On April 28th, I reported on four journalists working for RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (RFE/RL), who were being held as political hostages in prisons in Russia, Belarus and Russian-occupied Crimea.

One of the four — Alsu Kurmasheva — happily was freed in the prisoner exchange of August 1st. But the other three remain prisoners of the corrupt Russian and Belarusian regimes. They are:

They are just three of some 150 Belarusian prisoners being held — on various specious charges — as part of Moscow’s continuing roundup of journalists and other political dissidents.

Andrey Kuznechyk recently “celebrated” his third anniversary in prison. He was initially arrested on November 25, 2021, on a charge of hooliganism . . . a favorite excuse of Russian and Belarusian authorities seeking to hold a target while manufacturing other, more serious charges. He denied the accusation, but served the ten days, expecting to be released thereafter. But he was instead charged further with “creating an extremist group,” tried, found guilty, and sentenced on June 8, 2022, to six years in prison. [RFE/RL, November 25, 2024.]

Ihar Losik, a blogger and contributor to RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was convicted — also three years ago — in December 2021, on multiple charges including the “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order” — whatever that’s supposed to mean. His sentence was 15 years in prison. [Id.]

And Vladyslav Yesypenko is a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen who contributed to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. He was convicted of “possession and transport of explosives” — a charge he categorically denied — and sentenced to six years in prison by a Russian judge in occupied Crimea following a closed-door trial. [Id.]

*. *. *

And while the Russian hierarchy continues its paranoid purge of alleged dissidents, the American and other hostages remaining in prison on specious political charges continue to await their turn to be released. Now numbering sixteen, they are:

David Barnes
Staff Sergeant Gordon Black
Marc Fogel
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Ksenia Karelina
Andrey Kuznechyk (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea)

We must ensure that the new administration being inaugurated in Washington in January continues, without interruption, the work that has been underway up to this time. These hostages, and all the others whose names have not yet made it onto the list, must be brought home.

No excuses.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/8/24

That was a news alert received just moments ago. The rebel forces claimed that Bashar al-Assad had fled the capital, stating in a post on Telegram from the Military Operations Command:

“We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad. To the displaced all over the world, a free Syria awaits you.” [CNN Breaking News, December 7, 2024.]

And my immediate response was:

“Now what?”

If the reports are accurate, then — as always — we wait and see, while the world’s political giants jockey for position. Meanwhile, we hope for the best.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/8/24

Oh, happy day! I’ve started my Christmas/Chanukah shopping, and found the perfect gifts for seven of the thirteen people on my list.

Yes, I do shop online. But those catalogs that fill up our mailboxes at this time of year are not merely a waste of trees — they really are helpful in finding just the right gift for the right person, something you might never have thought of yourself.

And now that I’m in the right mood, it’s onward to find the other six.

Happy Chanumas prepping to all,

Brendochka
12/7/24

Sorry, Santa . . . I just haven’t been able to come up with a list this year. Not only for myself, but — more importantly — for my family and friends.

I just don’t have a clue.

I have figured out what to send to the folks at a distance, which is lucky, because I can just order those and have them delivered directly to each one.

But the nearby family members are a total mystery . . . and not one of them has submitted a wish list this year. They’re all saying there’s nothing they need or especially want, which makes us sound as though we’re rich and spoiled, which we most definitely are not. Comfortable, yes; but rich?

And did I mention that I have expensive taste? I mean, for someone with a limited income, it’s really, really expensive. I like quality. So I am royally screwed this year, because . . . well, have you seen the prices of almost everything? A simple down jacket for $396? Seriously? Even sweaters — and we’re not talking about cashmere — are over $100. Sure, you can get cheaper ones, but I’m a firm believer that you get what you pay for, and I’d really prefer that something didn’t fall apart after a couple of uses.

Oh, and forget about electronics, which seem to be at the top of everyone’s list — those who have made lists, that is. (That’s a hint, family.) I remember when the only phone you had was a house phone, and the phone company provided that — free! — with your home service. You can bet that those days are never coming back.

The easiest one on this year’s list is the new baby in the family. She’ll just be a month old at Christmas, so she won’t know what’s going on anyway. I’m thinking a soft, cuddly toy and a month’s supply of diapers will make Mom and Dad happy. She’ll be more fun next year.

So, as I said, I’m stumped. If anyone out there has any unique suggestions, I’m all ears and eyes. And in the meantime, I’d better start leafing through all those catalogs that were jammed into the mailbox today.

But that brings me to the biggest problem of all. Many, many years ago, I somehow managed to develop a method of Christmas shopping that I call my “One for you, one for me” method. I’m sure I don’t have to explain.

