Today is World Freedom Day, established in 2001 by then U.S. President George W. Bush to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the supposed end of communist rule in Eastern and Central Europe.

But totalitarianism has not died. Throughout the 25 years (thus far) of Vladimir Putin’s autocratic rule of the Russian Federation, increasingly oppressive laws have chipped away at individual freedoms; dissidents have been rounded up and imprisoned or exterminated; acts of terror are periodically blamed on ethnic minorities; and wars have been waged . . . most notably, the ongoing “special military operation” against Ukraine.

For nearly four years — since February 24, 2022 — the people of Ukraine have been held hostage to Putin’s ambition to re-absorb the former Soviet republics and vassal states . . . even, if necessary, by first destroying them.

Despite international efforts at resolving the conflict, Putin has refused to agree to a ceasefire, and continues his deadly attacks day after day after day. Yesterday alone, Russia launched hundreds of missile and drone attacks on residential targets and civilian infrastructure in 25 locations across Ukraine, including Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, Odesa, Kirovohrad and Kharkiv, in which at least six people were killed and countless thousands left without electricity, water, and — in many cases — without shelter against the coming winter. [James Landale and Alex Kleiderman, BBC, November 8, 2025.]

So today — World Freedom Day — it is especially appropriate to recognize the entire population of the sovereign nation of Ukraine as political hostages of Vladimir Putin, and call once more for increased measures to stop the slaughter of its innocent citizens and expedite the return of its nearly 20,000 kidnapped children being held in Russian territory.

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Of course, we also remember those individuals who continue to suffer in prisons and penal colonies in Russia and elsewhere — convicted, for purely political reasons, of crimes they did not commit:

Prisoners of War:

The 19,500 Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The People of Ukraine

Immigrant Detainees in Russia:

Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

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
Marya Kalesnikava
Uladzimir Labkovich
Andrzej Poczobut
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In Georgia:

Mzia Amaglobeli

In China:

Chenyue Mao (American)

In Russia:

David Barnes (American)
Gordon Black (American)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman (American)
Stephen James Hubbard (American)
Sergey Karelin
Timur Kishukov
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Michael Travis Leake (American)
Aleksei Liptser
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

Stay strong . . . you are not forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/9/25