Welcome back to Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik, where we bring you news, politics and culture - without the red and blue treatment. I am John Kiriakou here with Michelle Witte.
We told you yesterday that Russia and Ukraine were accusing each other of mining the nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia and of planning a false flag operation. The explosion was apparently supposed to take place yesterday. It didn’t, of course. And now inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, who are on-site at Zaporizhzhia, tell us that there are no explosives and there never were. Instead, it seems that what we were seeing was a short-lived propaganda operation. // NBC News reported this morning that several former senior US officials held secret talks in New York last April with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to lay the initial groundwork for what could become peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. NBC says that Richard Haass, who until last Friday was the President of the Council on Foreign Relations, was accompanied by former National Security Council senior directors Charles Kupchan and Thomas Graham, both of whom are current fellows at the Council. The backchannel, or Track 2, diplomacy, also included Mary Beth Long, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense. There is no indication that anything substantive came out of the talks, and no indication of further meetings. // Ukrainian forces bombed a site in Donetsk last night that resulted in what witnesses are calling a “huge explosion.” The Russian media report that the bombing in Makiivka hit a civilian target, while the Ukrainians say their military hit a Russian army base. Tass reported that one person was killed and 68 were wounded.
We’re joined by Mark Sleboda. He’s an international affairs and security analyst.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-wagner-mutiny-belarus-d7134f34ccea592e52e1dcb39f4aeb94
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/world/europe/ukraine-strike-makiivka-russia-war.html
Questions:
Thanks for joining us, Mark. We’re glad to have you. Let’s begin with Zaporizhzhia. There was no attack. There was no explosion. And now the IAEA is telling us that literally nothing is happening there. What did we just see? Was it dueling propaganda operations?
What are your thoughts?
Track 2 diplomacy, that is, using otherwise private citizens as secret emissaries, is the norm in foreign policy. At least, that’s been my experience in government. In years past, I’ve been tasked to brief several secret backchannels to Saddam Hussein, for example. Should we be at all surprised that Richard Haass, the darling of the neoliberal foreign policy community, was tasked with meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov in New York in April?
We’re being told that they discussed Russia’s red lines and prospects for formal talks. Just how preliminary would those talks have been? And would it make sense to keep talks like that going when there is no indication that either side is ready for formal Track 1 talks?
The Ukrainian attack on Makiivka last night is not getting much play in the US press today. This is the site that the Ukrainians bombed earlier in the conflict that resulted in a huge loss of Russian lives. What’s the situation there?
Has the US Put out Feelers for Diplomacy with Russia in Ukraine? Does Russia Care? ZNPP Update, Makiivka Strikes...