 Russia has said that it is open for talks but not on Ukraine's terms. Where does the Ukraine stand today and are there any chances of peace? Just a week after the World Cup victory, women footballers in Spain are faced with a battle against the country's football federation. What does this movement mean for women in sports in the country and in the world? This is the Daily Deep Brief. These are our stories for the day and before you go any further, if you are watching this on YouTube, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. On the sidelines of the recent Bricks Summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was open to diplomatic solutions but blamed the West for belligerence. He said that Russia would not accept British ultimatums, extortion and threats and said there was a shortage of common sense. That's not the only development on that front. The chief of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigoshin, died in a plane crash a couple of days ago and while western media sources have been quick to pin the blame on Putin, there is no clear evidence per se. To make sense of all this, we go to Prabir Purgayastha. Thanks for joining us, Prabir. Can you start by telling us a bit about some of these speculations surrounding the death of the chief of the Wagner Group? Prigoshin. Prigoshin's death and I think this can be taken now, it's completely confirmed happened because the aircraft he was traveling in appeared to have met with an accident. It seems during the flight there was either an explosion due to a device which was planted there or due to reasons of whatever might be happening inside the aircraft that there was an explosion and the wing came off and the plane descended of course catastrophically killing all the passengers including Prigoshin and some of his very close colleagues. So this is what we know of course the question that arises that this is something which has been now speculated all over the world that was it Putin's orders? Because everything that happens in Russia is supposed to be directly controlled by Putin. Did Putin shoot down the plane as the Americans are saying? Is he responsible for the western media thing? Is he responsible for the death of Prigoshin and the shooting down on the aircraft? Now it's clear the aircraft wasn't shot down as initial rumors or initial news that was spent that it was shot down by anti-aircraft fire or missiles. It seemed to have had met with an either an explosive device or an accident that part is now clear. All the pictures very clearly show that the wing had detached before the plane descended. So there was either an explosion in the plane or there was an accident whatever it might be. So the question is if it was not an accident, if it was really man made in which case who is the guilty party? Who is the one who caused the accident or the explosion in the aircraft by which the aircraft fell to the ground and Prigoshin and his some of his close associates in the plane about I think total number is 10 died. Now when we had discussed the dot c pipeline we had said the needle of suspicion is on the United States and the NATO. In this case the flight takes place within Russian airspace. It started within Russia and therefore there would always be the needle of suspicion that it is the Russian government which would have who'd be behind this particularly given the fact that Wagner had led Prigoshin and led virtually a march to Moscow and it wasn't something which any country is going to appreciate and the fact that you have Wagner a military force which will be a private military force but still a military force which would say that we're going to march to Moscow is something which would of course go against the grain of any country. So there is a plausible argument that therefore after this whole issue has been handled therefore now Prigoshin has been taken out that's the argument the West has been given. There is also the other plausible argument that in this particular case the West would also have a West interest in taking Prigoshin out because it would make a the Wagner's influence in Africa maybe weaken it and they with what's happening in Niger and what's happening in different parts of the different countries in Africa it is a fact that Wagner was playing an important role over there and if Prigoshin goes then it is possible that Wagner will not be the effective force that it is today and therefore taking out Prigoshin is also in the interest of the United States and the NATO allies. So well it's as I said six of one half it isn't of the other and we are unlikely in the near future to know what has really happened but yes both possibilities exist as I said the needle of suspicion in the world really more towards still more towards more more towards the Russian government because it happened in Russia and there's no question that Prigoshin had taken a very high profile position on the issue of what happens to Wagner what he feels the way to conduct the war and all of this would not have been a particularly palatable stance that that would be loved shall be saved by the Russian government. So yes I think the I would say that it is a possibility but at the moment we don't know who has taken Prigoshin out or was it really an accident and one shouldn't really think that that is not a possibility because accidents do happen and this was an Embraer aircraft which is actually a Brazilian aircraft but Embraer has been taken over by the American one American aircraft company so how much also is the maintenance of such aircraft that also we do. Can you just also quickly respond to you know the comments made by the Russian foreign minister at the sidelines of the BRIC summit you know saying that there won't be negotiations on Ukraine's terms and about the West belligerents how do you see these comments going forward? See Russia has made its terms very clear that Ukraine war is not a war against Ukraine of course there are issues that they have raised we are in the Nazi remnants that were there post-war second world war which seem to have have some resurgence in Ukraine but beyond that their main issue was really NATO's expansion and the fact that NATO with Ukraine would have been say five to seven minutes missile distance from Ukraine to Moscow and that's something they were not going to accept they had also said for a long time NATO's eastward march to Russia's borders was something which poses a significant threat in their minds that United States and its allies could deliver what is called a first strike and then try and keep the retaliatory weak attack after the first strike from Russia to such level such a level that they would be able to