Who knew?

I am a second-generation American; my mother was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and my father in Providence, Rhode Island. I grew up in a family of four Russian/Ukrainian grandparents, one great-grandmother who spoke very little English, numerous aunts and uncles (a couple of whom had been born in the “old country”), and plenty of cousins, mostly on my father’s side though I always have preferred my mother’s-side relatives.

The grandparents (and beyond) also happened to be Jewish, which explains why they left their ancestral home in the first place, for which I thank them.

So I was always told that I was of 100% Russian ancestry, since, at the time of my grandparents’ emigration in 1905, what we now know as Ukraine was — for a while — part of the greater Russian Empire. And I was fine with that.

But the decades of my life have seen incredible scientific and technological advances, including the discovery of something called “deoxyribonucleic acid,” better known as DNA, which initially was lauded as an invaluable tool for tracking criminals. And thus the late 20th century became the era of “You can run, but you cannot hide.”

Eventually, however, some entrepreneurial soul also came up with the idea of making DNA tracking available to everyone . . . or those who might be curious about their ancestry, at least. So one day I joined in the fun, spit bubbles into a little test tube, sent it off in the mail, and awaited what I thought would be confirmation of what I already knew. But . . .

Surprise! According to 23 and Me, my DNA is “only” 99% Russian.

But how was that possible? Did some marauding Hun catch one of my great-great-great-grandmothers alone in the hayloft?

Actually, it wasn’t a Hun at all. Because the other 1%, as it turns out, is split between “Middle Eastern or East African” (0.6%) and Norwegian (0.4%).

Well, that would explain my blue eyes and my fondness for couscous. But otherwise, it seemed to make no sense at all.

So I began researching the ancient migratory patterns of peoples from those two parts of the world, and found — lo and behold! — that my saliva could indeed have originated, centuries ago, in either or both of those regions . . . and not in some Ukrainian hayloft with one of Attila’s legions. (Sorry, great-great-great-grandma, for misjudging you.)

From the Middle Eastern regions, I might well be descended from the Scythians — described as Iranian-speaking nomads with a strong military presence who established settlements in southern Russia from around 700 B.C. to the end of the third century B.C.

Or not. There were also ancient migrations (70,000 to 50,000 years ago) into Russia from Africa, as shown by archaeological discoveries at Kostyonki, south of Moscow. And more recently — the 8th to 10th centuries A.D. — there was an active slave trade from Africa into many parts of Asia and Europe. So I might even be 0.6% African-American.

Wow!

But even more exciting is the Norwegian connection. During the Viking age (8th to 11th centuries A.D.), both Swedes and Norwegians, then known as Varangians, established trade routes via the Volga and Dnieper (Dnipro) Rivers and settled in Kievan Rus’ — the birthplace of modern-day Russia (though Vladimir Putin would have us believe otherwise).

And it was the Varangian Prince Rurik who is believed to have founded the Rurik Dynasty, also known as the Rurikid, and established himself at Novgorod in the year 862. So I might well be 0.6% descended from royalty.

All of which — if true — would make me a Russian-Ukrainian, Norwegian-Varangian, African-American, Jewish Princess.

Or, in simpler terms, a mongrel . . . which, to be honest, is what we Americans have always been: a proud mixture of a wide variety of ancestries.

Even those who seek to erase DEI.

Suck it up, Donnie … you’re Scots and German!

And you can’t hide from that, no matter how fast you run.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/27/25

. . . is that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should stop beating a dead horse — rather than just putting it behind the cart, as suggested earlier — and give up on his attempts to arrange a meeting with Vladimir Putin in the near future. Because Putin simply is not going to show up.

How many ways can they say it? Apparently, quite a few.

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman — and all-around dispenser of joy and glad tidings — Dmitry Peskov said that Zelensky’s suggestion of a meeting before the expiration of Donald Trump’s 50-day deadline was indeed “. . . trying to put the cart slightly ahead of the horse.” [Laura Gozzi, BBC News, July 24, 2025.]

