The White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., is one of several immediately-recognizable edifices representing the freedom, democracy, and the political, industrial and economic greatness that is the United States of America.

First occupied in 1800 by the young country’s second president, John Adams, and his wife Abigail, it has stood for 225 years as “The People’s House” — officially the nerve center for 46 of 47 presidencies . . .

. . . except for a period of about three years beginning on August 24, 1814 — 211 years ago today — when British troops sacked and set fire to it during the War of 1812.

The country’s fourth president, James Madison, had left the day before to meet with his generals on the nearby battlefield, expecting to return the following day. But, knowing that the British troops were closing in on Washington, he gave his wife Dolley instructions to gather up important state papers and be prepared to abandon the White House at a moment’s notice.

Dolley made her escape, and the Madisons were able to return to Washington three days later . . . though not to the burnt-out White House. They took up residence in the nearby Octagon House, where Madison served out the rest of his term. It was only in 1817 that newly-elected president James Monroe was able to occupy the reconstructed building. [“This Day In History,” History.com, August 24, 2025.]

And there on Pennsylvania Avenue it has stood ever since, through Democratic and Republican administrations, through times of peace and times of war, and through periods of civil strife.

*. *. *

The White House is now again under fire, though not at the hands of a foreign foe. But — “God willin’ and the creek don’t rise” (as they say in the American south) — it will survive, and there it will remain for the next 250 years.

The White House, and everything it represents, has endured much over two and a half centuries; with the people’s help and courage, it can surely withstand another three and a half years.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/24/25

Forget the finish line; the horses are back behind the starting gate . . . again.

It’s as though three and a half years of talks never happened . . . as though the leaders of the United States and the EU nations never tried . . . as though nearly a million dead and wounded never even existed.

Because today, of all days — the 34th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chose to drop a metaphorical bomb on the hopes and prayers of the Ukrainian people and their allies for any sort of peace treaty in the foreseeable future.

Speaking in an an almost unprecedented, pre-taped interview that aired today on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lavrov unashamedly denied that Russia had erred in striking civilian targets in Ukraine; again questioned Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy as president of Ukraine; and blamed Ukraine for blocking the peace process. [RFE/RL, August 24, 2024.]

It is unclear when Lavrov’s interview was taped. But its release on this significant day for the Ukrainian people was surely no coincidence. His remarks included the following:

“The reaction to the Anchorage meeting, the gathering in Washington of these European representatives and what they were doing after Washington indicates that they don’t want peace.” [Id.]

On the subject of post-war security guarantees for Ukraine — which the U.S. and European allies have been frantically working to formulate — Lavrov said that such guarantees should be given by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: the United States, United Kingdom, France, China . . . and Russia. [Id.]

What’s that old joke about sending the fox to guard the henhouse?

But Lavrov wasn’t joking. He was seriously suggesting that Russia — the very country that wants nothing less than to rob Ukraine of its sovereignty — should have an equal voice in guaranteeing its security.

Then he went on to reiterate the same demands that have roadblocked negotiations all along:

“The guarantors would be guaranteeing the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, which must be nonaligned with any military bloc and which must be non-nuclear.” [Id.]

He again questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy as president; downplayed the likelihood of a summit between Putin and Zelensky due to the existence of “too many” unresolved issues; and accused Ukraine of bringing about Russia’s actions — which he declined to call an “invasion” — by Ukraine’s alleged mistreatment of culturally Russian residents of regions of eastern Ukraine bordering on Russia. [Eric Bazail-Eimil, Politico, August 24, 2025.]

Lavrov further attempted to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its European allies, claiming that Russia and the U.S. are of like minds, and that the EU members’ actions are responsible for the continuation of the conflict:

“We want peace in Ukraine. He wants, President Trump wants, peace in Ukraine. The reaction to [the] Anchorage meeting, the gathering in Washington of these European representatives and what they were doing after Washington indicates that they don’t want peace.” [Id.]

And he said it all with a straight face.

*. *. *

But in Kyiv, President Zelensky was having none of it. Speaking to his people and to the world, he said:

“[Ukraine] will never again accept the humiliation of what the Russians say is a ‘compromise.’ We need a just peace in which our future will be ours to decide. . . . Ukraine is not a victim; it is a fighter.” [RFE/RL, op.cit.]

