of everything from energy to food, to transport, the everything is way higher. it's, you know, some people even saying it's up, you know, 20 percent more in real time. so if the c b were to raise the wages of his employees as they are demanding. do you think that was so set some sort of precedent for the national banks and do you think there will be a full effect where employees are employers, excuse me, would raise the the way just absolutely. that would what we would hope that would be the effect that surely that's a good thing, right? we're seeing across, across europe, we're seeing, you know, well on the u. k. let's say the u. k. right now we've got nurse is about to go on strike. we've got rail work is going on strike. they're not really asking for much pizza. what they're asking is to be paid enough so that they can not be out of pocket for the bad necessities that become way more expensive because of institutions and the decisions that have been made by,

by western governments. there's no doubt about that. they will say that they're saying, look, we, we've made decisions over the last year that of course, these problems and you are going to pay for it. well, that's not fair, is it? well, that's all for me today. it was great that you joined us up next to the labelle is on cross hope and hear from you. then o'neill will be with you. i'm ready for the english vehicle exam by the when you when i, when you list to let them with somebody, maybe the closer to the with

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ah. hello and welcome to cross stock. were all things we considered. i'm peter lavelle by joining washington's ukraine proxy war against russia. europe is made an irreversible choice. it is consigned itself to being a minor regional power in a multi polar world. cutting itself up from russia. europe has all but assured it will be overly dependent on the united states. that dependency will be costly. ah, crossing europe's choice, i'm joined by my guest. i see the post office in london. he is professor of international relations at the university of east london as well as editor of the journal of balkan and near eastern studies in north florida. we have tom, we won, go. he's publisher of gold, goats and guns, blog and newsletter. and in prague we have brad blank and.