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Ukraine-Russia prisoner swap negotiations continue despite missing deadline

Sailors of Ukrainian

Sailors of Ukrainian naval ships, which were seized by Russia in November 2018, attend a court hearing in Moscow earlier this month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says that negotiations to exchange prisoners with Russia are continuing despite earlier unconfirmed reports that a swap had been completed.

"The process of the mutual release of individuals held is in progress," the Ukrainian presidential office said in a post on its official Facebook page on August 30.

"Information about its completion does not correspond to reality," it added.

The post described reports to the contrary as "disinformation" and said that when a prisoner exchange is completed, "the president's office will announce it on official channels."

The post came after relatives of one of the 24 sailors being held by Russia told RFE/RL's Crimean Desk that they all had been freed.

Comment: RT reports:
The much-anticipated major prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine will not happen on Friday, despite earlier reports, Kiev said. This follows the buzz that a plane with people slated for exchange took off from Moscow.

"We can't name [the exact] date [of the exchange] but I can say that it won't happen today," the spokesperson for the Security Service of Ukraine, Elena Hitlyanskaya, said.

Earlier reports said that a plane, carrying a number of Ukrainian nationals held by Russia, was due to land in Kiev on Friday morning. Neither Moscow, nor Kiev confirmed this. Ukrainian officials later clarified that the talks on the prison exchange are still ongoing.

Hitlyanskaya said that the process is moving "as planned" and that there are "no obstacles" preventing the exchange from starting.

The possibility of a major prisoner swap was one of the stories dominating the news on Russian-Ukrainian relations in recent months. President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, discussed the issue over the phone in July. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that such an exchange requires "meticulous work" and cannot be rushed.

Ukraine has been demanding the release of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted by a Russian court of plotting terrorist attacks in Crimea. The filmmaker denies the allegations. Last month, Zelensky offered to swap Sentsov for journalist Kirill Vyshinsky, who was charged with treason in Kiev. The authorities accuse him of publishing false information and backing the breakaway People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) in eastern Ukraine. The journalist denies the allegations and argues that he had covered both sides of the conflict fairly.

After being detained for a year, Vyshinsky was released on Wednesday, with the condition that he will continue to appear in court for trial. His lawyer confirmed on Friday that the journalist remains in Ukraine and is staunchly against being included in a prisoner exchange.

Kiev also urged Moscow to free the crews of three warships, which were seized by the Russian Coast Guard in November. Two dozen sailors were arrested and charged with violating Russia's maritime border in the narrow Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, east of Crimea. Ukraine denies this, insisting that the vessels were seized in international waters.
See also:


Eye 1

US sanctions Iranian tanker released by Gibraltar & blacklists captain, threatens "anyone providing support"

oil tanker
© REUTERS/Jon Nazca
FILE PHOTO: Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, in the Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, August 18, 2019.
The US Treasury Department has blacklisted the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya - recently freed from a month-long detention in Gibraltar - and sanctioned its captain after an attempt to legally confiscate the ship failed.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control added the ship, formerly called Grace 1, and its captain Akhilesh Kumar to its Specially Designated Nationals list on Friday as the tanker's destination changed from Turkey to Lebanon. Washington has accused the vessel of crimes including money laundering and financing terrorism, filing a last-minute civil asset forfeiture suit earlier this month in an attempt to seize it as Gibraltar authorities allowed it to set sail after a lengthy detention.

In a statement released Friday, Treasury Under Secretary Sigal Mandelker said that the vessel was complicit in enabling the elite Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard "ship and transfer large volumes of oil, which they attempt to mask and sell illicitly to fund the regime's malign activities and propagate terrorism."

Comment: "Risks being sanctioned" because the US knows there are entities it can't afford to blacklist and it hopes that these threats will deter them, however, judging by Iran's attendance at the G7 and the many countries continuing to do business with Iran, these threats appear to be losing their bite:


USA

Tulsi Gabbard on DNC Dirty Tricks to Keep Her Out of Future Debates

Tulsi Gabbard democratic debates censorship
Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Wednesday and took on the Democratic National Committee for a "lack of transparency" on qualifying for the next round of debates.


Mr. Potato

Joe Biden unapologetic for fabricating Afghan war story: 'essence' was true

joe biden
Former Vice President Joe Biden is unapologetic for fabricating an emotional story about the war in Afghanistan, claiming its "essence" is true.

Biden, who is under fire after The Washington Post exposed a story he told about pinning a medal on a reluctant Navy officer as inaccurate, defended his conduct while campaigning in South Carolina on Thursday.

"I don't understand what they're talking about, but the central point is it was absolutely accurate what I said," Biden told The Post and Courier when asked about the controversy. "He refused the medal. I put it on him, he said, 'Don't do that to me, sir. He died. He died.'"

Light Saber

'BRICS was created as a tool of attack': Pepe Escobar interviews former Brazilian president Lula

Hu Jintao
© Dida Sampaio /Agencia Estado
Former Brazilian leader Lula holds hands with Chinese President Hu Jintao, left, at the BRICS summit in Brasilia on April 15, 2010. Lula wishes his country had a strategic partnership with Beijing.
Curitiba, Brazil In a wide-ranging, two-hour-plus, exclusive interview from a prison room in Curitiba in southern Brazil, former Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva re-emerged for the first time, after more than 500 days in jail, and sent a clear message to the world.