Happy Anniversary, Ukraine.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/24/25

Perhaps Vladimir Putin wasn’t in the mood to spend millions of dollars on a new holding facility for his deportees; or maybe he just didn’t have time before his next scheduled roundup. So he improvised, and simply repurposed Moscow’s Zhukovsky Airport to hold some of the Central Asian migrants recently arrested in the Kremlin’s latest ethnic purge.

Following the deadly terror attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow on March 22, 2024, four suspects were quickly arrested and charged, with 15 additional accomplices being detained thereafter. On August 4th of this year, the 19 Central Asian men — most of them from Tajikistan — went on trial for the crime. As yet, there has been no word of a verdict in the case.

Since that time, the Russian government has instituted a sweep of Central Asian migrants, ostensibly for deportation to their home countries as security risks. But they don’t all get to go home; and now, dozens have said they have been held at Zhukovsky Airport for more than a week.

According to one report, these men have been seen locked inside a cramped room with prison-style iron bunk beds; some have barely enough room to sit, while others lie on the concrete floor. There are no windows or air conditioners; a trash can overflows with empty packages from instant noodles. One man said:

“I have been here for 10 days. They give us instant soup once a day, nothing else. There is a man among us who suffers from a heart condition.” [RFE/RL, August 22, 2025.]

Another prisoner added:

“We told [Russian authorities] that we want to buy return tickets and go back to Tajikistan, but they are holding us here and not allowing us in or to return home.” [Id.]

Sound familiar?

Not surprising; the two situations are disturbingly similar. But there is one significant difference: the Central Asian migrants in Russia are not merely being deported. Thousands of them are being conscripted into the Russian military to fight in Ukraine . . . sometimes by means of enticements such as big bonuses, but more often through coercion and force.

One young man from Kazakhstan, Kiril Nysanbaev, had already served in the military at home, but then went to Russia in the fall of 2023 to find work in a factory at Chelyabinsk. A few months later, he called his family, saying he was in a migrant detention center. According to his twin sister, Kamilla:

“He said he was detained in connection with a robbery incident. He told me that Russian officers at the detention facility beat him and forced him to sign a contract [to fight in Ukraine].” [Azattyq Asia, RFE/RL, August 21, 2025.]

In March of this year, Kiril was killed in battle in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. His family were not notified of his death until June. [Id.]

Thousands of such stories are emerging concerning conscripts from the former Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Ukraine has established a state-run project, “I Want To Live,” offering soldiers fighting for Russia a means of safely surrendering to Ukrainian forces, rather than returning to Russia or to their home countries, where they would likely be facing criminal charges.

The project says it has obtained lists of names of more than 2,000 Uzbek nationals, more than 930 Tajiks, 529 Kazakh nationals, and 327 Kyrgyz citizens in the first six months of this year. And the numbers continue to grow. [Id.]

Russia, desperate to replace the hundreds of thousands of its own troops killed or wounded in Ukraine, earlier resorted to recruiting criminals from its prisons. Now it has added this new source of manpower — Central Asian migrants — often referred to as “cannon fodder” because of their lack of military experience or training and the likelihood they won’t survive.

To Vladimir Putin, they are just bodies.

It is nothing less than human trafficking, and it is a crime against humanity. Why can’t it be stopped?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/24/25

You may or may not have done anything illegal; it really doesn’t matter. If you are an immigrant in Russia from one of the five former Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan, your days of freedom are numbered.

In Moscow and other cities across Russia, migrant workers from those regions are being swept up by the thousands . . . not only for purposes of deportation, but in huge numbers for forced conscription into the Russian military to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine. (More about that in a separate article.)

Without a trial, or any form of due process, they are being beaten and coerced into signing military contracts. They are indeed hostages to Vladimir Putin’s dual obsessions of ridding Russia of “undesirables,” and of winning his war against Ukraine at any price.

So today they are added — though without individual identification — to a new category of our known hostages: Immigrant Detainees.

*. *. *

And needless to say, we again remember those whom we have known for far too long:

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

Political Prisoners:

In Azerbaijan:

The “Azerbaijan 7”:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

In Belarus:

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
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

. . . and the countless others of whom I may not be aware.

