Last week I wrote about the death by suicide of Russian human rights activist and dissident Nina Litvinova, whose suicide note spoke of some of the imprisoned dissidents she had tried to help. In part, she wrote:

“I tried to help them, but my strength is gone, and day and night I suffer from helplessness. I am ashamed, but I gave up. Please forgive me.”

She also named several of the individuals she had attempted to assist, and I added their names to my list of hostages. During the past week, I have researched their stories as promised, and present them to you here:

*. *. *

YURY DMITRIYEV: A prominent Russian historian, human rights activist, and former head of the Karelian branch of the human rights group Memorial, best known for uncovering hidden Soviet-era atrocities, now serving a 15-year sentence in a strict-regime penal colony on politically-motivated charges.

*. *. *

OLEG ORLOV: Another well-known human rights activist, Chairman of the Board of Memorial and board member of its Historic-Educational Society, Orlov was the recipient of the prestigious Sakharov Prize in 2009. He was previously on my list of hostages: In February of 2024, he was sentenced to two years and six months in a penal colony for having “discredited” the Russian army. He was released in the much-publicized prisoner exchange of August 1, 2024, and now lives in exile, unable to return to his native land; so he is back on the list as an “endangered exile.”

*. *. *

YEVGENIA BERKOVICH and SVETLANA PETRIICHUK: Arrested together in December of 2024, the two women were charged with “justifying terrorism” for having written and produced their award-winning play “Finist the Brave Falcon,” which tells the story of Russian women manipulated by online recruiters into marrying Islamist militants in Syria. Both were sentenced to six years in a penal colony, which was later reduced to five years and seven months. It is hardly coincidental that their arrest followed on the heels of Berkovich’s release of anti-war poetry criticizing the invasion of Ukraine.

*. *. *

KARINA TSURKAN: This case is different from the others, in that it involves charges of spying for Moldova — charges vehemently denied by Tsurkan, and found by her attorneys to have been based in large part on forged “evidence.” Now seven years into a 15-year sentence, Tsurkan was the head of the trading division of state-owned Inter RAO, Russia’s fourth-largest producer of power and its monopolistic exporter and importer of electricity. Her job involved overseeing electricity trades in parts of Eastern Europe, including Moldova. Because the trial was a closed proceeding, few details are available, but the Memorial Human Rights Center has classified Tsurkan as a political prisoner because of the indications of falsified charges.

*. *. *

And another week in prison has passed for the thousands trapped in Putin’s web of political persecution. Once again, here is the full list of those hostages known to me, which is still only a fraction of the total:

Prisoners of War:

The 20,000+ 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:

Pavel “Pasha” Talankin
Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Oleg Orlov
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Afghanistan:

Mahmoud Habibi (Afghan-American)
Paul Overby (American, missing since 2018)

In Azerbaijan:

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

In Belarus:

Andrei Chapiuk
Uladzimir Labkovich
Andrzej Poczobut
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In Georgia:

Mzia Amaglobeli

In Russia:

The “Crimea 8”:
Oleg Antipov
Artyom Azatyan
Georgy Azatyan
Aleksandr Bylin
Roman Solomko
Artur Terchanyan
Dmitry Tyazhelykh
Vladimir Zloba

James Scott Rhys Anderson (British)
Aleksandr Andreyev
David Barnes (American)
Yevgenia Berkovich
Gordon Black (American)
Hayden Davies (British)
Yury Dmitriyev
Anastasia Dyudyaeva
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
Svetlana Petriichuk
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Lev Schlossberg
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Joseph Tater (American, disappeared)
Karina Tsurkan
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

You have not been, and will not be, forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/24/26