Background Briefing: August 1, 2024
Russia Swaps Innocent Hostages For Putin’s Spies, Criminals and Hackers
We begin with today’s prisoner swap with Russia that involved an exchange which took place at an airport in Ankara, Turkey with 24 prisoners imprisoned in seven different countries including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine arrested in 2018, along with Russian dissidents Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara Murza. Joining us to discuss how innocent hostages are exchanged for Putin’s spies, criminals and hackers is Olga Lautman, a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis who is also the creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast series, which features expert discussions on the Kremlin’s internal affairs, global operations, and tactics used from their hybrid warfare toolkit to destabilize Western democracies. She has a Substack newsletter covering Russia, Ukraine, Eastern, and Central Europe with a focus on Russia’s intelligence operations available at olgalautman.substack.com.
Will Netanyahu Drag the US Into Another Forever War in the Middle East?
Then we examine the possibility of a wider war in the Middle East with Iran’s Supreme Leader vowing revenge for the assassination of the Hamas political leader in an IRGC guesthouse in Tehran. Joining us is Adam Weinstein, a Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. A former Marine deployed to Afghanistan, he previously worked as senior law and policy analyst at the National Iranian American Council and we discuss his article at The Nation, “Will Israel Drag the US into a New Forever War.”
A Profile of a Possible VP Pick, Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz
Then finally we get a profile on Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota who is among the contenders for Vice President on the surging Harris for President ticket. Joining us is Lawrence Jacobs, the McKnight Presidential Chair in Public Affairs and the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies, and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey School and the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. His books include Who Governs? Presidents, Public Opinion, and Manipulation and Democracy under Fire: Donald Trump and the Breaking of American History.