Global News Podcast - Kremlin confirms secret agent part of historic prisoner swap

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

The Kremlin confirms convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov, released in a huge east-west prisoner swap, was a Russian security agent.The historic exchange freed 24 prisoners from seven countries - three of whom have now returned to the US.Also: Hundreds of mourners gather in Doha to offer funeral prayers for assassinated Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh, and a senior North Korean defector says his country is rooting for another Donald Trump presidency.The day’s top stories from BBC News and our correspondents across the world. Delivered twice a day on weekdays, daily at weekends.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and at 13 hours GMT on Friday 2nd August, these are our main stories.

The Kremlin confirms the convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov, released in a huge East-West prisoner swap, was a Russian security agent. Meanwhile, President Biden and Vice President Harris have welcomed home the Americans freed from Russian jails, while the Trump campaign tries to claim credit. Hundreds of mourners gather in Doha, Qatar to offer funeral prayers for assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Also in this podcast. We want a change because we can no longer stand this government. There is so much misery, so much hunger, so much crime, so much injustice towards innocent people. The results of Venezuela's presidential election remain disputed. The US declares the opposition have won.

Nicolas Maduro says otherwise. We speak to one protester ahead of a nationwide mass demonstration on Saturday. It's the morning after the night before in Washington, the afternoon after in Moscow, and with the prisoner exchange between Russia and the West now complete, the talking has begun. One of the three Americans who arrived at Andrews Air Base, the former US Marine Paul Whelan,

has been speaking about his sense of relief as his aircraft flew him to freedom. So as we came over England and I looked down, you know, that's when it became real. We flew over Ireland, then Canada and into America. And then I knew I was home. So getting off the plane, seeing the president, the vice president, that was nice. It was a good homecoming. I went on a two week vacation. You know, the FSB grabbed me, said I was a spy. I'm apparently a general in the army, a secret agent for DIA. This is the nonsense narrative they came up with, and they just wouldn't let it go.

So, you know, this is how Putin runs his government. This is how Putin runs his country. In Moscow, the Kremlin has confirmed that Vadim Krasnikov, who was freed as part of the deal, was indeed an agent with the FSB security service. He was serving a life sentence in Germany for murder. I heard more from our Russia editor at BBC Monitoring, Vitaly Shevchenko. What happened last night, what happened yesterday, sheds a very rare light onto how these things worked. Well, to start with, when Mr. Krasikov was arrested back in 2019,

the Kremlin, the very same spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, he said Russia has nothing to do with the crime for which Mr. Krasikov was arrested and later convicted, the murder. And later today, he said, well, yeah, he's a member of the FSB. And also Dmitry Peskov said something really interesting about two children, two minors who were released as part or were sent to Russia as part of the deal. They are the children of two Russian agents, spies, convicted in Slovenia. And apparently they had no idea they were Russian until they landed in Moscow. And they don't even speak Russian, apparently. And that's why President Putin, who met them at the airport last night, he addressed them in Spanish. He said,

buenas noches, good evening. So it's just a fascinating insight into the world of spycraft. And Vladimir Putin greeted these people including Mr Krasikov at the airport. Yes it's extraordinary given that Mr Krasikov is a convicted murderer, somebody who Vladimir Putin had called previously a patriot. Mr Krasikov is a prized member of the security services. And of course, we shouldn't really be surprised that the state and Vladimir Putin personally are happy to see him back. The message is clear to, first of all, members of Russia's security services, that if you get caught, we'll get you out, we'll bring you home.

And it's a very important message to send, given how many of Russian spies have been exposed and captured in the West recently. Vitaly Shevchenko. In the United States, this is an election year, so things are even more intensely political than usual. No surprise then, perhaps, that the returning prisoners were greeted as they landed by President Joe Biden and his Vice President, Kamala Harris. My job is to make sure, number one, they don't get them. If they do, we get them back. I don't buy this idea that you're not going to let these people rot in jail. I'm very thankful for our president and what he has done over his entire career, but in particular as it relates to these families and these individuals,

what he has been able to do to bring the allies together. This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy. She's the likely Democrat candidate to face Donald Trump. Mr. Trump himself said the deal set a bad precedent and suggested the United States had come off worse in the exchange. Indeed, his nominee for vice president, J.D. Vance, suggested that Mr. Trump himself should get any credit. Look, I think it's great news, at least what little we know. We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with.

