The good news is, they’re not on my list of hostages — not yet, at any rate; but they have made it onto the Kremlin’s rapidly growing inventory of “Foreign Agents,” loosely defined as anyone who ever has been, may have been, may now be, may ever in the future be, or in someone’s wildest imagination could be thought to be associated with or influenced by a foreign entity . . . but in reality including anyone who dares to criticize the Putin government, its policies, or the Russian military.

That could very well be you or me, if we lived in Russia.

It’s no longer an exclusive list, and it’s definitely not one to which any sane person would aspire. But two independent journalists — Olesya Gerasimenko and Sergei Yezhov — have just been given the “honor.” Gerasimenko works for independent online news publication Verstka, while Yezhov is an investigative journalist with The Insider.

The two journalists share their new privileged positions with a lawyer, Grigory Vaypan; a St. Petersburg deputy and LGBT activist, Sergei Troshin; and a former St. Petersburg municipal deputy, Fyodor Utkin.

If any of these five honorees have ever considered leaving Mother Russia, this might be the time.

Just sayin’ . . .

*. *. *

In the meantime, the wait for information about Vladimir Kara-Murza continues. Tomorrow — Monday, when the IK-6 penal colony reopens for “business as usual” — there should be some further word as to his status and his physical condition. Hopefully, it won’t be bad news.

And, today being Sunday, we pay our weekly tribute once more to all those HOSTAGES locked away in Russian prisons for strictly political reasons:

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

. . . and the hundreds of others whose names remain unknown to me. You have not been, and will not be, forgotten.

Brendochka
7/7/24