It’s been yet another quiet news week insofar as the eight American hostages in Russia are concerned. But on Wednesday, I reported on a peculiar news item concerning a rumor — or it seems to be just a rumor so far — that some prisoners, including two unnamed Americans, might be released soon to their home countries. (See “A Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card For Russia’s American Hostages? Really?” – September 11, 2024.) I’m still waiting to hear more on that . . . with fingers crossed, as always.

Once again, there have been no names this week to add to the eight still locked away in Putin’s prisons. But all eight are still there, as far as I know.

And so we must remember them once again, and encourage them to stay strong and never give up hope — hope that negotiations for their release are moving forward behind the scenes.

In no particular order, they are:

Ksenia Karelina, dual U.S.-Russian citizen, recently convicted of espionage and sentenced to 12 years in prison for contributing $51.80 to an American charity providing aid to Ukraine.

*. *. *

U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Gordon Black, who was stationed in South Korea when he fell into a Russian “honey trap.” He was on his way back to his home in Texas, on two weeks’ leave, when he was lured to Vladivostok by the Russian girlfriend he had met in Korea. He was arrested in May of 2024 on charges of alleged larceny and murder threat, and sentenced the following month to a prison term of three years and nine months.

*. *. *

Marc Fogel, a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania, was arrested in August of 2021 for possession of 0.6 ounce of legally-prescribed (in the U.S.) medical marijuana. In June of 2022 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

*. *. *

Robert Romanov Woodland, a dual US-Russian citizen, was teaching English in Russia when he was arrested in January of 2024 for allegedly attempting to sell drugs. In July, he was sentenced to 12-1/2 years in a maximum security prison.

*. *. *

Robert Gilman, already in jail in Russia serving a 4-1/2-year sentence (later reduced to 3-1/2 years on appeal) for kicking a police officer in 2022, found himself facing added charges in 2023 of punching prison staff in the head, and later also attacking a criminal investigator and another prison guard.

*. *. *

David Barnes, an American citizen and resident of Texas, was arrested in January of 2022 while visiting his children, who had been taken to Russia from Texas by his Russian wife. He was charged and sentenced in the fall of that year to 21 years in prison for child abuse (allegedly occurring while in Texas), on his wife’s accusation. I really wish I knew more of this story!

*. *. *

Eugene Spector, a dual US-Russian citizen already serving a four-year sentence handed down in June of 2021 on a bribery conviction, received additional charges of suspicion of espionage in August of 2023. No other details have been found, as the evidence is labelled “classified.”

*. *. *

Michael Travis Leake, a rock musician and former paratrooper, was sentenced in July of this year to 13 years in prison on drug charges — specifically, suspicion of selling mephedrone, and organizing a drug trafficking business “involving young people.”

*. *. *

And again I ask: Are any of these prisoners actually guilty of the charges leveled against them? I don’t know. But I do know that the recent timing of a number of the arrests, and the speed with which they were brought to trial, is a clear indication of Russia’s intentional roundup of American citizens to be used as (what I call) Putin’s Pawns.

What they are, quite simply, are HOSTAGES. And they will not — MUST not — be forgotten. Let’s shorten this list to zero.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/15/24

Yesterday I said that I would be following reports of the White House meeting between U.S. President Biden and British Prime Minister Starmer concerning the recent threats emanating from the Kremlin over the use of long-range missiles by Ukraine.

Well, the talks were held; the press duly reported on the information they received; and . . .

Nothing.

Specifically, it was reported that “. . . no decision was immediately announced following a meeting Friday between Biden and Britain’s prime minister.” [Aamer Madhani, Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee, Associated Press, September 13, 2024.]

That verbiage — “no decision was immediately announced” — could simply be diplomacy-speak for “we’re not yet ready to comment.” And the Prime Minister did say that talks would continue at the time of the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting later this month. He added:

“This was a really important invitation from the president to have this level of discussion about those critical issues. Ukraine has a right to self-defense, and we’ve stood united.” [Id.]

So now it appears that we continue to wait a bit longer.

Meanwhile, the threats from Moscow have become more frequent and more ominous, with the nuclear option being tossed around like so much confetti. Prior to the White House meeting, President Biden was asked what he thought about Putin’s threat, and he bluntly replied:

“I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.” [Id.]

Sorry, Vlad.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/14/24

Who is Sergei Karaganov?

His biography tells us he is a 72-year-old political scientist; a graduate of Moscow State University; head of the Russian Council for Foreign and Defense Policy; Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics; Presidential Advisor to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin; and considered “close” to Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

He has also served on David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission (Japan, Western Europe and North America) since 1998; on the International Advisory Board of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations; and as Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe at the USSR/Russian Academy of Sciences since 1983.

By any standard, an impressive resume. But is it possible that he is, after all, just a mad scientist on the loose?

And why is he suddenly in the news?