The fight continues.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/24/25

On August 23, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact, pledging that their respective countries would never launch an attack against the other, nor interfere with one another’s allies. It is best known as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, for the two officials who signed it in Moscow on behalf of their governments: Germany’s Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Russia’s Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, setting off a six-year conflagration in Europe previously unimagined by mankind. The next two years saw huge swaths of Europe taken and apportioned between Germany and the Soviet Union like so much common merchandise . . . each of their leaders — Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin — pursuing similar goals of expansionism and empire-building.

Then Hitler made the mistake that would ultimately be his undoing. On June 22, 1941, he launched Operation Barbarossa: an invasion of his alleged ally, the Soviet Union, thus nullifying the 1939 treaty and forcing Stalin, out of necessity, to turn his loyalty to Great Britain and its allied nations.

Had that not happened — had the Soviet Union not allied itself with the free nations of Europe and the U.S. — Hitler’s Third Reich might well have succeeded and World War II ended very differently.

And then, in his own display of treachery, Stalin immediately set about launching the Cold War against the very nations that had protected his country from Hitler.

There are two morals to this well-known story:

First, from a military standpoint, never allow yourself to be surrounded by your enemies. It’s just illogical. With the Allied troops (later to include the United States) to the west, and the massive Soviet Union to the east, Nazi Germany — though a formidable foe for another four years — was ultimately doomed.

And second, from a political point of view, never, ever trust a dictator, an autocrat, a tyrant, a despot, a sociopath, a psychotic megalomaniac, or a fascist.

Not ever.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/23/25

Remember Ocean’s Eleven? The original film was made in 1960, and starred the members of Hollywood’s infamous “Rat Pack”: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and more. The 2001 remake was technologically advanced and well done, but not quite as much fun for those of us old enough to remember the original.

Whichever version you choose to watch, you will be treated to a clever, fast-paced, sometimes suspenseful and often hilarious crime caper in which a group of con men (and one woman) devise the perfect plan to rob five Las Vegas casinos of a boatload of cash.

And for no apparent reason, I dreamt about that plot last night; only in my dream I was part of a gang of Robin Hood-style do-gooders planning to deprive the country’s corrupt oligarchs of their fortunes and retreat to our private island, where we would live — somehow safe from extradition or retribution — happily ever after.

I awoke smiling, most likely at the audacity of the concept. And then it struck me that I might possibly have stumbled upon the perfect solution to America’s current oligarch problem. We hire the originators of Ocean’s Eleven — the writers, producers, and directors — to apply their diabolical cleverness to concocting a real-life heist.

And we put the ogre-in-chief. and all of his multi-billionaire cohorts, out of business.

Just don’t ask me how to do it; I haven’t the foggiest notion. That would require minds far more clever (and devious) than mine, and some real-world technical advisors to back us up. My immediate thought is that we would need former Secretary of Labor and outspoken administration critic Robert Reich for his knowledge and expertise in trade and economic affairs; progressive Democrat, billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates for his financial wizardry; and for legal advice, if they would be willing, one or all of the three brave-and-true Americans on the Supreme Court: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett.

Of course, I haven’t presented the idea to any of them — they don’t even know I exist — but they would be my dream team.

Then we would do unto the oligarchs as they have done unto everyone else: we screw them to the wall. Because without their billions, they are nothing. And without their political presence, we can truly make America great again . . . the way she was meant to be.

Yes, it’s a pipe dream. But it’s the best one I’ve had in a long while.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/23/25

The draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Tournament is to be held in Washington in December of this year, as announced yesterday by Donald Trump in the Oval Office, where he gathered with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino and members of the press.

The event is to be hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico (presumably, if they’re all speaking to each other by then – ed. comment).

Holding the golden (his favorite color) FIFA World Cup Trophy, Trump hinted that Vladimir Putin might also attend the World Cup, saying — with his customary clarity — that Putin “wants to be there very badly . . . [and] may be coming and he may not” . . . depending on the status of the war in Ukraine and the current peace efforts. [RFE/RL, August 23, 2025 CET.]

That, of course, led the reporters to the subject of the Russia-Ukraine negotiations, to which Trump said he would decide his position on the war in the next two weeks, but that he wants to see whether Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky would meet first:

“I think I’ll know. I think I’ll know the attitude of Russia, and, frankly, of Ukraine. It takes two. Then I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be a very important decision. Whether it’s massive sanctions, massive tariffs, or both. Or I’ll do nothing and say, ‘This is your war.’” [Id.]

No! No! No!

