This week, it grows by a heartbreaking seven names — three reported on, and four others receiving “honorable mention” — including a Nobel Peace Prize winner in Belarus; an activist whose wife ran against incumbent Aleksandr Lukashenko in Belarus’ 2020 election but was forced into exile; and, in Moscow, a Russian man accused of passing classified information to a U.S. intelligence agency.

We start with this gentleman: Ales Bialiatski, being held in Penal Colony No. 9 in eastern Belarus.

Bialiatski, age 62 but looking 20 years older, has been labeled an “extremist” by authorities, and as such, has been singled out by the authorities for harsh treatment, including denial of medications, food parcels from home, and contact with relatives, as well as undergoing forced labor and time spent in punishment (solitary confinement) cells.

He was arrested in 2021 in a raid by Belarus’ KGB, and was held without trial until 2023, when he was convicted on charges of smuggling and financing actions that “grossly violated public order.” Labeled “especially dangerous,” he was sentenced to ten years in prison. His wife has not heard from him since August, and a food parcel she had sent him was returned to her in November. Word received via other prisoners is that his health has seriously deteriorated due to his abysmal living conditions and brutal maltreatment. [Yuras Karmanau, AP, January 19, 2025.]

His real crime: working with the Viasna Human Rights Centre of Belarus, helping people targeted by law enforcement . . . thus becoming a target himself.

Viasna’s offices were shut down and six prominent members arrested, including Bialiatski. Four others — Valiantsin Stefanovic, Uladzimir Labkovich, Marfa Rabkova, and Andrei Chapiuk — are serving sentences ranging from five years and nine months to nearly 15 years.

It appears as though a separate list of Lukashenko’s victims may become a tragic necessity.

*. *. *

In 2020, Siarhei Tsikhanouski — a well-known activist opposing the Lukashanko government — announced his intention to run in the presidential election. He was arrested two days later.

His wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, famously attempted to campaign in his place, and was forced into exile to escape arrest. Recipient of the 2024 Democracy Service Medal awarded by the National Endowment for Democracy, she remains in exile.

She has not heard from her husband for nearly 700 days. [Id.]

*. *. *

And finally — because my soul cannot possibly take any more today — is Dmitry Shatresov, 40, found guilty by the Moscow City Court of “committing high treason in favor of the United States,” as reported to the TASS news agency by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) (successor to the KGB). [Reuters, January 23, 2025.]

The report stated that:

“It was established that Shatresov D.A., having obtained by illegal methods information which constituted state secrets, (and) guided by criminal intent, intended to transfer it to a representative of American Intelligence.” [Id.]

I note that the TASS report states that he “intended to transfer … [information] to … American Intelligence” — not that any such transfer was actually accomplished. Yet he has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

As of the time of reporting, no response to a request for comment had been received from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and Shatresov’s lawyer had thus far declined to answer questions. The only personal information in the Reuters report, other than his age, is the fact that he lived in an unspecified city just outside of Moscow, and worked in “logistics.” [Id.]

Is Shatresov actually guilty of attempting to pass classified information to U.S. intelligence? Or is he another victim of Putin’s paranoid purges? As an American, I subscribe wholeheartedly to the belief that an individual should be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. So — unless and until that happens — he makes my list of those considered to be political prisoners.

Which, sadly enlarged, is as follows . . . lest we forget:

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Marc Fogle
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Ksenia Karelina
Ihar Karney (in Belarus)
Vadim Kobzev
Andrey Kuznechyk (in Belarus)
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

To each of you, I wish courage, patience, and safe home.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/26/25