Having a wonderful time reminiscing about all my past travel (and other) adventures. Hope you’ll share them with me in my blog, “All Roads Led to Russia.”
I should begin by apologizing for the repetition. But today is the anniversary of one of those moments in history that remains blindingly vivid in my memory because it is personal . . . as it is for the families and friends of the 268 other people who died together on that day in 1983. For that reason, and also because of its political significance, I think it bears repeating.
*. *. *
September 1, 1983: Korean Airlines flight shot down by Soviet Union.
I was in the office when the call came from the Dean of Columbia University Law School, telling me that John Oldham had been on that Korean Air Flight 007 to Seoul, en route to China for his summer of study and teaching. “No! Not the one the Soviets shot down!”
Tragically, it was.
John was an amazing young man — smart, hard-working, decent, with a bright future. Just having graduated from law school, he was scheduled to join our firm; but first he had been offered an internship in Beijing for a year of study, with a side job of teaching English. He had been scheduled to leave a day earlier, but had changed his reservations in order to accommodate a friend who needed help with something. That was John.
And now he was gone.
John Oldham
It fell to me to tell everyone in the office . . . but first of all, Walter. That was my immediate boss, Walter Sterling Surrey: a prominent international attorney and senior partner of the Washington-based law firm of Surrey & Morse, with clients doing business throughout the world, including China and the Soviet Union. But he was at a dental appointment that morning, so I had to tell him by phone, before he might hear it somewhere else.
When I called him at the dentist’s office and broke the news, he said nothing for a moment. Then: “Call Tregub. I want him in my office at noon. No excuses.” And he hung up.
Valeriy Tregub was our commercial contact in the Soviet Embassy. When I reached him by phone, there were none of the usual niceties. I told him bluntly, “One of our people was on that plane. Walter wants to see you here at noon.” And he didn’t argue.
When Tregub arrived, he looked as though he’d already been through hell; and his meeting with Walter didn’t help. I learned later from Walter that he had told Tregub what he thought the Soviet government should do — accept responsibility for a terrible, accidental tragedy, and offer restitution — but of course, they did just the opposite, denying fault and accusing the Koreans of spying.
The Downing of KAL Flight 007 – September 1, 1983
And to this day, there has been no justice for the 269 passengers and crew members on that flight . . . John Oldham included. He would have been in his late 60s now, probably married with children and grandchildren, and likely looking forward to retirement from a successful and meaningful career, or already embarked on a new one.
But that never happened for John . . . just as it will never happen for the tens of thousands of those killed during the past three and a half years, and still being killed, on the battlegrounds and in the cities and villages of Ukraine. Because it never stops.
In 1983, it was Yuri Andropov seated in the Kremlin; today it is Vladimir Putin. It seems that only the names on the office doors have changed.
I was, however, the target of an attempted mugging in broad daylight, in a busy tourist area of St. Petersburg, Russia, one warm summer day in 2009. I shouted (in Russian) at the would-be purse-snatcher like a woman possessed, hollered “Police!” as loudly as I could, and watched as the startled young man pulled his hand back from my bag and disappeared into the crowd.
Then I finished my tour of the beautiful city on the Baltic, and returned to my Holland America cruise ship for another delightful evening of dining, theater, and a bit of low-stakes gambling. After all, I lived in the city once known as the murder capital of the United States. A failed mugging attempt was no big deal.
Actually, in 60-plus years of living in Washington, D.C. and its close-in suburbs, never once was I the victim of any sort of crime . . . unless you count the time a gang of neighborhood kids keyed my car (and several others) in the parking garage of my apartment building.
The same was true of everyone I knew. It wasn’t just luck; we knew what precautions to take, what neighborhoods to stay out of, and how to protect ourselves. But we didn’t barricade ourselves in our homes. We went out in the evening — to dinners, to movies, shopping, visiting friends — doing all the normal things that people enjoy doing.
Was there crime? Of course, there was. And there still is. It’s part of city life. But is it — in Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, or most other U.S. cities — so out of control that the local police can’t handle it?
Not according to the police officials, mayors of the cities and governors of the states — all “blue” Democratic states, by the way — that are being targeted.
In my six decades of living in Washington, there was only one occasion when the federal government had to step in and activate the National Guard: during the riots of 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., when rampaging mobs burned down whole neighborhoods, demolished vehicles, killed 13 people and injured 1,000 more during a four-day period of total, unhinged bedlam.