Donald Trump will not — not in two weeks, not in two years, not in two centuries — know the attitude of Russia. Where an understanding of Vladimir Putin is concerned, Trump has his head so far up his own ass he can probably see his tonsils.

As Clifford May, founder of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said in a recent interview with RFE/RL’s Current Time:

“His [Putin’s] mission, it seems to me, is very clear: It’s to restore the Russian/Soviet empire. And that requires that he drag Ukraine back into it. He also doesn’t like the idea of a free, independent, and democratic nation right across the border from him. A bad example for Russians, as he sees it.” [Current Time, RFE/RL, August 23, 2025 CET.]

And May added:

“Here’s what worries me most: Too few people understand that what Putin wants through diplomacy is not peace but victory. He wants to get through diplomacy what he hasn’t been able to achieve through war over the past three or so years. He has much of the Donbas but not all of it. He wants the rest of it. In particular, he wants what’s known as ‘the fortress belt,’ [which is made up of the] fortress cities he hasn’t been able to break through.” [Id.]

Zelensky has rightly accused Russia of “doing everything it can” to prevent a meeting between the two leaders. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Putin was ready to meet Zelensky “when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all.” He further accused Zelensky of saying “no to everything.” [Ruth Comerford and Kay Watson, BBC News, August 22, 2025.]

And what is Donald Trump’s latest word on the possibility of a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky? Well, he said he’s been trying to make it work, but:

“ . . . that’s like oil and vinegar … they don’t get along too well.” [Id.]

Don’t tell Trump, but I think he meant “oil and water.”

And that’s the stable genius who’s running the show.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/23/25

From its inception, the United States of America has been a shining beacon of freedom and democracy to the rest of the world. We have been the place to which the world’s victims of tyranny have aspired to emigrate . . . as did countless millions, including my own grandparents.

We were the country that didn’t start wars, but never hesitated to send our troops to the defense of our allies against invasion.

We have been the first to condemn and sanction the despots, dictators, autocrats, violators of human rights in the darkest corners of the world.

We have been at the forefront of the United Nations (and its Security Council), and of NATO, in helping to keep mankind as safe as possible in an inherently unsafe world.

So how is it possible, as we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s birth, that we are now embroiled in controversy with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the very sort of action of which we have been so critical for so long?

A little background: The ICC is a global court that has the power to bring prosecutions for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It has, for example, issued a warrant against Vladimir Putin for his kidnapping and detainment of hundreds of Ukrainian children since the start of his war against Ukraine in 2022.

The United States — though an original signatory to the Rome Statute that created the ICC in 2000 — never followed through with the necessary Senate ratification. In fact, former President George W. Bush formally withdrew the country’s Rome Statute signature in 2002, on the ground that it might interfere with national sovereignty. Thus, the U.S. is not an ICC member, and is not bound by its rulings . . . which explains how Donald Trump was able to invite Vladimir Putin to Alaska without having to arrest him.

The Court also issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the course of the ongoing Gaza conflict.

And Trump — being an avowed ally of Netanyahu and a behind-the-scenes buddy of Putin — has taken umbrage at the ICC’s actions. Three months ago, he issued sanctions against four of the Court’s judges. And now he has chosen two additional judges and two prosecutors as the latest victims of his sanctions in connection with the ICC’s actions against Israeli leaders, claiming — in a statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio — “a national security threat that has been an instrument of lawfare” against the United States and Israel. [Humeyra Pamuk and Anthony Deutsch, Reuters, August 20, 2025.]

Rubio continued:

“[The] United States has been clear and steadfast in our opposition to the ICC’s politicization, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and illegitimate judicial overreach. I urge countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to resist the claims of this bankrupt institution.” [Id.]

The four sanctioned members of the Court, all of whom have been involved in cases linked to Israel and the United States, are from the member states of France, Fiji, Senegal and Canada. Both France and the United Nations have expressed anger at Trump’s action; the ICC called the move “a flagrant attack” against the independence of an impartial judicial institution, and warned that it could impede the functioning of the Court. [Id.]

But beyond that, it is an extension of Trump’s ongoing assault against his own country’s judiciary. He has stacked the U.S. Supreme Court with six (out of a total of nine justices) of his toadying sycophants; appointed more of the same to every vacancy that has arisen in the federal court system; and installed still more of his lackeys to take control of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and the nation’s intelligence agencies.

