Not all of Putin’s political prisoners are adults.

According to a report issued in June of this year by the now-banned Russian human rights group Memorial, they have documented “427 cases of politically motivated criminal prosecution of minors . . . [of which] 299 people under the age of 18 were deprived of their liberty. Right now, 107 children are in detention.” [RFE/RL’s Russian Service, August 19, 2026.]

One such case is Arseniy Turbinin, now 18, who has been imprisoned since his arrest in 2023 when he was just 15 years old, after distributing flyers criticizing Vladimir Putin, sharing posts by opposition politicians, and expressing his opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. [Id.]

His defense lawyer at the time told Arseniy’s mother not to worry . . . that he was just a child, and would most likely not be seen as a threat by the authorities.

The lawyer was wrong. Arseniy was convicted in June of 2024 of being a member of a terrorist organization, and sentenced to five years in prison. What he had actually done was send an email to the Free Russia Legion — an exile Russian group that has fought alongside Ukrainian forces — saying he was “ready to stick up posters and fight Putin’s propaganda.” [Id.]

But prosecutors claimed that he was planning to travel to Ukraine and engage in sabotage against Russian targets — a charge that Arseniy denies, though he did admit distributing some flyers critical of Putin to neighbors’ mailboxes. He was also an admirer of the late dissident Aleksei Navalny, whose grave he had visited in Moscow.

Arseniy was first sent to a correctional facility in Perm, where efforts were made to incriminate him in additional illegal activities. And on January 7, 2026, when a riot broke out at the Perm facility, he was accused of taking part, which could bring a further sentence of three to eight years. He says he was in his cell watching TV during the uprising.

His family has said they were told by an officer of the FSB (successor to the KGB):

“We won’t release your child . . . we’ll think up another case.” [Id.]

It is believed that these actions against Arseniy are reprisals for his refusal to plead guilty to the original charges.

A 15-year old boy — old enough to be aware of the war in Ukraine and to have developed a social conscience, but young enough to allow his emotions to outweigh his better judgment — is now spending some of the best, most formative years of his life in a Russian prison for speaking his mind against a brutal regime. And he is only one of many.

I do not know the names of the other youngsters sharing Arseniy’s fate. But at least I can add his name to our list of those wrongfully serving time in Putin’s GULAG.

*. *. *

And this being Sunday, here again is the list of those political prisoners known to me:

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
Arseniy Turbinin (age 18)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

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

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/23/26