Washington, D.C. – April 1968
Other cities — notably Baltimore and Chicago — suffered similar riots. It was a time when the danger was real and obvious, local law enforcement was truly overwhelmed, and reinforcements were legitimately needed. The Army National Guard was rightly deployed, and they did their job.
But they did it properly, with respect for law-abiding citizens. And when the rioting had been quelled, the troops were withdrawn.
They weren’t sent out to dislodge homeless people from their encampments, or to arrest anyone who looked like an immigrant. They weren’t lied to about some imaginary crime wave. And they weren’t there for an indefinite period of time.
Washington, D.C. – August 2025
I’m not angry atthe troops who are patrolling Washington’s streets today; I’m angry for them. Because they have been sent out on a fake mission to do a job that is not rightly theirs. And their organization — the military force to which they have sworn their allegiance — is being bastardized by a power-crazed sociopath who knows no limits.
That is not my Washington. And this is not my America.
It sounds like the title of a children’s book about geography, but it’s far more than that. It is, in fact, the mysterious tale of a real-life, enigmatic, Soviet-Uzbek-Maltese-American man now known as Sergio Gor.
Sergio Gor: Getting Two Thumbs Up From the Boss
Since I love a good mystery — and because, when it comes to politics or espionage, I do not believe in coincidence — the elusive Mr. Gor has aroused my curiosity.
I first heard of him back in June, when he ran afoul of then presidential best buddy Elon Musk. Gor was, and still is, head of the White House personnel office, and opposed the hiring of an individual recommended by Musk. Musk was angry; the two men feuded; Gor won the dispute; and Musk departed the White House inner circle shortly thereafter. Considering Musk’s well-known influence with Donald Trump up to that time, Gor’s triumph was a clear signal that he was not a man to be messed with.
The End of a Beautiful Friendship
But who was he, really? His entire history — his birthplace, his parentage, his application for U.S. citizenship, his security clearance vetting for the White House post — all were being questioned.
After Musk’s departure, however, Gor — and all the questions — faded back into the shadows. He was no longer news. And, in all honesty, he had also receded from my thoughts, overtaken by the greater urgency of multiple national and international crises.
Until this morning.
An Awakening
As I said, I do not generally believe in coincidence . . . at least, not where the shady business of politics is concerned. So when I began my usual morning routine today — clearing the junk mail from my inbox, scanning the news headlines, and checking to see whether anyone had been reading my blog — I was astonished to see, first, that six people had suddenly decided to read the article I wrote about Gor some two and a half months ago.
That was no coincidence: not one, but six people (and later, a seventh), from other parts of the world, had simultaneously become interested in what I had previously written about this little-known person. So I did a Google search, and found that Sergey Gorokhovsky, or Sergio Gor, or whoever he is, is now Donald Trump’s nominee to serve the dual — and very different — roles of Ambassador to India and Special Envoy for South and Central Asia Affairs.
Furthermore, with some 30 ambassadorial posts still vacant and awaiting Congressional approval, this one is being fast-tracked, and looks like smooth sailing. Gor should probably be getting his shots for travel to India soon, if he hasn’t already done so.
The surprise is not that there is a rush to fill the post in India. These are contentious times between our two countries, what with Trump’s excessive tariffs and India’s playing the U.S. against Russia by continuing to purchase Russian oil and gas.
And not to be overlooked is India’s role as a founding member of BRICS, and President Modi’s participation, even as I write this, in China’s hosting of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), along with Russian President Vladimir Putin and — for the first time — North Korean President Kim Jong Un.
So yes, having an Ambassador in place in India is a matter of some urgency. But why Gor? And again, who is he, really?
He claims to have been born in Malta, but they have no record of his birth. Other sources identify him as Sergey Gorokhovsky, born November 30, 1986, in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union. His father is not identified by name, but his parents are said to have left Russia for Malta in 1994, where his mother Liya registered as an Israeli national and “started a business.” They then emigrated to the United States in 1999. [Wikipedia.org.]
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Like so many of Trump’s upper echelon, he is completely unqualified for the job he is being offered. He has zero diplomatic training or background. None. Zilch. He found his way to the White House by joining conservative causes while still in college, and later working for various Republican representatives, the Republican National Committee, and Senator Rand Paul’s political action committee (PAC).
Then he made the leap to the Trump camp: he began working for Donald Trump, Jr. as his consultant and book publishing manager. Together, Gor and the younger Trump founded a conservative publishing house, churning out several books about Daddy Trump.
Gor was also a senior advisor to MAGA Inc., and led a PAC, known as Right for America, for Trump. Finally, after the election in November 2024, Trump named Gor as his director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office. [Wikipedia.org.]