But we have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home? And I think it's because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump's about to be back in office, so they're cleaning house. That's a good thing, and I think it's a testament to Donald Trump's strength. However, the Democrats will certainly see this as their victory ahead of November's election. I heard more from our North America correspondent, Namia Iqbal. Well, look, I think it's a very good look for President Biden. He has said there's no higher priority for him than to bring Americans home safely. It's a very important theme to him, bringing our boys and girls home out of harm's way. It's what drove him to withdraw from Afghanistan, if you think about it. Of course, there was huge controversy over the way that

happened. But he can say to the Americans, look, our people are home safe. And when you see those images on the tarmac last night of the three former American prisoners back in the US, smiling, good spirits, it's a very primal image that will resonate with a lot of Americans. For the Democratic Party, it's seen as a big win. The Republican Party are looking for something to criticize with it, although they have also, of course, welcomed these Americans home. Whether or not this will factor into voters' minds, you mentioned it's an election year, I'm not really sure. It certainly gives the Democratic Party and Harris and whoever her VP is a good campaign line. But I don't think it will be a deciding factor for those on the fence. We, of course, have some time to go before the election. Anything can happen. But both sides, we heard that clip from J.D. Vance, using the former prisoners as political footballs already. Yes, it started off as a normal

comment in which he said it was great that the Americans are back home. But then it went in this completely different direction in which Donald Trump seemed to get credit for it. I think he obviously is echoing Trump's comments from May, in which Trump said only he could free Evan Gershkovich and that Vladimir Putin will only do it for me, not for anyone else. And we'll be paying nothing. But that was all disproved, wasn't it? After the release of Mr. Gershkovich, along with Paul Whelan and Al-Suhur Kermesheva. And the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, was actually asked about Vance's claims at a press conference, and he dismissed it. He basically said, I don't follow. Has there been any criticism that the deal could embolden Moscow to take more prisoners in the

future? Well, that's certainly the line of attack the Republicans are going with. Of course, the prisoner swaps are legacy boosts for Biden. You don't often get that for US presidents and foreign policy. But there are costs. I mean, Biden didn't get something for nothing. Russians convicted of serious crimes are freed. And so for many, the tradeoff would seem unjust. And we've already seen Republicans such as the House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issuing a warning. I mean, they're celebrating the deal between the US, Russia and several other nations, but they're saying that the deal of trading hardened Russian criminals for innocent Americans

will do very little to discourage Vladimir Putin. And on that thought from Nomi Iqbal, here's our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg. Of course, that fuels concern that if it's happened now, it's going to happen again, right? I remember back in 2022, when Russia and America agreed to a prisoner swap, and Russia released Brittany Greiner, a US basketball star, who was in a Russian jail for drugs offenses. And in return, America released a convicted Russian arms dealer, Victor Boot. And at the time, there were critics who said, well, this is just going to encourage Russia to do this again,

to take more hostages, arrest more Americans in order to trade them for Russians jailed abroad. Very soon after that, Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested on assignment in Yekaterinburg. And for months, Russian officials really haven't been hiding the fact that they view Mr. Gershkovich or viewed him as a bargaining chip. So once again, we see a large scale prisoner swap. And of course, for the friends and the families of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmashva, and the Russian dissidents who were freed from Russian jails. Of course, this is a moment for great celebration. But the concern is, I think, that the takeaway from this for Moscow will be what?