So why not the ICC as well? In Trump’s world atop his gold-plated Mount Olympus, it’s the natural next step: If they don’t agree with him, he simply sets out to destroy them. The fact that the ICC is not an American institution, but an independent court of international jurisdiction, is meaningless to him; his reach knows no boundaries. He recognizes no authority above his own.

In his mind, he is Zeus.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/22/25

In terms of restful sleep, or even a bit of peace and quiet, the last three days have been . . . well . . . a test of my patience and perseverance.

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m living in auditory, sleep-deprived hell.

Our house is getting a new roof. It is one of those unfortunate inevitabilities of life that sneak up on you from time to time. While we humans, and our furry friends, spend our lives sheltered from the elements in abodes with walls, windows, doors, and a roof, those very structures that shelter us are themselves laid bare to the elements.

Here in the southern U.S., they’re exposed to scorching summers, windy winters, and year-round rain of biblical proportions — not to mention the apocalyptic thunderstorms accompanied by falling branches and miscellaneous wind-borne debris. Through all of these, the roof naturally catches the worst of it.

So on Wednesday, the roofers arrived shortly before 9:00 a.m. to begin what was supposed to be a day-and-a-half job.

I know I’ve made it quite clear in the past, but for those who missed my personal revelations, allow me to explain once again: I am a night owl. My body clock is totally screwed up. I am wide awake and at my most productive at midnight, when the vast majority of people are sound asleep. I generally get to bed around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., sometimes lying awake — my mind aswirl with totally unrelated thoughts — until 4:00 a.m. or later. Then I sleep until noon.

So, although I was prepared for the morning invasion of the roofers, I had not realized that my wake-up call would consist of a battalion of drillers trying to break through the ceiling of my bedroom. Or so it seemed.

And that attack was, of course, accompanied by the ferocious barking of our dog Dixie, who — though in reality a loving creature — thinks she is protecting us by announcing the arrival of any stranger (or vehicle) within 100 yards of the house. And she is relentless.

So when the strangers in question don’t simply walk or drive past the house, but stick around to set up camp in the back yard and actually attack the house with their ladders, large tools, and roofing tiles . . . well, Dixie goes ballistic.

And that pillow over my head? Useless.

So on that first day (Wednesday), I decided it would be the better part of wisdom to get up and stay up, rather than lie there waiting for the roofers to drop through the ceiling onto my bed. I could always take a nap in my cozy den a little later, right?

Wrong. Because once I was up and about, Dixie quieted down and parked herself — atop my feet — in her “I really need a massage” pose in front of my easy chair. The noise from above never abated, but somehow my presence (not to mention 20 minutes of my gentle ministrations) managed to soothe her.

Unfortunately, there was no one available to do the same for me, and I spent the remainder of Wednesday — until around 5:00 p.m. — listening to a cacophony of sounds alternating among drilling, scraping and hammering. I tried listening to music, but it was only halfway effective; and somehow, the rhythmic noises from upstairs never quite synchronized with the strains of Shostakovich’s Waltz No. 2.

Even my old Dukes of Dixieland CDs weren’t loud enough. Some heavy metal might have done the trick, but that would just be trading one form of ear-splitting noise for another.

Anyway, I survived Wednesday — without a nap, I might add — and slept pretty well for about five hours that night . . . until 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, when the team arrived, allegedly to finish the job. Again accompanied by Dixie’s barking, they set to work for what should have been another half day, but turned out to be longer . . . until one of those southern afternoon rains arrived to put a merciful end to it.

And that evening, my son delivered the rest of the bad news. Upon returning home from work, he had climbed up to the roof to check on the progress that had been made, expecting it to be a fait accompli. But, as he put it, it was a mess. He estimated that — while we were indeed safe from that day’s rain — the job appeared to be only about half done.

Now it is Friday. For the third day in a row, I am running on about four hours of sleep; trying to ignore the guy just above me hammering tiles into place (at least, I hope that’s what he’s doing); and wondering what time today’s thunderstorm will arrive to delay things further, and whether these clowns work on the weekend.

*. *. *.

I know I shouldn’t complain. I read every day about people living in the hell of war-torn Ukraine, Gaza, and our own Florida Everglades abomination known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” And I am truly thankful to be where I am.