quote unquote win the nuclear war now this is something which is completely mad and that's why it was called mutual assured destruction policy but it does appear that these calculations are still in place because that is the only argument with which we can understand why anti-missile weapons should be brought to the borders of Russia because it's clear both sides have a nuclear exchange that there's no chance of the globe to survive so the only possibility of a winning winnable nuclear war you strike first and you stop the retaliatory strike and that's been Russia's argument that putting missiles on our borders either in Romania or in Poland or in Ukraine is a security risk for us okay Poland Romania done deal but Ukraine we will not accept and this is the red line that they had put in front of NATO and that is why if you remember in December January all these letters were exchanged between NATO the United States and other countries and Russia where Russia said we want guarantees of peace and we want Ukraine to be neutral we do not want any missiles on our borders and they even said the missiles that you have in Romania Poland also should be negotiated but as you know NATO and the United States decided that they had nothing to negotiate and it was a sovereign right of Ukraine to enter NATO if they wanted and therefore they had to put missiles if they wanted in such a NATO country now this is the crux of the issue and this is where as far as the Ukraine war is concerned there is absolutely no ground that has been reached in terms of narrowing so both sides are as farther apart as they were at the time and it does appear that the United States and its NATO allies believe that if the war continues it will weaken Russia more than it will weaken United States and NATO countries and therefore this continued war against Russia fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian is a policy which is good for the United States and its allies European allies this seems to be the idea now Ukraine is in a position where its daily budget has to be met by essentially United States and European allies the EU countries without that they can't even meet their daily budget so therefore they are financially in a situation of complete dependence forget about the military one they can't even pay their government officials money they can't run their any part of their economy without completely hand out from the west that is the situation they are in therefore for them to be able to negotiate independently of the European Union and United States impossible and this is the reason when Boris Johnson came to scupper the agreement that Ukraine and Russia had worked out at actually in Istanbul that if you remember Ukraine had to back off from that because they were told you do it then you know all money monies that we give you is off you're on your own completely so that is still where it is we do not see any softening on European Union or NATO's behalf let of course the United States is an ocean away so it is not directly in the line of fire but European countries are their arms are the ones which are sustaining Ukraine and it is also true that European Union's economy has been hit much harder than that of the United States because it is dependent on cheap gas and oil from Russia so given that given this that within the European Union also there doesn't seem to be major rethinking at least among the governmental players is something a cause for worry so till the people express their opinion that this war is not in our interest the peace forces peace movement pressurizes their government is there going to be a peace movement in the United States we don't see it at the moment it seems among the right wing there is thinking that we should focus on China not so much on Russia but that I suspect is more the shall we say the white settler colonial powers wanting to want to really control the yellow menace rather than fight with other white nation like Russia could be the reason I'm not so sure that there is anything beyond this who should be our main enemy is the is the is the only division that you seem to see in the political establishment of the United States but yes amongst the American people there may be there may be some fatigue with war in the European Union there may be some fatigue with the war and how much of fatigue with what there is in Ukraine is a question because it's we can see that the conscription is not going well for the Ukrainian forces and people are not willing to be conscripted to fight what they clearly now see is more or less and losing more so given that it does seem that yes maybe three to six months down the line we'll have a possibility of negotiations countries like Brazil countries like India may even best Asian countries may play a part in that may not we'll have to see but at the moment there is nothing that we can see which shows an indication that there is a there is a thinking that this war should stop and instead the thinking should be is that if the war continues Russia will weaken and that is in our larger interest and Russia's weakening means this huge resources that Russia is sitting on that might become available to now shall we say global capital which is really United States and Western European capitalist forces and that is still seems to be their main line of thinking so I don't see any major peace initiatives coming from any of these places so yes I would say that we are in for a longer period of war before we start seeing some moves towards peace and at that point of time the a lot of the countries which are not directly involved may have a place then they have a position of them saying okay shall we mediate at the moment I don't think anybody can really help even mediate between Russia and NATO which are the two forces at war at the moment right thank you for being for this update not even a week after the first World Cup win in Sydney Spain's women footballers are united in reward close to 80 players have signed a letter informing the Spanish football Federation that they are unwilling to play for the country unless Luis Rubiales the president of the Federation is removed and the management addresses the concerns raised by the players this comes after Rubiales's behavior at the official FIFA World Cup presentation ceremony where he forcibly kissed player Jenny Hermoso on the mouth but the stand taken by the players is also about other long-standing issues including the role and position of senior team manager Jorge Valdes in an emergency session of the Federation Rubiales refused to resign instead he made a rambling speech where he talked of fake feminism and character assassination the Federation has 140 