On September 16th, Russian-allied Belarus released 25 political prisoners following talks with U.S. special envoy John Coale. They landed to a warm welcome in neighboring Lithuania — just the latest in a continuing effort to release all of the hundreds of hostages remaining in Belarus.

While Coale characterized the release as “a show of goodwill” on the part of Aleksandr Lukashenko’s oppressive government, there was a price to be paid for the lives of the innocent victims: the lifting of U.S. sanctions that had been imposed against two Belarusian companies following Minsk’s agreement to allow Moscow to use its territory as a launchpad for its invasion of Ukraine. [RFE/RL, September 16, 2026.]

And experts have pointed out that Lukashenko is simply continuing to arrest more people to replace those who have been freed. According to Vadim Mozheiko, director of the Krakow-based Kosciuszko Institute:

“For Lukashenko, the most important thing is . . . strengthening his political agency . . . given his lack of domestic legitimacy.” [Id.]

Separately, Mozheiko added that “a significant proportion of those released were forcibly deported from Belarus . . . yet another form of repression.” [Id.]

Further, a United Nations report on September 15th stated that:

“Belarusian authorities are using the country’s criminal justice system as an instrument of repression, systematically targeting and persecuting individuals deemed to oppose the government. Plainclothes officers routinely detain individuals they label as critical of the Government without warrants, subject them to beatings and stress positions, deny access to lawyers, and force them to record humiliating ‘repentance’ videos under duress and threats against their families.” [Id.]

While we celebrate the release of every single hostage, we must not lose sight of the continuing use of innocent civilians as pawns in Russia’s — and, by extension, Belarus’ — criminal pursuit of the war against Ukraine.

The fight continues.

*. *. *

So once again, let us again remember the other prisoners still being held hostage by Putin and his cohorts:

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
Svitlana Loi (in Ukraine)
Mikhail Loshchinin
“Madame Z” (in Ukraine)
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
9/20/26