But I could really use some sleep.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/22/25

P.S. Following a wi-fi delay caused by a router outage — now rectified by my tech-genius son and daughter-in-law — I am able to report that the afternoon storm is upon us, and the roofers have fled. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Or is it just the other way around? With Donald Trump’s and Vladimir Putin’s governing methods so closely mirroring one another lately, it’s nearly impossible to determine who is inspiring whom.

I’ve been to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. It was in February of 1993, and it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I’ve also been to the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, back when it was still known as the Kirov and the city was called Leningrad. And I’ve spent countless hours at Washington’s Kennedy Center, National Theater and others, immersing myself in all sorts of entertainment, from ballet and opera to musical comedy to drama to jazz and pop music to . . . well, you name it. It’s all art, and it’s all wonderfully enriching and soul-satisfying.

To see it politicized is, to my mind, the ultimate degradation of the best that humanity has to offer: music, literature, drama, painting and sculpture. But it has happened in the past, and it is happening again.

Back in the days of the Cold War, when Russian artists from the Bolshoi, the Kirov and others performed outside of their country, they were accompanied by a cadre of KGB minders whose job it was to keep the performers from defecting. Sometimes they failed, as with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova. But for the most part, they were able to keep their charges in line.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it became possible for Russian citizens simply to move to another country if they so desired . . . though there seemed to be less reason for them to do so as restrictions were lifted.

But I wonder how long that will last. News has now been received that employees of the Bolshoi will hereafter be judged and monitored — not only for their artistry and technical excellence, as always — but also for their interest in, and views on, Russia’s war in Ukraine, which it still refers to as its “special military operation.”

In accordance with a contract between the Bolshoi and a Russian software company called Andek, the company’s “InfoWatch Traffic Monitor” software is being installed to examine email correspondence for obscene content and discussions about theater management. But it will also include filters to detect “political views” and “interest in the SVO” (the Russian acronym for “special military operation”). [RFE/RL, August 22, 2025.]

In addition, the Bolshoi’s general director, Vladimir Urin, was fired after signing a petition in 2022 expressing his opposition to the war. In his place, the theater’s operations are now under the direction of famed conductor Valery Gergiev, who — because of his vehement support of Vladimir Putin — has been shunned in a number of Western countries, the most recent being Italy. (See my post, “7/13/25: The Politicization of Culture.”)

This being the Putin era in Russia — a regime of ever-increasing repression and persecution — these developments are not especially surprising. But what do they have to do with Donald Trump or the Kennedy Center?

Everything. Because Trump, less than a month after re-ascending the throne in the newly-gilded Oval Office, fired several Kennedy Center board members deemed not sufficiently subservient to him, replaced them with his own loyalists, and installed himself as chairman of the board. At the time, he wrote on Truth Social:

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN.” [Alexandra Marquez and Nnamdi Egwuonwu, NBC News, August 13, 2025.]

(Washington theatergoers have always been of the opinion that it was already great, but that’s obviously of no interest to the new chairman.)

Since then, he has made personnel changes, stricken programs that he considered too “woke,” and talked about renaming it after his wife Melania — which would be a violation of the Act of Congress that created the Center in 1964. [Id.]

And earlier this month, he announced that he would host this year’s Kennedy Center Honors ceremony — a glittering event that has always been emceed by show business headliners such as Queen Latifah and David Letterman. He claims he was reluctant to host when first asked to do so, saying:

“It’s going to be a big evening. I’ve been asked to host. I said, ‘I don’t care. I’m president of the United States. I won’t do it.’ They said, ‘please.’ I didn’t want to do it? OK? They’re going to say, ‘He insisted.’ I did not insist. But I think it will be quite successful.” [Id.]

Right . . . suddenly he’s reluctant to take center stage. And the moon is made of cheese.

Since Trump’s changes have been instituted, the Kennedy Center has lost numerous long-time subscribers, and a number of performers have refused to appear there. Washington, D.C. — the nation’s capital — is in danger of losing its preeminent cultural center.

Taken alongside his alterations to the revered Smithsonian Institution’s exhibits and programs in his frenzy to eliminate any indication of DEI — even, in fact, attempting to rewrite history by erasing any mention of the negative aspects of our past and present — it is not difficult to draw a comparison between Trump’s and Putin’s actions.

It’s all about control and personal satisfaction. Because that’s what autocrats do.

And it’s scaring me to death.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/22/25