A few days ago, I reported on the case of Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova, who had been arrested and charged with spreading false information about the Russian armed forces . . . entirely on the word of a seven-year-old patient and his mother.

There were no witnesses to the comments Dr. Buyanova was alleged to have made; there was no corroborating evidence, no recording, no video to back up the claim — just the seven-year-old boy repeating the words his mother had told him to say.

Yet today, the 68-year-old pediatrician was handcuffed and placed inside the glass-and-metal defendant’s box to hear the Moscow court’s sentence: 5-1/2 years in prison. [Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, November 12, 2024.]

Five and one-half years for a few unproven, unsubstantiated words that, even if actually spoken, would merely have represented one person’s privately-expressed opinion, and could not conceivably have done anyone any harm.

One more abomination committed against the citizens of Russia, where “Big Brother” reigns once more, and the people must learn to live in a perpetual climate of fear and silence.

This is not the Russia I knew 30 years ago. But then, neither is this the world I knew 30 years ago. I sense the fear; but I cannot accept the silence.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/12/24