In the shadow of other world events — the war in Ukraine, genocide in Gaza, natural disasters everywhere — the focus on political hostages has been pushed to the media’s back burner. There has been no news of additional arrests; but neither has there been word of progress toward any releases or exchanges, though negotiations may well be continuing behind closed doors. At least, I would hope so.

There is no excuse or justification for forgetting them, even for the moment. So here they are again: sadly, only a small percentage of the total number being held in Russian, Belarusian and Azerbaijani prisons as political hostages:

Prisoners of War:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Endangered Exiles:

Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Azerbaijan:

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

In Belarus:

Ales Bialiatski
Andrei Chapiuk
Uladzimir Labkovich
Ihar Losik
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In Russia:

David Barnes
Gordon Black
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland

. . . and any others I may not be aware of.

May you be home soon. And in the meantime, know that you are not forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/10/25