But apparently our friend Dima wasn’t sure he had made his boss’ point strongly enough, because on Friday he issued a further statement to the effect that a summit between the two presidents would only take place as a final step to seal a peace deal . . . and that it was unlikely that any such meeting could occur within Zelensky’s proposed time frame.

Speaking to reporters, Peskov said:

“A summit meeting can and should put the final point on a settlement and cement the modalities and agreements worked out by experts. It is impossible to do it the other way round. Is it possible to go through such a complex process in 30 days? Well, obviously, it is unlikely.” [Dmitry Antonov, Anastasiia Melenko and Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, July 25, 2025.]

That sounds clear to me . . . incorrect, but clear.

However, either Zelensky isn’t getting the message, or (more likely) he is simply unwilling to give up the fight to put a peaceful end to the devastation. In the wake of three failed talks between the two countries’ delegations, he says that a face-to-face meeting of the leaders is required for a breakthrough. He also told journalists that Russia had “begun to engage” over the possibility of such a meeting:

”Now, in talks with us, they have begun to discuss it. This is already progress towards some kind of meeting format.” [Id.]

However, Peskov made it quite clear that the negotiating positions of the two countries are “ . . . diametrically opposed. It is unlikely that they can be brought together overnight. This will require very complex diplomatic work.” [Id.]

End of discussion.

So have we reached a stalemate? And if so, how do we break it?

I hope someone figures it out soon, before there is nothing but rubble left for Putin to claim.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/27/25

As happily reported yesterday, the escape of Mikita Losik from detention in Belarus enabled me to move his name from the list of hostages to a new category: that of “endangered exiles.” He remains in hiding; but he is out of prison and outside Belarus. That’s one step forward in the fight to free all of the political hostages being held by Vladimir Putin and his cohorts in Belarus and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, there is a new inmate in Russia’s archipelago of prisons and penal colonies: 35-year-old Grigory Skvortsov, a professional photographer and musician from the city of Perm, nearly 1,000 miles east of Moscow.

Skvortsov was arrested, beaten, charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 16 years in prison for sharing with an American journalist some declassified documents from a publicly-available book, Secret Soviet Bunkers, by historian Dmitry Yurkov.

Architecture had always been Skvortsov’s passion, and he earned his degree from the Perm Construction College. However, he also had a talent for photography, and combined the two interests by photographing places of architectural interest. According to a colleague:

“He had no equal in photographing industrial sites. He loved it: roofs, abandoned buildings — he could make eye-candy from any workshop. real estate companies in Perm and elsewhere in Russia ordered advertising shoots from him. I remember there was even an exhibition of his in the building of the local administration. He was very much in demand.” [RFE/RL’s Siberia.Realities, July 21, 2025.]

Quite naturally, Yurkov’s book would have been of great interest to Skvertsov. The volume he bought was one of thousands sold across Russia, and contained previously-classified diagrams of Soviet installations. But the material was no longer considered secret, and his sharing of them was merely an exchange between history enthusiasts, not a monetary transaction. A friend said, “He did not pursue any selfish goals.” [Id.]

But Skvortsov also had a love of music, and had founded a band called Jagath whose music he described as “industrial ambient.” Their website explains:

“We create our music in abandoned industrial places — at the bottom of a damp underground sewer shaft and inside huge hollow oil tanks.” [Id.]

A recording of the band’s music was released by a British record label, which attracted the attention of Sonic Seducer Magazine, a German music publication. And it was during an interview with that magazine that Skvortsov made his mistake: he voiced his opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [Id.]

The assumption is that someone who saw the interview informed on him to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB, successor to the KGB) . . . and the rest doesn’t require much imagination.

And so, Grigory Skvortsov joins the ranks of those being held for purely political reasons in a prison somewhere in Russia, simply for having spoken against Putin’s war against Ukraine. The charges regarding the declassified book were just gravy.

*. *. *

Now, another week having passed, here again is my list of those remaining hostages known to me:

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 Russia, except as otherwise indicated:

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have overlooked.