So, while having no diplomatic background to qualify him as ambassador, no negotiating experience to support him as special envoy, and having held no elected office, he has now managed to leapfrog into one of the nation’s most sensitive overseas posts . . . an appointment that makes India’s President Modi very happy, as it gives him a direct, friendly line to the Oval Office.
But have the questions of Gor’s personal history and his security clearance been answered? The White House says they have, but without presenting any evidence. We do — for what it’s worth — have the word of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said in a statement to Semafor:
“I have known Sergio Gor for many years from his time in the US Senate, and now working with him daily in the White House. I am confident he will make an exceptional Ambassador.” [Shelby Talcott, Semafor, August 29, 2025.]
And we have this assurance from White House counsel David Warrington:
“Mr. Gor is fully compliant with all applicable ethical and legal obligations. His SF-86 form has been completed, and his security clearance is active; any insinuation otherwise would be completely false.” [Id.]
An unnamed White House official also added:
“He’s super trusted. He’s known the president for a very long time.” [Id.]
“Super trusted”? Wow . . . isn’t that super keen!
Someone also pointed out that “he has traveled extensively — including with White House delegations and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — and has already been on the ground in parts of the region he’ll now be focused on.” [Id.]
Well . . . I feel much better now. He has experience as an aide to various officials, knows how to pack for overseas travel, and has the trust of several equally unqualified government officials. But he is unstintingly loyal to the one person who matters: Donald J. Trump.
And that’s all that counts in Washington these days.
A brief footnote to the recent story about the presence of Americans in Greenland trying to drum up support for U.S. annexation of the island. (See my post on 8/28/25: “In Case You Thought He’d Forgotten About Greenland …”)
A Homeland Worth Fighting For
Following the Danish Foreign Ministry’s protest delivered to U.S. Charge d’Affaires Mark Stroh last week, an assessment by the Danish PET security and intelligence service said that influence campaigns of the sort complained of would likely aim to “create discord in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland . . . [by exploiting] existing or invented disagreements . . . [either with] traditional, physical influence agents or via disinformation.” [Paul Kirby, BBC, August 27, 2025.]
Further, Danish public broadcaster DR has reported details of one American’s visit to the capital city of Nuuk for the purpose of compiling a list of Greenlanders who were known to back U.S. attempts to acquire the island, and attempting to recruit them for an organized secessionist movement. [Id.]
And what was Washington’s response to all of this? Well, in a typically brilliant display of international diplomacy — and while not confirming the existence of any such influence campaign — an unnamed White House spokesperson had this to say:
“We think the Danes need to calm down.” [Id.]
White House Spokesperson
Genius. Absolute genius.
How calm do you suppose Donald Trump would be if, for example, Vladimir Putin tried to appropriate Alaska?
Timur Kishukov, a native of Kabardino-Balkaria in the North Caucasus region of Russia, became a U.S. citizen in 2017. In late 2024, he flew from his home in Chicago back to his former home to visit friends and relatives. On November 19th, he was to return to the U.S., but never made it to the airport.
The night before his scheduled departure, he was detained by Russian FSB (successor to the KGB) officers, who bound his wrists with tape, covered his head and face with a jacket, and took him away without advising anyone where they were taking him.
U.S. Citizen Timur Kishukov
He was brought to a basement room and questioned for over three hours about his views on Russia’s war in Ukraine, and about any Russians he may know who have worked for U.S. intelligence. They then attempted to recruit him to work with Russian intelligence, spying on Russian-speaking people in his community in Chicago. [Aleksandra Sokolova, RFE/RL, August 27, 2025.]
When he refused, he was beaten and threatened with criminal charges. He later said they told him it would be easy to produce witnesses who would “say whatever is needed” against him.
By the end of the day, he had been charged with participating in a terrorist organization, undergoing terrorism training, and taking part in an illegal armed formation — commonly-used accusations in the predominantly Muslim region since the time of the two Chechen wars at the turn of the century. [Id.]
Second Chechen War (1999-2009)
Now on trial in a military court in Rostov-on-Don, Timur has been accused of fighting in Syria against the Russian-backed former government of Bashar al-Assad. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Authorities say they have three witnesses against him, whose identities have not been revealed; but they have presented no additional evidence against him. [Id.]
Acquittals in such cases are almost unheard-of in Russia. As with others we have seen, it is likely just a question of how long his sentence will be, and where it will be served.
