Here we go again. This time they’re not foreigners being held as collateral for a future exchange, but Russian citizens opposed to Vladimir Putin’s war of attrition against Ukraine, now being detained as a warning to others who might also have the courage to speak out.

Yesterday, I reported on the arrest of opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin. Just as his court hearing was being held, word was received of the detention of a former Putin loyalist, blogger Ilya Remeslo, who has recently done a 180-degree turn and become one of Putin’s most vocal critics.

In March, Remeslo published a manifesto on Telegram, titled “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin,” in which he called the Russian leader “a war criminal and thief,” among numerous other unflattering appellations. [Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, July 17, 2026.]

The day after that posting, Remeslo found himself in a psychiatric hospital, where he was held for several weeks. Following his release, he bravely — but unwisely — continued publishing his criticisms on social media, and gave a lengthy interview in which he said that his hospitalization had been “the price” he had to pay for his outspokenness. [Id.]

On Friday, July 17th, Remeslo was taken into custody in St. Petersburg, charged with spreading false information about the armed forces — a commonly-cited offense that could result in imprisonment for up to ten years. He is to be transferred to Moscow for a hearing to determine what action will be taken pending his eventual trial.

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So this week we add both Ilya Remeslo and Boris Nadezhdin to our list of Russians being held in prison on purely political charges, while we continue to wait for word of any progress in negotiations toward the release or exchange of any — or all — of them.

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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
Mikhail Loshchinin
Grigory Melkonyants
Boris Nadezhdin
Nika NovakSvetlana Petriichuk
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Ilya Remeslo
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. Stay strong.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/19/26