Amid the 24/7 media frenzy of scripted sound bites and "fake news", it's virtually impossible to find a present or former head of state anywhere, in a conversation with journalists, willing to speak deep from his soul, to comment on all current political developments and relish telling stories about the corridors of power. And all that while still in prison.

The first part of this mini-series focused on the Amazon. Here, we will focus on Brazil's relationship with BRICS and Beijing. BRICS is the grouping of major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - that formed in 2006 and then included South Africa in their annual meetings from 2010.


Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's show from 2016 for some background: Behind the Headlines: The Empire Strikes Back: BRICS under attack with coup in Brazil


Megaphone

Ireland blasts Britain as being 'totally unreasonable' over Brexit

Simon Coveney
© REUTERS
Ireland's Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said he "will not allow a really important element of the withdrawal agreement to be removed"
Ireland accused Britain of being "totally unreasonable" over Brexit on Friday, saying London had not made credible proposals to replace the Irish border backstop. But the British government insisted it had offered ways of solving the key sticking point.

More than three years after the country voted in a referendum to leave the bloc, Britain is heading toward a showdown with the European Union over its plans to leave the bloc, which is due to take place in just over two months time.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Prime Minister Boris Johnson's team had not offered any concrete alternatives to the existing planned 'backstop', which the EU wants to ensure an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Star of David

Saber-rattling: Israeli Air Force simulates strikes on Southern Lebanon with illegal low-altitude flights

israel jet fighter f-15 eagle
© Edi Israel/Flash90/File
Israeli F-15 Eagle fighter jet
Tensions between Israel and Lebanon escalated this week following an alleged Israeli attack on Hezbollah's media HQ in Beirut early Sunday morning. At a press event Thursday, the Israeli military accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards of being directly involved in Hezbollah's alleged efforts to build precision-guided missile factories.

Israeli Air Force fighters illegally crossed into Lebanese airspace on Friday and conducted low altitude reconnaissance flights in the country's south, Lebanon's National News Agency has reported, citing a correspondent.

According to the outlet, flights were carried out in areas on the Israeli-Lebanese border in the Dyre district, and 'mock raids' were carried out in the airspace over Naqoura, a small city containing the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Comment: Cowardly Israel may command the skies, but wars (should Israel be stupid or psychopathic enough to start one) are won on the ground. The IDF is a paper tiger and both Israel and Hezbollah know it. The IDF spends its time terrorizing Palestinian children. Hezbollah has been fighting with Syria against jihadis for nearly a decade. Who would you bet on?


Heart - Black

Lyin' Biden's emotional war story used repeatedly on campaign trail discovered to be false

Joe Biden
© COA/The Federalist
2020 presidential candidate, former VP Joe Biden
Joe Biden painted a vivid scene for the 400 people packed into a college meeting hall. A four-star general had asked the then-vice president to travel to Konar province in Afghanistan, a dangerous foray into "godforsaken country" to recognize the remarkable heroism of a Navy captain.

Some told him it was too risky, but Biden said he brushed off their concerns.

"We can lose a vice president," he said. "We can't lose many more of these kids. Not a joke."

The Navy captain, Biden recalled Friday night, had rappelled down a 60-foot ravine under fire and retrieved the body of an American comrade, carrying him on his back. Now the general wanted Biden to pin a Silver Star on the American hero who, despite his bravery, felt like a failure.

"He said, 'Sir, I don't want the damn thing!' " Biden said, his jaw clenched and his voice rising to a shout. " 'Do not pin it on me, Sir! Please, Sir. Do not do that! He died. He died!' "

Bad Guys

Maduro hops on propaganda bandwagon, blames Bolsonaro's 'fascist' government for Amazon fires

maduro atentat
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro of destroying and delivering the Amazon to the country's oligarchy.

"Venezuela condemns and repudiates Jair Bolsonaro's attitude in Brazil of handing over the Amazon to his friends, to the Brazilian landlord oligarchy that is destroying it, Venezuela repudiates and we raise our voice of protest and solidarity with the Brazilian people," said the Venezuelan leader.

The Venezuelan president expressed his discontent with the Bolsonaro government during a national broadcast on the country's radios and televisions.

Airplane

The Saker interviews Max van der Werff about the MH-17 conspiracy

MH17
Introduction: MH17 is to Novorussia, what the Markale (also see here) has been to Bosnia and Racak (also see here) has been to Kosovo: a typical false flag operation which pursued two goals: first, of course, to justify a military aggression and, second, to force everybody to chose one of two options: first, either pretend to believe the official narrative or, second, be vilified and discredited. From this perspective, the MH17 false flag has been a tremendous success, mostly due to the extremely successful lobotomy inflicted by the legacy Ziomedia on the western public opinion (I would argue that the Skripal fairy tale is even more self-evidently ridiculous than the MH17 fairy tale, and yet that was also swallowed hook line and sinker by most western "experts"). But then, we live in a post-9/11 world, in which neither facts nor logic matter much anymore, except for a rather small amount of people, including Max van der Werff who has proven to be one of the most tenacious and courageous investigative journalists. I am most grateful for his time and answers!

The Saker: First, a question about yourself: why and how did you get involved in this topic of MH17? What were you doing before you got involved in this topic?

Max van der Werff : The very moment the news of the shoot down of the Malaysian Boeing broke on July 17th 2014, I immediately realized this tragedy would have long term geopolitical implications. What further struck me was the fact most passengers were citizens of my country, The Netherlands.

Since childhood I have an interest in geopolitics and history. The fact my father was an immigrant from Indonesia surely contributed and as a teenager I read a lot about Dutch colonial history.