Mysterious deaths and disappearances are nothing unusual in Russia. A journalist (Anna Politkovskaya) who reported on the war in Chechnya is shot and killed in the hallway of her apartment building; an opposition leader (Boris Nemtsov) is shot and killed on his way home from dinner, just yards from Red Square and the Kremlin; a famed dissident (Alexei Navalny) is poisoned but survives, then is arrested and dies mysteriously in prison; a high-ranking military officer opposed to the war in Ukraine is killed by a car bomb; a close associate of Vladimir Putin who dared criticize the military (Yevgeny Prigozhin) is blown out of the sky when his private plane explodes; a startling number of officials and other VIPs “fall” out of windows to their deaths.

In Moscow, it’s just business as usual.

Those things don’t happen here in the United States. The current administration has somewhat less drastic — though still vicious and unethical — means of dealing with adversaries: some are fired from their jobs for specious reasons, or no reason at all; others are sued for ludicrous sums of money; still others have their reputations besmirched. The lucky ones are just called “moron,” “scum,” “loser,” or “piggy.”

But when two mysterious events take place in rapid succession, involving two senior and very powerful members of the U.S. Senate, the mind of an old Russia hand such as myself naturally turns to the most ominous, albeit unlikely, scenarios. It is easy to imagine what events such as these would have meant had they occurred in Moscow . . . and to be thankful that we still don’t do things that way.

Just think about it.

First was 84-year-old Mitch McConnell, seven-term Senator from Kentucky and a fierce ally of Donald Trump. He has had numerous health problems over the years, so it wasn’t surprising to learn that he was once again hospitalized on June 14th. The public was advised that he had been injured in a fall. But when the details of his condition are kept secret, he is not seen or heard from for a month, and a still photo is finally released that can only be described as a hybrid of scenes from “Dave” and “Weekend At Bernie’s” . . . well, one has to wonder why.

McConnell’s survival is of extreme importance to Trump and the entire Republican Party because of the order of succession in Kentucky. His party cannot risk his Senate seat going to anyone other than a Trump loyalist in a special election.

So is McConnell being kept technically alive, perhaps on life support, for the requisite amount of time? Or is he . . . ?

Well, that doesn’t even bear contemplating.

*. *. *

Even more shocking, because it was totally unexpected, was the sudden death this weekend of another Trump loyalist, 71-year old Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. His death came just a day after a very successful meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he assured Zelensky of America’s continuing support . . . despite Trump’s recent cooling attitude toward the provision of additional help for the war-torn ally.

Reports are that Graham suffered a sudden cardiovascular event resulting from an apparently unsuspected, silently progressive condition. And there is no reason at this time to question that diagnosis.

But if we were in Moscow, and Graham were a member of Putin’s inner circle of siloviki (strongmen, or people of influence), our first reactions might have been entirely different.

All of which makes me very grateful that, despite the distressing devolution of the Trump administration into blatant authoritarianism, we haven’t yet sunk quite that low.

Nor must we ever do so.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/14/26