Your families, your friends, and your countries have not forgotten you, and will not rest until you are all at home once again.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/27/25

How dreadfully embarrassing for Xi Jinping!

He has somehow managed to keep a straight face while insisting that he is not aiding Vladimir Putin in the furtherance of Russia’s war against Ukraine, despite refusing to speak out against it.

He also ignores the fact that he has continued to boost Russia’s economy — and therefore its military budget — by remaining the largest customer for its oil and gas.

And there’s that little matter of Chinese dual-purpose technology being provided to Russia’s military for use against Ukraine, which Xi shrugs off as being untrue . . . while welcoming officials from Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories at trade shows where Chinese manufacturers sell heavy equipment to Russian companies operating in those territories. [Id.]

But now he has been caught in yet another lie, and it will be interesting to see how he squirms out of this one . . . or whether he even tries.

Ukraine’s intelligence service announced earlier this month that a 24-year-old Chinese man and his father had been arrested for attempting to obtain classified information about the Neptune missile program and deliver it to Chinese intelligence.

The younger man — who had been expelled from a Ukrainian technical school two years earlier — had befriended a defense worker in an attempt to gain access to the information, which his father would then pass on to the Chinese authorities. [Todd Prince, RFE/RL, July 25, 2025.]

(There is no explanation as to why the pair were still in Ukraine after the student’s expulsion.)

This comes on the heels of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s imposition of sanctions on five Chinese companies for aiding Russia’s war effort.

While it had been hoped by Ukraine and its Western allies that Xi would be able to use his leverage with Putin to assist in ceasefire talks, it has become evident that that’s simply not going to happen, as Xi needs Putin’s war to continue drawing U.S. attention away from China.

His Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, admitted as much earlier this month at a meeting in Brussels with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, when Wang is reported to have said that Beijing could not accept a defeat of Russia in the war because it would leave Washington free to focus on China. [Id.]

China’s protestations of neutrality are no longer believable. The world knows they are buying Russian fuels, selling them military technology, and sending their spies into Ukraine.

In the words of Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee:

“At the very beginning, there was some hope China could be involved in the [peace] process. But now we’ve become more realistic and speak more openly: China supports Russia.”

So you are free, President Xi, to erase the inscrutable smile from your public face; you are fooling no one.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/26/25

They’re not saying how it was done or where he is, of course. But Mikita Losik — brother of imprisoned journalist Ihar Losik — has slipped the tentacles of Belarus’ dictator, Aleksandr Lukashenko, after being sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “extremist activities.”

With his brother already serving a 15-year sentence on specious charges of “inciting hatred” and “organization of mass riots,” Mikita was working at a machine tool plant in the eastern Belarusian city of Orsha in February 2023, when he observed a train convoy of Russian tanks and air-defense vehicles passing through the city. As he says now:

“We’re told Belarus is a peaceful country, but here we were helping Russia’s war effort in broad daylight. I had to act.” RFE/RL, July 24, 2025.]

And he did just that, taking photos and submitting them to Belaruski Hajun, a popular online monitoring channel that reports on military activities in Belarus. [Id.]

More than two years later, at 6:00 a.m. on April 9, 2025, his dormitory room was invaded by eight masked, armed men who pinned Mikita and his roommate to the ground. Showing him Telegram messages he had long since deleted, they handcuffed him and took him to Vitebsk for questioning and detainment.

They clearly knew who he was, as one of the men asked, “Want to be in the next cell with your brother?” [Id.]

On the basis of an old Telegram subscription and some social media posts containing a “No to war” hashtag, his two-day closed trial resulted in his conviction and sentencing to three years of incarceration in a sort of open prison facility under parole-like control and restrictions. [Id.]

Knowing that the slightest infraction could still land him in a far worse penal colony, and that his relationship to his brother Ihar would surely be held against him, Mikita made his decision to flee.

With the aid of the BySol Foundation, an organization supporting Belarusian political prisoners and dissidents, he was able to engineer his escape.