And so we add Timur to our list of American political hostages in Putin’s prisons and penal colonies.
With His Four Children
As a naturalized U.S. citizen, he is, of course, entitled to the same protections and the same efforts to secure his release as any other American citizen. But in view of his ethnicity, and in light of the Trump administration’s onerous new immigration policies, Timur’s case must be monitored carefully to ensure that he receives those protections.
*. *. *
And here again is our roll call of known hostages:
Immigrant Detainees:
Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
Prisoners of War:
The People of Ukraine The Azov 12
Endangered Exiles:
Mikita Losik Yulia Navalnaya Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents
Ales Bialiatski Andrei Chapiuk Uladzimir Labkovich Ihar Losik Marfa Rabkova Valiantsin Stafanovic Yuras Zyankovich
In Russia:
David Barnes Gordon Black Antonina Favorskaya Konstantin Gabov Robert Gilman Stephen James Hubbard Sergey Karelin Timur Kishukov Vadim Kobzev Darya Kozyreva Artyom Kriger Michael Travis Leake Aleksei Liptser Grigory Melkonyants Nika Novak Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler) Igor Sergunin Dmitry Shatresov Robert Shonov Grigory Skvortsov Eugene Spector Laurent Vinatier Robert Romanov Woodland
John Fitzgerald Kennedy knew the meaning of diplomacy. He also understood his principal adversary — the crude, blustering, unfiltered Nikita Khrushchev — and had talked Khrushchev back from the brink of nuclear holocaust in October of 1962 by means of calm reasoning combined with unwavering strength of purpose. He didn’t waffle; he didn’t offer concessions; he didn’t buy into the Russian leader’s threats or promises. He stood his ground, and — in the vernacular of the day — Khrushchev blinked. The Soviet nuclear missiles were withdrawn from Cuba, and the world heaved a collective sight of relief.
Nikita Khrushchev and John Fitzgerald Kennedy
But while Kennedy and the U.S. emerged victorious from that confrontation, it didn’t bring about the end of the Cold War, which was to continue for another three decades. It did, however, point out a serious flaw in communications between the two countries. During those 1962 negotiations, encrypted messages had to be relayed by telegraph, or radioed between the Pentagon and the Kremlin, sometimes creating serious — and potentially disastrous — delays.
The Cuban Missile Crisis ultimately led to the signing of a nuclear test-ban treaty, and to the creation of a “hotline” between Washington and Moscow, which became operational 62 years ago today: August 30, 1963.
In today’s environment of instant electronic communications, that “new” method seems incredibly slow and unwieldy. Kennedy would start by relaying a phone message to the Pentagon, where it would immediately be typed into a teletype machine, encrypted, and fed into a transmitter. That transmission would reach the Kremlin within minutes, rather than hours as previously required. [“This Day In History, History.com, August 30, 2025.]
Still, it was a vast improvement, and eventually led to the instantaneous communications we know today . . . all because Jack Kennedy was a president who understood and valued diplomacy, focused on the important issues, and placed his country’s security and welfare above all else.
The Kennedys
Less than three months later, Jack Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, and the greatest period of hope and prosperity this country had ever known — the “Camelot” of the Kennedys — came to a mournful end. But he left an enduring legacy, and an example of devotion and service to this country and to democracy for his successors to emulate.
It’s mind-boggling, the way Vladimir Putin keeps dishing it out, and Donald Trump keeps lapping it up.
Anchorage, Alaska – August 15, 2025
On August 15th, they held a so-called summit in Anchorage, Alaska, allegedly to seek a path to a solution of the “conflict” in Ukraine. As we soon learned, the only thing that came out of that trip was an indication that both parties would love to resume trade and technology exchanges. In fact, Putin said in Moscow the day after the meeting:
“Russian-American business and investment partnership has huge potential.” [Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, August 16, 2025.]
Prior to the meeting, Trump had threatened damaging sanctions if Putin continued to stall on ceasefire negotiations. But instead of following through, he gave Putin another two weeks, echoing his Russian adversary’s words that peace talks should precede a ceasefire, and promising that there would be a direct meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky, with or without Trump, in a matter of days.
Well, the two weeks are up. The idea of a bilateral or trilateral meeting was quickly shot down by the Kremlin, and the only words from Moscow have been . . . well, not so much words, as this:
Kyiv, Ukraine – August 28, 2025: 22 people killed and more than 50 injured
And these . . .
these . . .
and these:
Kyiv, Ukraine – August 28, 2025 (Photos by RFE/RL)
Dozens of men, women and children killed and injured by Russian missiles as they slept . . . slaughtered on the orders of a man in Moscow who swears that his military does not target civilians.
