Following the Parliamentary elections held on September 18-20, noted Russian political scientist Aleksandr Kynev posted on social media serious allegations of fraud in the elections in which the Putin-aligned United Russia party had, to no one’s surprise, been awarded a record-high majority of 349 of the State Duma’s 450 seats. The only serious opposition, the liberal Yabloko party, had earlier been declared ineligible to run.

On September 22nd, Kynev also said in a social media post on Telegram that United Russia had only won 20 to 30% of the votes cast in a Moscow suburb, and not the much higher percentage officially reported.

Three days later, Kynev was arrested; and three days after that, an unnamed medical source in the prison system told the media outlet Slovo Zashchite that Kynev had been severely beaten while in custody, resulting in fractures of both shinbones.

As of October 2nd, he was being held in custody, reportedly in the hospital at Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison, on fabricated charges of attempting to sell a large quantity of narcotics — charges that could carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. It was, of course, an obvious ploy to cover the real, politically-motivated reason for his arrest.

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service, political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said:

“While he tried to observe the proprieties, he also strove to respect the integrity of the numbers. He had the courage to point out that the actual election results contradicted the picture painted by the authorities. And for that, they broke his legs. That is the whole point of this ritual: Sit there and bow down, or better yet, keep your head down — otherwise we’ll rip it off.” [Steve Gutterman, RFE/RL, October 2, 2026.]

Kynev had earlier investigated and reported on Russian election fraud during his time as department head of the now-defunct independent vote-monitoring organization Golos. For that, he was designated a “foreign agent” by the government in February. But while others in similar circumstances have chosen to leave the country, he refused to do so.

Thus, according to economist and author Vladislav Inozemtsev, who now lives outside Russia, Kynev’s arrest “comes as [a] surprise, of course, but to some degree it was to be expected.” [Id.] Writing on Facebook, he continued:

“Terror directed not so much at the opposition per se, but at active citizens who are aware of the rights enshrined in the constitution — specifically voting rights in this case — has become the regime’s primary activity for the foreseeable future.” [Id.]

And Tatyana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote on Telegram:

“The case of Kynev marks a new milestone in the unfolding saga of the security services acting on their own initiative.” [Id.]

Clearly, drugs had nothing to do with Aleksandr Kynev’s arrest; he had simply become a thorn in Putin’s side. Thus we add his name to our list of known political hostages in Russia.

There is no way of knowing how long he will be “detained” before being formally charged and tried, or whether we will receive follow-up reports of his physical condition in the interim. Hopefully, we will hear more from the human rights organizations who work to track these cases under increasingly difficult conditions.

*. *. *

And, this being Sunday, here again is the list of Putin’s hostages known to me. Sadly, it hasn’t gotten any shorter since last week.

Prisoners of War:

The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The People of Ukraine
The 6,000 Starving Citizens of Oleshky

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 Novak
Svetlana 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
10/4/26