And yes, it was a shock when those bills came through in January. But oh, what fun it was in December!

As you can imagine, that’s been a hard habit to break.

Anyway, happy shopping, everyone. And in all the rush of buying, wrapping, decorating, baking, etc., don’t forget the other joy of Christmas: the office party. Behave yourselves . . . because you have to face those same people on Monday.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/7/24

On December 6, 1941, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt received a report that the Royal Australian Air Force had sighted Japanese warships headed for Thailand — just after the Australian pilot who radioed the report was shot down by Japanese guns. Word also quickly circulated to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose country was already at war with Nazi Germany, and who called a meeting of his chiefs of staff to discuss the new crisis.

Some thought the convoy headed toward Thailand might have been a red herring — a diversion — but no one was sure. In fact, Britain was already preparing to launch its 11th Indian Division — on what was code-named Operation Matador — to counter any Japanese invasion.

And in Washington, President Roosevelt — still believing that the Japanese were about to attack Thailand — sent a telegram to Emperor Hirohito requesting that the Emperor intervene, “for the sake of humanity . . . to prevent further death and destruction in the world.” [“This Day In History, History.com, December 6, 2024.]

The following morning — December 7th — the Japanese Air Force laid waste to the U.S. Naval Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, then a territory of the United States. On the same day, Japan also attacked Guam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaya. But not Thailand.

The United States had been brought, against its will, into World War II. Four days later, on December 11th, the U.S. declared war on Germany as well. And it would not end until Adolph Hitler was dead (April 30, 1945), and Japan had received a punishment the world would never forget . . . when the first two atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945).

*. *. *

So, yes, let’s remember Pearl Harbor . . . and pray that, after nearly 80 years, we have learned something from that long-ago lesson.

Because the alternative is simply not acceptable.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/7/24

And this feels like one of those days.

Lest anyone become desensitized to the world’s woes by the never-ending wars in Ukraine and Gaza/Israel, allow me to share with you just some of the headlines from today’s news reports:

Ukraine Live Briefing: Local Official ‘Tortured to Death,’ Kyiv Says

Syrian rebels challenge Assad regime on two fronts as new uprising emerges in south

How Russia Prepares Children In Occupied Ukraine For War Against Their Own Country

Georgian Protesters Share Harrowing Accounts of Police Brutality

Romanian court annuls result of presidential election first round

South Korea’s ruling party leader calls for suspension of president’s powers in dramatic reversal

Police Secure Area After Mystery Drone Crash Near Tajik Capital

Macron resists calls to resign and vows to name new French prime minister in days

Australia synagogue fire condemned as clear act of antisemitism as police search for suspects

American vlogger abducted in Philippines presumed dead, police say

5 More Azerbaijani Journalists Detained Amid Crackdown On Media Freedom

UN Nuclear Watchdog Says Iran Planning To ‘Dramatically Increase’ Uranium Enrichment

Had enough? No? All right, here you go: Governments on the verge of collapse in France and South Korea; demonstrations turning into riots in Georgia (the country); Russia’s newest “Oreshnik” missiles being deployed in Belarus; Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour coming to an end.

Well, okay — that last one might not be the worst news. But other than that . . .

It’s really too much to take in all at once, much less to comment on. I quit for today, hoping for a better tomorrow. It is, after all, the holiday season.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/6/24

How we’ve missed it during this time since the Cold War (supposedly) ended in 1991. But it’s back, with a vengeance unseen in more than 30 years. And it’s all the fault of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Not that he personally started it. But he did co-opt an unknown KGB officer from his job in St. Petersburg as Mayor Anatoly Sobchak’s fixer . . . or bagman . . . or whatever unsavory name you care to give him; then brought him to Moscow, where he could become so indispensable as Yeltsin’s own “Fagin” that he would quickly rise to head of the FSB (successor to the KGB), then to Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, and finally be handed the keys to the presidential washroom in 1999.

So, for lack of a better alternative, let’s blame Yeltsin. What’s he going to do . . . complain?

The name of that former KGB officer, by the way — for anyone who may not have guessed — was, and is, Vladimir Putin.

In any event, relations between Russia and the West have gone steadily downhill since then, and accelerated at an alarming pace since Putin decided to invade . . . excuse me, stage a “special military operation” (SMO) against . . . Ukraine in February of 2022.

But he wasn’t — as he had predicted — welcomed with open arms by the Ukrainian people, but instead met with greater-than-anticipated resistance from both the military and civilian population. And the SMO he had expected to end in total victory within days or weeks at the most dragged on . . . and on . . . and on, until now it is nearing the end of its third year.