OK, hostage diplomacy works. And that means that we're probably going to see more of this. In other words, more prisoners in Russian jails, foreigners and Russian citizens being used as bargaining chips. Steve Rosenberg. Now to Qatar. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Where the funeral of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been taking place.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at the mosque in the Qatari capital Doha for the ceremony. Ismail Haniyeh was killed along with his bodyguard at a hotel in Iran on Wednesday. Israel hasn't commented on what happened, but Hamas and Iran have both said they would retaliate. Our correspondent Orla Guerin is in Doha. She sent this report. Under a burning sun, crowds streamed to Doha's largest mosque for funeral prayers for the slain Hamas leader. To many in the West, he was a terrorist. To many here, he was a defender of the Palestinian people. There was grief and plenty of anger towards Israel. They kill us, so we will kill them, one man told us. We want revenge. It's human nature. The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh has reverberated around the region and beyond. The US President Joe Biden

said it was not helpful for achieving a ceasefire in Gaza. Haniyeh was the lead negotiator for Hamas. Palestinian sources say he, more than other Hamas leaders, wanted to agree a truce. Now he is dead and Iran is promising to hit back hard against Israel. The Middle East, already near boiling point, is bracing for what may come next. In Nigeria, several people were shot dead on Thursday at the start of a series of protests against the cost of living. Chanting slogans such as, We are hungry, young demonstrators have been taking to the streets in cities across the country. But the authorities have now imposed a 24-hour curfew in four states in the north to try to prevent further unrest.

Some major cities appeared calm early on Friday. This protester in Lagos accused the government of using force to intimidate people. I can tell you that there is so much of fear they are trying to instil in people for coming out to a protest today and that is what is going on right now to speak. They are trying to intimidate, they are trying to make people not to come out at all, at all. So have the curfews stopped the protests? A question for our reporter in Lagos, Simi Jola-Osho. They have worked in most states. I've actually just been told that in one state, Jigawa, protesters actually came out this morning. They were dispersed by soldiers and that was despite

the curfew. But in other states, it has seemed to work. Protesters are abiding by the curfew, especially in Kano, which is the country's second biggest state. And Kano saw the largest crowds on the first day of protests yesterday. Many businesses were shut. Protesters set tires alight in front of the House of the State Governor. But it unfortunately ended with police firing live bullets and tear gas into the crowd, leading to a confirmed death of at least three people. And I know four people were taken to hospital to be treated for injuries. And those curfews enforced with a lot of security? Yes, yes. I've been told in many to one organizer in one state and in Kano as well.

Driving around this morning has been very hard. There are several checkpoints as well as soldiers and even military patrolling the streets. And here in Lagos, protesters have still come out. There are a couple hundred people in the same area that they were protesting yesterday. And again, it's still a very heavy police presence. It's been non-confrontational here. But I know it's the same in states in the southeast, in Delta states as well. People have come out. The news of the deaths yesterday hasn't deterred people from coming out, but also increased security presence. And the slogans they're

chanting, we are hungry. Well, I mean, people have a right to eat, don't they? Yes, they certainly do. And that's what they were chanting yesterday when I marched alongside the protesters, just observing what they were able to afford what they could before. Talking about how they themselves have been affected by the economic hardship, they say, many Nigerians are facing in the country. They've been requesting for the government to do something to reduce the price of fuel and the price of goods and food, which has doubled and even tripled in some states over the last year. And this is something they said they're still going to keep protesting about over the next eight days.

Or one person told me he's going to keep coming out as long as he can until he feels like he's being heard by the government. Semi-Jola Osho in Lagos. Still to come. If Trump is elected, this will truly be a once-in-a-thousand-year opportunity for North Korea. A senior North Korean defector says his country is rooting for another Donald Trump presidency. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads?

Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. For 15 months now, Sudan has been gripped in a deadly civil war between the rapid support forces and the regular army. On Thursday, the United Nations declared a state of famine in the Zamzam refugee camp near the besieged city of Al-Fasha in North Darfur.