While in pretrial detention in Vitebsk, Mikita says he met numerous political prisoners, including engineers, students, and others sentenced “just for sending money or posting emojis.” And though he knows that he is still not entirely out of danger, he believes he made the right choices:

“I couldn’t pretend not to see what was happening. I couldn’t stay silent while our land was being used to wage war.” [Id.]

So, while older brother Ihar Losik —who has not been heard from for the past two years — presumably remains in prison, Mikita is at least free . . . though not entirely. He must remain in hiding indefinitely, knowing that he is a wanted man in his own country.

*. *. *

Thus, Mikita Losik will be moved (not removed) from our regular hostage list to a new category . . . one for endangered exiles.

Still, it is a step in the right direction.

Be safe, Mikita.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/26/25

In my many decades of working in the field of corporate transactional law, I survived — and it was a matter of survival — numerous large mergers, acquisitions, and international joint ventures. The negotiations were tortuous and sometimes hostile; and the attention to detail in the preparation of the official documents was mind-numbing. A misplaced comma could blow the whole deal.

Even now, I get that “holy shit!” feeling when I think of the Coke-Pepsi fiasco in China. But that’s another story entirely. But the legal requirements were clear-cut, and everyone involved had been educated and trained to understand and deal with them. We knew what we were doing.

Not any longer.

The merger in today’s headlines involves broadcasting giants Paramount Global and Skydance Media, and the tidy sum of $8 billion. It was, of course, complicated by the requirement for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval . . . and where the government becomes involved, you encounter a whole new level of complexity.

Forget about the antitrust implications; those are fairly cut-and-dried in comparison to today’s minefield of White House-imposed restrictions on everything from TV programming to museum exhibits to college admissions to what goes on in our bedrooms.

In the instant case, it seems that the censor-in-chief was not happy with a CBS broadcast of an interview with former Vice-President Kamala Harris. So — having nothing better to do, like ending a war in Ukraine or Gaza, or deporting more innocent immigrants — he did what any decent, clear-thinking president would do: he sued parent company Paramount for its alleged editing of the interview to “tip the scales in favour of the Democratic party.” [Paul Glynn, BBC, July 2, 2025.]

And then he instructed the FCC to withhold approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger.

Now, this is where the lawyers for the two merger parties begin drinking heavily, because the actual legal issues become secondary — in fact, nearly irrelevant — in relation to the overriding irrational, unethical, and quite possibly illegal demands of one individual with a big black Sharpie and a limitless supply of executive order forms.

So they swallow their pride (and their enormous fees), ignore the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct (also known as legal ethics), and do what their consciences tell them is clearly wrong: they advise their clients to pay up.

So Paramount pays Donald Trump $16 million dollars, supposedly to be allocated to the building of his gold-plated presidential library, the law suit is dismissed, and a couple of weeks later . . . voila! The FCC approves the merger.

But what about Skydance? What was the price they had to pay for the 28 CBS-owned TV broadcast licenses, other than the $8 billion agreed between the parties? As it turns out, only their integrity.

According to FCC head Brendan Carr — a Trump appointee — Skydance’s ideas to make “significant changes” at CBS were most welcome:

“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change.” [Christal Hayes, BBC News, July 25, 2025.]

Carr said that Skydance had promised the agency to make a “commitment to unbiased journalism,” and to install an ombudsman to evaluate complaints of bias. They also agreed . . . are you ready for this? . . . to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. [Id.] [Bold emphasis is mine.]

*. *. *

The FCC voted 2-1 to approve the merger. But one commissioner, Democrat Anna Gomez, had the courage to dissent. In her words:

“After months of cowardly capitulation to this administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted. Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions.” [Id.]

Brava, Ms. Gomez! Her conscience is clear; I only hope her curriculum vitae is up-to-date.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/25/25

The story accompanying this photo talks about the worsening traffic conditions in the Washington, D.C. area, which now reportedly boasts the longest daily commutes in the United States.

But, as my D.C. and Maryland friends will attest, Interstate 695, shown above, is actually Baltimore’s Beltway — not Washington’s, which is I-95 and I-495, as seen below.