What Putin also did not anticipate was the way in which the members of NATO and the EU came together to support Ukraine, which is not yet a member of either organization. And that really pissed him off. So he began the old blame game, trying to convince the world — and his own people — that Russia was simply defending herself against Western aggression.

So he upped the ante, bringing out more troops and bigger, more deadly weapons, laying waste to larger and larger swaths of Ukrainian territory. And when Ukraine — after more than two years of death and destruction, finally began firing missiles back onto Russian territory . . . well, that too was labeled Western aggression that had to be defended.

And the rhetoric, of course, had to match the actions. So for nearly three years we have heard from Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Kremlin spokesman (and still my all-time favorite) Dmitry Peskov, and a few non-governmental nut jobs for good measure, threatening increased retaliatory measures if we dare to . . . well . . . whatever.

The latest such warning came this week from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who sat for an interview with CNN’s Fred Pleitgen in Moscow:

“Risks are high and they are growing, and that’s quite disturbing,” Ryabkov said, adding that the current geopolitical tensions had been unheard of even “at the height of the Cold War.” He continued, saying that there was “no magic solution” to the current conflict, and claiming that there is a lack of common sense and “restraint in the West, in particular the US, where people seemingly underestimate our resolve to defend our core national security interests.” [Frederik Pleitgen and Edward Szekeres, CNN, December 4, 2024.]

Likely in response to the U.S. announcement of an additional $725 million security assistance package for Ukraine this week, Ryabkov cautioned that the West should not underestimate the risk of military escalation, citing the United States’ “very obvious inability to truly appreciate that Moscow cannot be pressurized [sic] indefinitely. There will come a moment when we will see no other choice but to resort to even stronger military means.” [Id.]

He then seemed to moderate his tone slightly by adding that an escalation was unlikely to occur “. . . right away. But the trend is there.” [Id.]

*. *. *

Turning to the subject of the upcoming change in administration in Washington, and Donald Trump’s assertion that he could end the war in Ukraine in a single day, Ryabkov said, “We will be there when they come with ideas … but not at the expense of our national interest.” [Id.]

And as to direct peace talks with Ukraine, he maintained the positions of the two countries are incompatible:

“Chances for a compromise at the moment are zero. The moment people in Kyiv begin to understand there’s no way Russia will go the way they suggested — there might be openings and opportunities.” [Id.]

In other words, it’s Russia’s way or the highway.

So what else is new?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/6/24

First it was Great Britain; and now it’s . . . Tajikistan??!!!

What did H. G. Wells know, at the end of the 19th Century, that no one else had yet imagined?

No, I’m not implying that today’s visitors are from outer space. But the drones are up there, and they’re hovering in some places they shouldn’t be. Earlier reports of sightings have come from three U.S. Air Force bases in the United Kingdom. Despite assurances from authorities that there appears to be no danger, none have yet been intercepted in an attempt to identify them . . . or. at least, we haven’t been informed otherwise.

And now an “unmanned aerial vehicle” (UAV) — the preferred name, apparently, for anything from a military prototype to a dragonfly — has crashed just five kilometers from Dushanbe, the capital city of Tajikistan, in an area where both Tajik and Russian military bases are located. And it is definitely not a dragonfly.

Witness video footage indicates that the drone struck a utility pole before crashing to the ground, with flames being seen at the crash site. The area was immediately cordoned off by police and military personnel. [RFE/RL, December 4, 2024.]

No comment has yet been received from Tajikistan’s Defense Ministry. However, both the Tajik Aini Military Airbase and a Russian military base — part of the 201st Military Division — are located nearby, and both are central to the regional security infrastructure.

Some analysts have speculated that the craft may have been a UAV “from a third country.” What is known is that the Russian base — Moscow’s largest military presence outside of Russia — regularly conducts drone operations from that location. [Id.] So it may well be that this was just a test — which would, of course, be the best-case scenario.

But whether “friendly” or otherwise, the proliferation of drone (or other UAV) sightings points up the ease with which our lives can now be penetrated from above . . . and not just by little green men from Jupiter.

It makes one long for the days when all you had to worry about from the sky was pigeon poop.

Ah, those were good times indeed.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/6/24

In 1910, three players on the Chicago Cubs baseball team — shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance — employed their famous double play action to bring about a surprising defeat of the New York Giants in their bid for the National League pennant that year. That game even inspired a popular poem of the time, and a couple of copycats as well.