And workers in Sudan are now warning that the food crisis could worsen if humanitarian conditions are not opened in areas affected by conflict. They say Zamzam is particularly short of essential supplies, including food and medicine. It hosts half a million displaced people. Stéphane Doyon oversees Médecins Sans Frontières emergency response in Sudan. He's been telling my colleague Andrew Peach about the problems his group is facing. We are speaking about a very sizable population that is in a very difficult situation. We have our supplies cut. We can manage, for example, for treating infection, we almost don't have any more amoxicillin, so we shift to another antibiotic.

And in a few weeks, we have to start to stop some treatments, you know, and ration what we are doing if the truck did not get there i mean you need tens of trucks every month and we are not there i mean we have two trucks we sent six weeks ago and they are still blocking cap cabilla rsf is blocking this supply so what i mean what you're doing is heroic but in the end the situation is just getting worse and worse and worse because the level of response is nowhere near matching the escalation of the problem exactly i mean the situation is very critical in in zamzam and el fasher el fasher is a city under siege our hospitals have been hit 10 times i mean the situation is very critical there is only one functioning public

hospital that has been hit last Monday. It's not fully functioning. And when you say the rapid support forces are stopping your trucks getting through, are they doing that to intentionally cause harm to the people who need the food? Or do they have security concerns? Or what's behind that? We don't know. We are constantly negotiating. And there is always another argument for why the trucks are not released. So we are really pressing for the truck to be released and we are still under negotiation, but we need those trucks to pass through and we need those trucks to reach some time. Stéphane Doyen from the medical charity MSF. Venezuela's government says more than a thousand

protesters have been arrested since demonstrations broke out following the widely disputed results of Sunday's presidential election. President Maduro claimed victory for a third term, but the opposition have accused him of electoral fraud and many governments around the world have refused to recognise the result without proof. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said there was overwhelming evidence the opposition had won. President Maduro has ordered the Supreme Court to take action against protesters and called for the opposition leader, Maria Machado, to be arrested. She's gone into hiding and has called for a mass demonstration on Saturday. Venezuela won and now it's time to collect. We must remain firm, organised and mobilised with the pride of having achieved a historic victory on July 28th, and the awareness that to claim

victory we will go all the way. We will uphold the truth because the world will see the strength and determination of a society determined to live in freedom. From Caracas is our correspondent Ione Wells. strength and determination of a society determined to live in freedom. From Caracas is our correspondent Ione Wells. Isabella, not her real name, is one of dozens of families waiting for answers outside this police station in Caracas. The neighbourhoods of Caracas began to descend from the mountains. From the Petares Lung, they started to go down, shouting with pots, pans or flags. Barefoot children, mothers, carrying children to the march.

The armored paramilitaries of Maduro's supporters yelled at us, cursed us, threw a stone at us. They told us, viva Maduro. We went out to march. We want a change because we can no longer stand this government. There is so much misery, so much hunger, so much crime, so much injustice towards innocent people. Her son, one of hundreds of people detained in protests against President Maduro. The National Guard grabbed my son unjustly because he was not harming anyone.

My son did not have stones, did not have weapons. He only protested. They beat him. They accused him of being a terrorist for defending their country, for wanting a change. Isabella cries when she outlines why her family and so many others felt the need to protest. We want a future for our children, for our grandchildren, for the entire country. There is so much misery, many people eating in the streets, many people dying in hospitals. I had a grand daughter who died on 6th December last year because there was no oxygen in the hospitals. There were 12 children who died because there was no oxygen. I want Venezuela to be the same as before, where we work with dignity, we earn a decent salary.

President Maduro has accused the opposition of starting a coup by disputing the election result and has denied the electoral fraud they accuse him of. This is all directed by a perverse and macabre duo that has to take responsibility, Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado. It's not just criminal because of the violence, but because they look for criminals to attack their own people. Government's critics don't want to stop their protest, but the fear of what will happen if they do is growing. Ione Wells in Caracas. A senior North Korean defector has told the BBC that the country