(Please don’t ask why it has different designations for the western arc and the eastern arc, or why some stretches share both numbers; I’ve never seen the sense of it, and I lived most of my life there.)

So, is the I-695 photo just a case of human error, or the result of another AI screw-up? It’s impossible to tell the difference these days; but either way, it’s a good example of why we shouldn’t take everything we see online as gospel.

In all fairness, though, the first picture was taken from a BBC report, so perhaps we should simply forgive our friends across the Pond for not being familiar with our highway system. After all, I wouldn’t have a clue as to the quickest route from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle.

“I should take the M4? Are you sure?”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/25/25

This is not a hypothetical question: the Russian government is actually working on it. YouTube has become so popular in Russia, with millions of viewers across the country, that the government considers it a major threat unless it can control its content. They have tried to convince parent company Google to locate its servers inside Russia in order to make them accessible to Russian regulators, but without success. And so far, all they’ve managed to do is slow the service down to “unbearable” speeds. [Mike Eckel, RFE/RL, July 25, 2025.]

According to market research from Mediascope, 95.9 million Russians — adults and teenagers — visited YouTube each month during the last half of 2024. As regulators began slowing the service, the numbers dropped somewhat in the first half of 2025.

At least five potential challengers have joined the Russian Internet (RuNet) in the hope of drawing viewers away from YouTube. The most viable competitor thus far is Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, known as VK Video (VK is short for VKontakte, or “In Contact”) — a service created by Pavel Durov, who fled Russia when the government began pressuring him to release confidential information on his customers, and later co-founded the highly successful Telegram messaging service.

According to Philipp Dietrich, an expert on Russia’s Internet at the German Council on Foreign Relations:

“I think the only real big alternative is VK Video. I think that’s the main player. They have the money. They’re government-backed. They’re going to go all-in here. They have the servers, the infrastructure, they have good software, they have good engineers, if money doesn’t get into corruption, if it actually goes where it’s supposed to go, VK is going to be a success.” [Id.]

It’s no secret that Vladimir Putin has turned Russia back into an autocratic state . . . or that one of the first agenda items of an autocracy is control of the media. So none of this comes as a surprise.

But I’m unable to see how blocking YouTube would square with the government’s promotion of the Canadian Feenstra family, now living on their large farm in the Nizhny Novgorod region and broadcasting almost daily on YouTube to advertise the idyllic life to be found in Russia for other conservative families from Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere.

The Feenstras — Arend, Anneesa, and their eight children — have become the poster children for Putin’s attempts to counteract the disturbing decrease in the country’s population through his twin programs of welcoming large, conservative families from abroad, and encouraging young Russians to . . . well, to put it bluntly . . . procreate.

For the Russian families, there are financial incentives; and for emigre families, there is land, accessibility to farming and building materials and equipment, and the promise of protection from the “wokeness” of the West for their children.

And for the Feenstras, instant fame.

They are an exceptional family — smart, hard-working, devoted to one another, and personable on-camera. As my readers know, I have been following their progress through their YouTube broadcasts since their arrival in Russia at the beginning of 2024. And I’m very worried that, if YouTube is blocked, I will lose them.

But more importantly, what will happen to them if they no longer have access to worldwide social media, and are limited to Russian services? Will they lose their propaganda value to the state, and some of their privileges as well? Or will the government find some work-around to allow them to keep broadcasting?

We’ll have to wait for the answers to those questions. In the meantime, of course, I’m sticking with the Feenstras and their daily adventures in beautiful, woke-free Nizhny Novgorod.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/25/25

To the surprise of absolutely no one, yesterday’s meeting in Istanbul between the Russian delegation — led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky — and the Ukrainian team — headed by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov — concluded after barely an hour with an agreement to swap 1,200 prisoners of war and for Russia to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

But no movement toward a ceasefire.

And just hours later, the two countries once again exchanged drone strikes, killing two and injuring another eleven people in the Russian resort city of Sochi, with three killed in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and several injured in Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhia.

