It wasn’t enough that they poisoned him, imprisoned him when he refused to die, and finally managed to end his life in a Siberian penal colony on February 16, 2024.

Or that they forced his family and colleagues to flee the country in order to avoid a similar fate.

Nor was it enough that they physically attacked a former member of his team, Leonid Volkov, in front of his home-in-exile in Lithuania just a year ago on March 12, 2024, beating him with a hammer and spraying tear gas in his eyes.

Now they — “they” being Vladimir Putin’s FSB goon squad — have gone after Volkov’s father: 69-year-old mathematics professor Mikhail Volkov.

In February, Professor Volkov was dismissed from his position at the Ural Federal University without explanation. And today (Moscow time), his home in Ekaterinburg, Russia, was searched — allegedly as part of an investigation into the financing of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which has been classified by the Russian government since 2021 as an extremist organization. Claiming that the elder Volkov had contributed to the FBK, they confiscated electronic devices from his home, and he was detained for interrogation.

Though he was later released, he has been ordered not to leave the city, as a criminal case has officially been filed against him. [Merhat Sharipzhan, RFE/RL, April 3, 2025.]

Leonid Volkov has said that his father’s treatment is “revenge for the work I have been doing, am doing, and do not intend to stop.” [Id.]

The FBK, of course, was the organization founded by Aleksei Navalny to investigate corruption within the Russian political hierarchy . . . and they found plenty of it. By designating it as an extremist organization, the Russian government ensured that its activities were banned, and that anyone contributing or connected to it — including journalists who merely covered Navalny’s court hearings — could face criminal charges. [Id.]

Since Navalny’s unexplained death a little over a year ago, members of his team — including his wife — have continued their work in exile. But Putin’s revenge knows no bounds; he continues to pursue the families of opposition leaders who have fled the country but left relatives behind.

*. *. *

In 2021, the father of another Navalny associate, Ivan Zhdanov, was convicted of a false charge of “corruption.”

The elder Zhdanov was given a suspended three-year sentence in December of 2021, but was then charged with alleged parole violation and sent to a penal colony in Archangelsk to serve out the sentence, despite the fact that the matter had not yet been finally adjudicated.

He was released from prison in November of 2023 . . . one of the lucky ones.

It is obvious that the crusade against all oppositionists — real or perceived — rages ever onward in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. And that it extends to the families and associates — and the families of associates — of those who threaten Putin’s absolute autocracy.

Even after death.

*. *. *

Mikhail Volkov, to my knowledge, is not yet in prison, though he is living under the shadow of criminal charges and travel restriction. And so I will not yet add him to our list of Putin’s political hostages. But based on the history of every other similar case, it can reasonably be expected that his will follow the predictable trajectory of detention, trial, conviction, sentencing, imprisonment, appeal, denial of appeal . . . followed by endless years of trying to survive in Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell.

I hope I don’t have to begin a sub-list of Hostages-in-Waiting.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/3/25