For a year and a half, I have posted a weekly reminder and update on the circumstances of the individuals — both Russian and foreign — being held in Vladimir Putin’s chain of penal colonies for purely political reasons: because they have dared, by word or peaceful action, to oppose his tyrannical regime.

And we have seen that same method of persecution spread, most notably to Putin’s puppet state of Belarus, where the presumptive president, Aleksandr Lukashenko, is holding more than 1,000 people hostage on similarly specious grounds.

But while we abhor such practices wherever they occur throughout the world, we are not surprised when they are revealed in autocratically-ruled nations such as Russia and Belarus. We oppose them, we issue sanctions against them, we even — through human rights and enforcement agencies such as the International Criminal Court — charge them with crimes against humanity and issue warrants for their arrest.

And we Americans say a silent prayer of gratitude that we live in a nation where such things just can’t happen. Because we live in a democracy, with a Constitution that protects our individual rights, and holds our government to a system of accountability — checks and balances — that has protected us from tyranny for nearly 250 years.

Or we did . . . until something started to go suddenly, horribly, unimaginably wrong.

Overnight, we Americans found our freedoms and our most treasured institutions — universities, public schools, the media, law enforcement, our courts and governmental agencies themselves — under attack by a cabal of fascistic oligarchs who make no secret of their mad lust for absolute power.

So I have begun to question my right to criticize the Putins and Lukashenkos of this world, when the disease of their evil has metastasized to my own country . . . and most especially because this circumstance was not forced upon us by an invasion or military coup.

No, we did it to ourselves. We held a free and fair election in 2024. The fault lies with the people — a plurality, rather than an actual majority — who were swayed by the rhetoric of one who promised nirvana but whose history of a lifetime of lies, failures and proven criminal activity was allowed to be buried or brushed aside.

It is often said that “the government you elect is the government you deserve” — or words to that effect. But I don’t agree with that . . . not when the election was based on a campaign of falsehoods and emotional appeals to the least educated and most vulnerable. But we are stuck with it for the time being . . . stuck with the shame, with the fear, and with the knowledge that it will take years of struggle to overcome and reverse the damage that is being done.

But that does not mean I have to discontinue my verbal fight against tyranny in other nations; it simply means that I must — with the heaviest of hearts — add my own country to my list of hostages awaiting a day of reckoning and a renewal of freedom.

*. *. *

And so here, once more, is that list:

Prisoners of War:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Political Prisoners:

The People of the United States of America

The Azerbaijan 7:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

In Russia, except as otherwise indicated:

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
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
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have overlooked.

We must never give up the fight.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/6/25