members of which only six are women and Rubiales's speech was met with widespread applause much to the disgust of the wider football world to talk more on this story we go to Sharda thanks for joining us Sharda both FIFA and the Spanish prosecutor's office have said that they are investigating this case what can you tell us about you know Rubiales's brazenness despite clear evidence of misconduct Rubiales's brazenness just comes from a long generation and a long history of sports Federation bosses thinking that they actually control the lives and the fates and you would think the personal freedoms of their athletes in this case you're seeing that he's immediately he has turned the blame on to onto the player he said no no it was consensual with Jenny Hermoso this is fake feminism and all the other kind of things that you'll see there are so many parallels that you can even draw with the case that's happening with the wrestlers in India except at this time the Federation and the and the government is not after the wrestling Federation boss for because he is one of their own but in the case of Rubiales I think that is a great deal of public protest and maybe pressure on the government and and you know the prosecutor's office to act but his response is just classic you know very powerful men thinking that they control they have the right to do whatever they want and and it can be all it's all water under the bridge as long as no one makes a stink or uses the noise about right like you said you know so Spain is not the only country where such battles are happening like you said India is one such example as well is it time for women in sports to start you know thinking about building their own institutions and structures which are independent from institutions running men's sports it will be very difficult for women's sport to do that because the entire structure of world sport is built around this you know the central ruling body that runs every sport has to have men and women that are there and they lay down the rules now the only organization that has broken away in the sense and set out on its own is women's tennis you know which is its own its own board its own marketing agency and so on that's the only one that's there and you would you would hope that there will be no such allegations heard about you know WPA stood up for the Chinese player when she complained about her own about being harassed by someone in you know in a senior position and and in the government WPA did stand up for her for some amount of time but in international sport it's very difficult for sports bodies to sort of break away because there's a there has been an in cricket we saw at the start of the 21st century there was a desire to sort of consolidate it make it one whole and then say look this is how we're going to do it the international Olympic committee is trying to now make this seem become a gender equal Olympics same number of men same number of women similarly representations in boards and in parliament it's not successful at particularly at the at the administrative level I wonder what impact they could have on because FIFA is as big as the international Olympic committee it's as powerful a body because of the fact that it is in charge of the biggest sport in the world and the the only sort of positive from this is that you are this has got a very big it's become a very big piece of news it's all everywhere there discussions happening about it and maybe there will be pushback from say other organizations let's see what the UEFA says about because Spain is a part of of UEFA let's see what UEFA says about this you know let's see that there are I don't know whether there are any enough sporting laws in place that particularly in football that formally say that you can be punished for harassing or bullying or they have all kinds of things that are just sort of almost lip service to okay we are we are kind of a gender sensitive organization but whether they are able to do something about it remains to be seen so of course there are many other federations many other sporting teams also facing such issues for instance in Nigeria there is the women's team is facing issues of pay like lower pay you know do these issues overshadow what is happening on the pitch you know do they sort of take away from the positives that we see of women participating in sports and doing well and you know all the all that impact is it taken away from such issues that are coming up I think particularly in in the light of Spain's terrific win at the women's World Cup football this has literally become you know it's such a sign of just bad you know administration bad governance how they're running the the program and the fact that the women are able to push through all this and still put in a great performance to win the World Cup reminds you of all the odds that women face when they compete in elite sport at a very high level all the other sort of accusations that you hear about you know what happened with Nigeria with about pay you would have to think it's as important to talk about those particularly when there are big events on to just highlight it because otherwise it tends to get forgotten you know in men's football you hear stories of people being under trial for tax evasion and so on you know and we take those things quite lightly because it's just white collar whatever cry in inverted common alleged white collar cry but in women's sport it is a lot of it is detrimental to the physical safety of women that are taking part in sport to their livelihood issues when it comes to pay and so on that is important that these things are talked about you know and that they highlighted what is seen in in in say a situation that all the French players are having a problem with their coach in a men's football World Cup takes on a completely different meaning if there are women players involved then you don't know what that dynamic that's at play when it comes to women athletes and until very very recently people didn't care about it they paid no attention to it you know we all know the story of gymnastics and US gymnastics and what happened so I think particularly women's sport we have to be particularly vigilant about talking about these issues bringing them and raising pressure against governing bodies as to how they love their sports and how they treat their athletes right thanks Sharda for this update this is all we have in this episode of the daily debrief for more details on these stories and for other such stories visit our website people's dispatch.org and our social media pages on facebook twitter and instagram for more video updates visit our youtube page thank you for watching