In addition, a Russian missile attack struck — not a military facility, as they consistently claim to be targeting — but Odesa’s 200-year-old Pryvoz Market: an historic landmark, and one of the two most popular markets in Odesa.

Ahead of the meeting at Istanbul, Ukraine’s Umerov said that Kyiv’s priority was to organize a meeting between Presidents Zelensky and Putin before the end of August; while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said that they did “. . . not expect a breakthrough. A breakthrough is hardly possible.” [Laura Gozzi, BBC News, July 24, 2025.]

Peskov said further:

“They [Ukraine] are trying to put the cart slightly ahead of the horse,” adding that there was a great deal of work yet to be done before such a meeting could take place. [Id.]

Once again, Putin has made it quite clear that he has no intention of entering into peace negotiations in the foreseeable future. So I’ll say it one more time, in the hope that someone in Washington is listening:

It’s way past time to quit making empty threats, and put a stop to Russia’s war machine, once and for all. What in hell are we waiting for?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/24/25

Why would the man who, for the past six years, has led Ukraine steadily toward membership in the EU and NATO; worked tirelessly to solidify his country’s relations with the West; and, for three and a half grueling years, inspired his people in their fight against Russia’s brutal invasion . . . why would he suddenly sign into law a bill granting control of the country’s two independent anti-corruption agencies to the Prosecutor General — an appointee of the President?

That is the question on everyone’s mind this week, since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did exactly that on Tuesday, after the bill received the backing of 263 out of 324 members of Parliament.

And it took less than a day for the people in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv and Sumy — despite the constant threat of Russian drone and missile attacks — to take to the streets in protest.

One protester in Dnipro, a city not far from the southeastern front said:

“We had two relatively independent institutions that at least created the appearance — or even the reality — of checks and balances. If we dismantle them, we’ll slide into a fully controlled state. I wouldn’t want to live in a country like that.” [Steve Gutterman, RFE/RL, July 23, 2025.]

And a war veteran attending the protest in Kyiv on July 22nd said:

“In essence, Ukraine is being dragged 10 years back in terms of the fight against corruption. By stripping NABU of its autonomy, they are gradually dismantling everything that’s been built up over the years. I’m in shock, my friends are in shock.” [Id.]

*. *. *

In a nightly address on July 22nd, Zelensky had defended the draft legislation, saying that it would improve anti-graft efforts and remove “Russian influence.” But later on July 23rd, he said he would soon propose another bill, which would still guard against Russian interference but would also provide for “the independence of anti-corruption institutions.” [Steve Gutterman, RFE/RL, July 23, 2025.]

He did not specify at that time whether the new bill would supersede the one he had signed the day before.

Previous Ukrainian administrations had been known for rampant corruption, though there has been some improvement since the two agencies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) — were created in 2014 as a condition set by the EC and IMF in order to strengthen ties between Ukraine and the West.

Asked by the EC for “explanations,” Zelensky argued that steps had to be taken to remedy NABU’s and SAP’s record of allowing criminal proceedings to stagnate for years, and that they needed to be “cleansed from Russian influence.” [Laura Gozzi and Charlotte Gallagher, BBC, July 23, 2025.]

A spokesman for EC President Ursula Von der Leyen reiterated that respect for the rule of law and the fight against corruption were “core elements” of EU membership, and that Ukraine — as a candidate country since 2022 — was expected to maintain those standards.

“There cannot be a compromise,” the spokesman added. [Id.]

Aside from the obvious domestic implications, there is now an overwhelming concern as to the effect this action may have on Western support of Ukraine against Russia’s continuing onslaught.

But at least one person is happy today: Vladimir Putin, who would see this as a golden opportunity to drive a wedge between Ukraine and its allies, and to advance his demand that an immediate presidential election be held to “legitimize” or replace Zelensky.

After all that the people of Ukraine have been through, and all that the West has done to help them, we can only hope that President Zelensky is able to make this right.

Because anything less would be an unspeakable tragedy.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/24/25