The same man who told reporters after meeting with Trump two weeks ago that Russia and the U.S. could do more business together — as, for example, between their Pacific coastlines — to which Trump replied:
“We look forward to dealing.” [Joe Wallace, Costas Paris, Alex Leary and Collin Eaton, The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2025.]
While that all sounds nebulous at best, what was not revealed was that secret talks were already underway between the two countries’ biggest energy companies — America’s Exxon and Russia’s Rosneft — in hopes of finding a means of going back into business together.
Exxon and Rosneft: Back in Bed Together?
Along with numerous U.S. and other Western companies that had been doing business in post-Soviet Russia, Exxon — despite the resulting heavy losses — withdrew from its venture with Rosneft following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
But around the time of Donald Trump’s inauguration in January of this year, discussions between the two energy giants gained new momentum. And in February, while ceasefire talks between senior U.S. and Russian officials were taking place in Saudi Arabia, Russia quietly hinted at investment opportunities for American companies, including in Arctic energy developments — which, of course, would be right up Exxon’s alley. [Id.]
And it has been reported that Exxon Senior Vice President Neil Chapman has met in Doha, Qatar, with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin — who, as a close ally of Putin, is under blocking sanctions by the U.S. [Id.]
Igor Sechin
But with the right contacts, enough money, and a blatant disregard for legalities, it seems that no obstacle is so great that it can’t be overcome. So, while a deal between Exxon and Rosneft has not yet been engraved in stone (as far as is known), the mere fact that discussions are underway is an indication of the sort of off-the-record talks that have been taking place between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in recent months.
I have a dear friend, of almost 40 years’ standing, whose birthday arrives every year, like clockwork, near the end of September. And for reasons I’ve long since forgotten, it has become tradition for me to write a poem for each of his natal days . . . always on a humorous note, and often incorporating a soupçon of snarky political commentary. It’s not what you’d call great (or even good) poetry, but it’s a lot of fun. And it’s time to get started on this year’s offering.
But September is meaningful to me in a number of other ways as well. As a youngster, of course, it meant heading back to school after the long, lazy summer. In those years, schools didn’t open until after Labor Day, which may have had something to do with the fact that the buildings weren’t air-conditioned.
September also meant that we could no longer wear white shoes. There was no law or regulation against it, of course; it just wasn’t “done.” It was time to put away the cottons and pastels until the following Easter, and pull out the woolens and plaids — at least in the northeast corner of the U.S. where I grew up.
Over the years, a lot of things happened to our family in September . . . mostly deaths. I remember my grandfather and great-grandmother dying within days of each other when I was just eight years old. Years later, my mother’s older sister passed away in September; and then, later still, my mother also succumbed to what had become known as the family’s “September curse.” For years, my sister and I scarcely dared to breathe for those 30 days, and only exhaled at midnight on October 1st.
And speaking of my sister, she was born in September. I lost her nearly eight years ago — but at least she had the decency to hold on until October. And my precious, beautiful granddaughter Emily came into our lives prematurely one memorable September . . . only to leave us after just 26 years.
It’s a month that reminds me of the inexorable passage of time.
*. *. *
But September is also a time for celebration. It’s the precursor to my favorite season — autumn — when the days gradually grow shorter and cooler, and the air begins to smell better: somehow cleaner, crisper. The sun slants down at a different angle, trees dress themselves in their autumn colors, and the people finally emerge from their air-conditioned cocoons . . . at least, until the first nor’easter blows in.
It’s the month when retailers jump head-first into the holiday season, urging us to get our Christmas shopping done early. Personally, I’d like to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving first, if that’s okay.
And if you’re Jewish, it’s the start of a new year. Rosh Hashanah begins on September 23rd this year, bringing blessings and hope for a better, more sane, less traumatic year than the last one has been.
And on that note, as my beloved Bubbe used to say: “From your mouth to God’s ears.”
If you once thought this was America’s worst nightmare:
LBJ Swearing-in Following JFK Assassination – November 22, 1963
Or even this:
Second Trump Inaugural Address – January 20, 2025
Then perhaps you haven’t considered this:
The U.S. Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 set out the following order of succession in the event of the death, resignation, or incapacity of the U.S. President (for the sake of simplicity, I have only listed the first seven):
Vice President Speaker of the House President Pro Tempore of the Senate Secretary of State Secretary of the Treasury Secretary of Defense Attorney General
Our country has been taken over by an autocratic, xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, narcissistic, mentally incompetent fascist. Armed military troops and tanks are patrolling our city streets; innocent people are being disappeared into concentration camps simply because of their ethnicity; the mass media are being stifled; our highest courts are being rendered impotent. And as we Americans wake up to the bitter truth, calls are being heard for the tyrant’s removal from office.