is hoping Donald Trump becomes president so it can restart negotiations. Ri Il-gyu was working as a diplomat in Cuba when he fled with his family to South Korea at the end of last year. In his first interview with an international news outlet, he's been speaking to our Seoul correspondent, Jean McKenzie. Hello, nice to meet you. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. When I meet Mr. Ri, he's accompanied by a bodyguard and two agents from South Korea's intelligence service. It's not often such a high-ranking official turns their back on the North Korean regime. And so as he raced to the airport in the dead of night, giving his family just six hours' notice,

he was making a life-or-death gamble. Most North Koreans who are caught escaping will typically be tortured for a few months, then released. But for us elites, there are only two options. Either I'd have been executed, or I'd have been sent to a political prison camp for life. I could accept my own death, but the fear of my family being killed was overwhelming. As a former diplomat, Mr. Ri has a rare insight into what this repressive state wants from the rest of the world.

This was Kim Jong-un welcoming Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang in June. But despite the pair's recent friendship, Mr. Ri tells me that North Korea's ultimate goal is still to cut a deal with the United States. Hey, I'm over here. I want to call up Chairman Kim. Although these talks between Trump and Kim broke down in 2019, Pyongyang still sees the former president as their best chance of success. If Trump is elected, this will truly be a once-in-a-thousand-year opportunity for North

Korea. They believe they can negotiate with him and use the personal friendship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim to their advantage. And they might be right. At a recent rally, the presidential hopeful said he too wanted to reignite this friendship. When we get back, I get along with him. He'd like to see me back too. I think he misses me if you want to know the truth. So what is North Korea's strategy when it comes to the United States? Mr. Ri tells me that North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons. Instead, diplomats hope they could convince Trump to lift sanctions in return for freezing their nuclear program.

But, he says, Pyongyang would not be negotiating in good faith. So if North Korea were to offer to freeze its current arsenal of nuclear weapons and stop its nuclear weapons development, you're saying that that would not be the truth? 100% deception. The North Korean leader demands total loyalty from his citizens. But years of poverty and hunger have chipped away at people, the diplomat says. There's no genuine loyalty left, only forced loyalty. Kim Jong-un knows his support is waning. That's why he's intensifying his reign of terror. The systems of control are now so strong, it is impossible to topple this brutal dictatorship, he believes. Change must come slowly, persistently, from outside and within. Gene McKenzie.

Artificial intelligence is no longer the future. It's part of our daily lives. So it's no surprise that the leading maker of AI chips, NVIDIA, is one of the world's most valuable companies, worth more than $3 trillion. However, the US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the company after complaints from competitors that it's abusing its considerable market dominance. The BBC's Pierre-Antoine Denis has been following the story. The investigators are looking at whether NVIDIA pressured cloud providers to buy multiple NVIDIA

products. You have to remember NVIDIA commands roughly 80% of the AI chip market. So the question that the DOJ in the US is trying to figure out is whether NVIDIA is now in a position to strong arm anyone who wants to get an AI chip to either buy their product or they have to pay higher prices and they will not be able to operate as they want. And it follows French antitrust enforcers that flagged a similar practice last month and are preparing to bring charges. So lots of positive news around NVIDIA in the last few months. Now, maybe we're going to be seeing NVIDIA associated with much more negative headlines in the next few weeks. Pierre-Antoine Denis. From much maligned garden snails to tool-using octopuses,

mollusks are among the most diverse animal groups on the planet. But their origins are a mystery. Now, researchers say a half-a-billion-year-old fossil of a spiny slug could help shed light on what the earliest species looked like. Helen Briggs has the details. The shell-less, thumb-sized creature lived on the seafloor at a time when very early forms of most of the major animal groups we know today were starting to appear in the fossil record.

The researchers, including scientists from the University of Oxford, say the fossil resembled a rotting plastic bag on first examination, but under the microscope was found to be incredibly rare and special. They say the new fossil, called Shyshenia, will help them piece together how animals as different as a squid and an oyster evolved from flat, shell-less slugs covered in a protective spiny armour. Mollusks today include some of the best-known animals on the planet, from tiny garden snails and slugs to colossal squids and octopuses. Helen Briggs.

And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Sarah Kimberley and the producer was Ella Bicknell. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts.

But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.