Unfortunately, there is a new name to be added this week.

In December of 2021, Ihar Losik, a blogger and contributor to RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was convicted on multiple charges, including the “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order,” and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He is presumed to be somewhere in a Belarusian prison, though he has not been heard from in about two years . . . one of Putin’s hostages, courtesy of Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenka.

And now word has been received that Losik’s younger brother, Mikita Losik, has also been arrested in Belarus on extremism charges related to Russia’s war against Ukraine. [RFE/RL, May 9, 2025.]

Twenty-five-year-old Mikita was detained in mid-April and accused of “assisting extremist activity,” for allegedly sending photographs of Russian military equipment movements to a now-defunct independent Telegram channel known as Belaruski Hayun. He is said to be in jail in the northeastern city of Vitebsk, Belarus. [Id.]

Belaruski Hayun, which shut down in February of this year, was engaged in monitoring military activity in Belarus — a country closely allied, politically and militarily, with Russia. The head of the channel has said that Belarusian authorities hacked into a database and gained access to information about its contributors, resulting in the arrest of a number of people on similar charges. [Id.]

And so it goes in Belarus, as in Russia, where independent media are not merely discouraged, but are actively being destroyed.

Now, as we await the outcome of Mikita Losik’s arrest — no doubt a trial, followed by a guilty verdict and prison sentence — we must add his name next to his brother’s on our hostage list.

*. *. *

And, as always, we pay tribute to all of Putin’s prisoners who have fallen victim to his totalitarian regime:

The Azov 12
David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ihar Karney (in Belarus)
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Mikita Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
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)

. . . and any others I may have missed.

Stay strong, and never give up hope.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/11/25