And the star of this week’s “Hostages for Putin” extravaganza is . . .

Alsu Kurmasheva, age 47, wife and mother, journalist for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Arrested in Kazan while doing her job on October 18, 2024, for alleged failure to register as a “foreign agent.” After being held for nearly two months, additional charges of allegedly disseminating “fake news” were filed on December 12th. And then, nothing . . . until she was suddenly and hastily brought to trial on July 22, 2024, convicted of spreading false information about the Russian army, and sentenced to a prison term of 6-1/2 years.

Bam! Done and done.

*. *. *

On the same day, a court in Yekaterinburg convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage, sentencing him to 16 years in prison. Both trials were scheduled suddenly, concluded rapidly, and held behind closed doors, the outcomes preordained.

*. *. *

The timing and the suddenness of the two trials has naturally raised questions as to how they can be anything but intentional, and what that intention is. When asked, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov — without whom one of my essays about Russia would surely not be complete — had this to say:

“I have no answer to this question. I leave this question unanswered.”

Stumped at last, eh, Dmitry?

Of course, you have no answer. Because the obvious one is that Kurmasheva and Gershkovich are two valuable additions to Putin’s collection of American hostages.

The U.S. Department of State has strongly urged all Americans presently in Russia to leave . . . before it’s too late. I can’t believe there is anyone foolish enough to still be there; I would have been gone long ago.

Just sayin’ . . .

*. *. *

And, as always, we pay our weekly tribute 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
Danuta Perednya
Olesya Krivtsova
Konstantin Gabov
Sergey Karelin
Sergey Mingazov
Michael Travis Leake

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

Brendochka
7/28/24