But is that really the best answer? Because — believe it or not — things could be even worse.
Let’s look at that order of succession again. At this time in our history — when the entire governmental structure has been stacked with Donald Trump’s openly corrupt and totally unqualified cronies — it is terrifyingly clear that the alternatives may be as bad as, or even worse than, what we have now.
Just consider who currently fills those seven seats:
> Vice President: JD Vance
> Speaker of the House: Mike Johnson
> President Pro Tempore of the Senate: Chuck Grassley
> Secretary of State: Marco Rubio
> Secretary of the Treasury: Scott Bessent
> Secretary of Defense: Pete Hegseth
> U.S. Attorney General: Pam Bondi
*. *. *
So we might want to rethink the best way out of this mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. Is impeachment really the best answer? It would be unspeakably disruptive and demoralizing for the entire nation; and with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, it’s unlikely to result in a conviction. That, in turn, would simply send Trump into a tailspin of fury and retribution greater than anything we’ve seen so far.
But the members of that very Congress — along with the Supreme Court and the presidential Cabinet — have the power to put an immediate stop to the madness. All they have to do is wake up to the fact that they outnumber the madman in the Oval Office, and collectively they outrank him. They have the strength of the United States Constitution behind them. They can simply grow a set, stand up to him, stop kowtowing and enabling him, and force him to obey the oath of office he took on January 20th.
And if he still refuses to do the right thing — if he decides that General Custer had the right idea in making one last stand — then, but only as a final resort, impeach and convict him, and physically escort him out of the White House.
If that were to happen, what successor would have the guts to follow his example?
It might not be the photographer. Rather, it could be the person or persons in charge of Vladimir Putin’s publicity, or some other staff member. But — according to Systema, the investigative unit of RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty (RFE/RL) — someone in the Kremlin has been recycling old photos of Putin taken at various meetings and other functions, and passing them off as current.
The question is: Why?
The discrepancy was revealed by Systema’s comparison of some of the recently-released pictures of Putin, taken in front of a particular bookcase in his office, with older photos taken in the same spot. The order of the books was seen to have changed slightly in February of this year; but some of the supposedly current pictures showed the pre-February arrangement. And a review of Putin’s official schedule for the early months of the year indicated some possible inconsistencies or gaps during the times the questionable photos were released. [Andrei Soshnikov, Yelizaveta Surnacheva, and Systema, RFE/RL, August 26, 2025.]
The Telltale Bookcase
Putin is nearly 73 years old. He is said to take care of himself — keeping fit, maintaining a healthy diet, not smoking, etc. But he has already outlived the Russian life expectancy tables by four years, and after a while, even a Rolls Royce is bound to need more than routine maintenance. So perhaps those inconsistencies were a cover-up for a medical issue.
Or perhaps not. There isn’t a leader of any country who doesn’t have secrets . . . and particularly a country as mired in secrecy as Russia has always been. He may have been absent for days at a time for reasons he didn’t want the world — perhaps even his own staff — to know about. And if so, I would rather not speculate as to what he might have been up to. My sleep is disturbed by enough bad dreams already.
Another possibility has to do with the old rumor about plastic surgery. Putin has better taste than to adopt the Trump method of hiding his balding head with ludicrous baseball caps and his sagging facial muscles with orange makeup, which only make him look older and even more ridiculous. So maybe Vlad went out for a little nip-and-tuck.
Then there is the best-case scenario: it’s possible that the old boy just wanted a bit of time off with his longtime girlfriend (and reportedly mother of at least two of his children), former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva. And who could blame him for that? After all, he has one of the most stressful jobs in the world. It can’t be easy to wage a war against Ukraine, create an entirely new world order, and manipulate someone like Donald Trump, all at the same time, without eventually burning out.
Putin with Alina Kabayeva
Whatever the reasons for the photographic subterfuge, kudos to the folks at Systema for their eagle-eyed reportage, and for trying to keep the truth flowing.
We could use your expertise here in Washington, if you’re not too busy . . . because there’s a lot of funny business going on that people need to know about . . . and it goes way deeper than a few old pictures.
The Blog About Everything … and Sometimes Nothing 