For the past year, I have paid homage each week — and sometimes more often — to the political prisoners in Russia’s archipelago of penal colonies who have been, and still are being, held hostage to Vladimir Putin’s diabolical ambitions.

I cannot let 2024 go without paying a year-end tribute to each and every one of them, beginning with the one we lost:

He needs no introduction. Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken and most popular critic, he represented a very real threat to the current regime and had to be eliminated. They tried poisoning him, but he survived after a worldwide public outcry enabled him to leave Russia and receive treatment in Germany.

But he returned to his beloved homeland, and was immediately arrested and thrown into a Siberian GULAG, where he was tortured and ultimately died under unexplained circumstances on February 16, 2024.

Unfortunately for Putin, however, Navalny’s death only served to create his martyrdom, as his widow, his former colleagues, and his followers continue his crusade to bring freedom to the people of Russia.

Rest in peace, Alexei Navalny.

*. *. *

The numbers continued to mount throughout the year, as more Americans and other non-Russians were arrested on trumped-up charges. But on August 1st, after lengthy and intense periods of multi-national negotiations, an historic swap of prisoners took place at an airport in Ankara, Turkey. Sixteen of Putin’s prisoners were sent home in exchange for eight Russians being held on criminal charges in various countries.

And so, in a rare moment of great joy, we welcomed back:

Returned to the U.S.:
Evan Gershkovich
Paul Whelan
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Alsu Kurmasheva

Returned to Germany:
Ilya Yashin
Oleg Orlov
Lilia Chanysheva
Ksenia Fadeyeva
Kevin Lik
Rico Krieger
Dieter Voronin
Patrick Schobel
German Moyzhes
Vadim Ostanin
Andrei Pivovarov
Alexandra Skochilenko

*. *. *

And to those still waiting for their New Year’s miracle:

David Barnes
Gordon Black
Marc Fogle
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Ksenia Karelina
Andrey Kuznechyk (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)

I cannot wish you more than this:

Safe home.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/31/24