And to this day, the names of that winning combo are still likely to be dredged up to describe any winning trio — particularly for someone like myself, who grew up in a family of baseball fans. Which is how they happened to come to mind today as I read about a political triumvirate that appears to have scored a win — not on a baseball diamond — but in the arena of international politics:

Romania to Russia to China . . . Short to Second to First . . . Tinker to Evers to Chance.

And thereby hangs an election, and the future of a country — a country that is a member of NATO, the European Union, and the Schengen area, yet somehow managed to score a shocking win for the Russia-friendly, far-right Calin Georgescu in the first round of presidential elections on November 24th.

The runoff vote is scheduled for December 8th. Yesterday, December 4th, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT) took the unusual action of declassifying documents that revealed the country had been the target of an “aggressive hybrid Russian action” that had enabled Georgescu’s victory. [RFE/RL, December 5, 2024.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]

According to CSAT, the documents indicated that Romania had been the target of coordinated actions, most likely orchestrated by a “state actor.” [Id.]

One day later (today), the European Commission — the EU’s executive arm — issued a “retention order” to China-owned TikTok under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), requiring the media giant to preserve evidence “related to actual or foreseeable systemic risks its service could pose on electoral processes and civic discourse in the EU,” adding that the move was being taken in the event of a further investigation of TikTok’s “compliance with its obligations under the DSA.” [Id.]

Romania’s intelligence services have stated that the declassified documents show that Georgescu was widely promoted on TikTok with backing from Russia, using multiple accounts, algorithms to enhance his presence on TikTok, and paid promotion by influencers. This is said to explain how Georgescu’s backing surged from one percent shortly before the campaign to 22 percent at election time. [Id.]

In addition, just a week later a parliamentary election resulted in a similar increase in votes for three pro-Russia far right parties, though they did not appear to have garnered sufficient votes to form a coalition government.

The link to Russia was made by noting that certain access data for official Romanian election websites had been published on Russian cybercrime platforms, probably procured by targeting legitimate sources. [Id.]

*. *. *

Once again, despite its continuing, vehement protestations of innocence, Russia’s fine hand is seen interfering in the free elections of nations around the world. On this occasion, the denials come from Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who had this to say:

“The campaign for the Romanian presidential election … is accompanied by an unprecedented outburst of anti-Russian hysteria. More and more absurd accusations are being made by local politicians, officials and media representatives. We firmly reject all hostile attacks, which we consider absolutely groundless.” [Id.]

Deny all you like, Madame Spokeswoman. It has become nearly impossible to avoid leaving a digital footprint, no matter how carefully you tread. In cyberspace, you may still try to run, but you cannot hide for long.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/5/24

I woke up a few days ago with a splitting sinus headache and, for whatever reason, a bad case of the grumps. After lying in bed and dozing until around 2:00 p.m., I finally forced myself to get up, decided I would do nothing productive for the remainder of the day, tossed on a bathrobe over my pajamas, grabbed a cup of yogurt from the refrigerator, and turned on the TV in search of something entertaining.

And thus began my Sunday immersion in two of Agatha Christie’s best: “Murder On the Orient Express” and “Death On the Nile” — the originals from 1974 and 1978, respectively. Before I knew it, my headache had eased, the grumps had disappeared, and I was lost in the wonderful complexities of two good, old-fashioned murder mysteries.

Agatha certainly had a mind for murder, for cunning, and for deception. She also had good taste, and a sense of her readers’ sensibilities. There was, of course, murder most foul — but no display of gore. There were flirtations and hints of indiscretions — but no visible rolling in the hay. And while her favorite protagonist, Monsieur Hercule Poirot, was known for his directness, the “F-word” would never have entered his mind, much less escaped his lips. Hers was a time when — outwardly, at least — ladies were ladies, and gentlemen were . . . well, yes . . . gentlemen.

And oh! the movie stars! Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Albert Finney, Sir John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, Michael York . . . and in the second film, Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Peter Ustinov, David Niven . . .

Actors the likes of whom will never be seen again, except for the blessing of the old films, now digitally preserved forever. They were our heroes and heroines, and when occasionally they misbehaved in real life, they did so with discretion. They were glamorous, beautiful role models, living lives that — to us mortals — were unattainable dreams.

So for a few hours that dreary Sunday, I lost myself once again in the make-believe world of beautiful people in beautiful clothes, of river boats on the Nile and luxury trains to the exotic capitals of Europe. And I felt — as I had long ago felt when leaving a movie theater after viewing a new film — that brief sense of wonderment and certainty that life was good and that truth and justice would always prevail.

If only . . .

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/5/24