It’s Sunday again, and time for a repeat of my weekly tribute to the hostages being held on strictly political grounds in Russia’s prison system. But the form of this week’s message is a bit different, as I cannot resist referencing an interview granted the BBC by Leonid Volkov, one of the leading members of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (Russian initials: FBK). Founded by the late Alexei Navalny, the FBK continues to operate under the guidance of Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya. And Volkov — himself a recent victim of violence designed to frighten the FBK out of existence — has courageously sworn to keep it alive.

Describing the attack outside of his home in Tallinn, Lithuania, in March of this year — when he was disabled with pepper spray and then fiercely beaten with hammers by his assailants — Volkov did not hesitate to place the blame squarely on Vladimir Putin’s shoulders:

“We always knew we are fighting against, like a crazy, fascist dictator, who doesn’t recognise any red lines.” [Laura Kuenssberg, BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, May 18, 2024.] He accused Putin of “killing thousands of people” — political opponents — both in Russia and abroad.

Urging world leaders to continue sending military aid to Ukraine, and not to consider trying to negotiate a settlement with Russia, he said that Putin is “bluffing in a way to present himself like much stronger than he is, hopeful it will be enough to force Ukraine and its Western allies to enter some negotiation . . . don’t get bluffed.” And further, that there must be “military pressure, economic pressure, political pressure, from inside, from outside . . . If there are 50 things we can do, we have to do all 50 of them, if you do 49, that’s not enough, because that’s the greatest threat to the world that we’ve seen in 80 years.” [BBC, id.]

Those are not my words; they are the words of an insider, one who has lived under the Putin regime and been forced to flee his native land, to take refuge in Lithuania in order to survive . . . yet even there to be hunted down and mercilessly beaten as a warning to keep quiet.

Still, like Alexei Navalny himself, Volkov and the other members of his Anti-Corruption Foundation refuse to be silenced. Their verbal revolution continues — to honor their founder, to free those already imprisoned, and hopefully once and for all to stop the carnage.

*. *. *

I have included here a screen shot of Leonid Volkov, taken during his BBC interview, in order to call attention to the sign over his right shoulder (upper left corner of the picture). It contains a familiar — and most apt — quotation that none of us should ever forget:

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” *

*. *. *

And so, once more: To those known . . .

Vladimir Kara-Murza – HOSTAGE
Evan Gershkovich – HOSTAGE
Paul Whelan – HOSTAGE
Ilya Yashin – HOSTAGE
Robert Woodland Romanov – HOSTAGE
Boris Akunin – HOSTAGE
Marc Hilliard Fogel – HOSTAGE
Asya Kazantseva – HOSTAGE
Ilya Barabanov – HOSTAGE
Alsu Kurmasheva – HOSTAGE
Aleksandr Skobov – HOSTAGE
Antonina Favorskaya – HOSTAGE
Oleg Orlov – HOSTAGE
Boris Kagarlitsky – HOSTAGE
Oleg Navalny – HOSTAGE
Ksenia Karelina – HOSTAGE
Ksenia Fadeyeva – HOSTAGE
Lilia Chanysheva – HOSTAGE
Vadim Ostanin – HOSTGE
Sergei Udaltsov – HOSTAGE
Konstantin Gabov – HOSTAGE
Danuta Perednya – HOSTAGE
Olesya Krivtsova – HOSTAGE

. . . and those hundreds of others whose names remain unknown to me . . . you are not forgotten, nor have you been abandoned. The fight continues on your behalf, by good men and women who refuse “to do nothing.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/19/24

* The origin of this quotation remains in dispute. Was it Edmund Burke, as most generally believed? Perhaps British philosopher John Stuart Mill? We’ll just have to leave that to the experts.