Because his voice is the latest to be heard among the several from Moscow who are proliferating such scare tactics as: “Russia should clearly state its willingness to use nuclear weapons against countries that ‘support NATO aggression in Ukraine.’” [Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, September 12, 2024.]

And he has the ear of Vladimir Putin.

He has been a driving force behind Putin’s decision to amend Russia’s nuclear doctrine, stating that its main goal “should be to ensure that all current and future enemies are sure that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons.” And: “It is time to declare that we have the right to respond to any massive strikes on our territory with a nuclear strike. This also applies to any seizure of our territory.” [Id.]

But that, believe it or not, appears to be his soft side. He has also claimed in the past that the use of nuclear weapons would “save humanity,” and that Putin needs to ensure that “the will of the west to incite and support the Kyiv junta is broken.” [Katie Boyden, Metro.co.uk, June 14, 2023.]

Then he got serious:

“It is necessary that the west simply ‘back off’ and not prevent Russia and the world from moving forward.”

“The enemy must know that we are ready to strike a preemptive retaliatory strike for all of his current and past aggressions in order to prevent a slide into a global thermonuclear war.”

“The fear of nuclear escalation must be restored. Otherwise humanity is doomed.”

“Then [Russia] will have to hit a group of targets in a number of countries in order to bring those who have lost their minds to their senses.”

“This is a morally terrible choice — we use the weapons of God, dooming ourselves to severe spiritual losses.”

“But if this is not done, not only Russia may perish, but, most likely, the entire human civilisation will end.”

“We will have to make this choice.” [Metro, id.]

And he goes on, but . . .

This man is Dr. Strangelove, come to life. And while he does not hold a government position, or (supposedly) have a voice in official government policy, he does have a measure of influence as advisor to Putin. Add him to a gathering that includes fellow whack jobs Dmitry Medvedev and Aleksandr Dugin, bring in Vladimir Putin as the guest of honor, and you have the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse . . . with nukes.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/14/24

So she’s not a marine animal — not an otter, an orca, or a penguin — which I tend to favor. But she does like to swim, and she has captured my heart in spite of (or maybe because of) her rotund figure, flared nostrils, bristly little whiskers, and protruding ears. She is two-month-old Moo Deng — the cutest little West African pygmy hippo ever — and she lives in the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, about 60 miles from Bangkok.

Her name, by the way, roughly translates to “bouncy pig,” which suits her completely. Say hello now to Moo Deng:

Pygmy hippos, also known as dwarf hippos, are native to West Africa and are classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. There are believed to be fewer than 3,000 left in the wild, which makes Moo Deng even more special. [Nick Marsh, BBC News, September 13, 2024.]

She has, in fact, become an internet sensation in Thailand, and the number of zoo visitors has doubled since her birth. I would gladly join the crowds standing in line to see her, if she weren’t halfway around the world. So I will have to content myself with pictures like this one:

Thanks for posing, Moo Deng. You have made my day much brighter, when all the other news was grim and scary. I hope you know that — if for no other reason than your incredible cuteness — your life has meaning.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/14/24

And they’re not particularly popular there, either . . . yet they’re proliferating in an atmosphere shockingly reminiscent of the Soviet days of old.

Annoyed with your neighbor? There’s an easy way to get rid of her — just accuse her of spreading fake news about the Russian army. That’s what happened to Anna, a 46-year-old hairdresser from Pushkin, who was charged with “the public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.” And the witness against her was her own neighbor. The two women had been friends for some time until arguments arose over a variety of issues. And this was the neighbor’s way of settling things: she denounced Anna to the authorities. [Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, September 12, 2024.]

In Moscow, Nadezhda, a 68-year-old pediatrician, was reported by the mother of a patient for saying something about Russian soldiers in Ukraine that upset the woman, whose ex-husband had been killed fighting in Ukraine. [Id.]

And an 87-year-old man was pulled off of a Moscow bus and beaten by a man who claimed to have overheard him make an insulting remark about Russian mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. The younger man and his son marched the elderly gentleman to the police, who fortunately — in an unusual instance — did not charge him. But he was obviously left shaken . . . and angry. [Id.]

The repressive regime of Vladimir Putin has become more onerous since the start of his “special military operation” — the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 — when he signed into law new legislation mandating the punishment for criticism of the military . . . specifically, for “discrediting the use of the Russian armed forces” or for spreading “knowingly false information” about the army. [Id.]

Putin also declared that “ . . . any nation, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like an insect in their mouth, spit them onto the pavement. I am convinced that a natural and necessary self-detoxification of society like this will strengthen our country, our solidarity and cohesion . . .” [Id.]

And thus began the spate of cases of Russians reporting one another — students informing on teachers, professors on students, workers on co-workers — for opposing the war in Ukraine. And the old fears have returned.

Nina Khrushcheva, professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York, has said:

“What I find remarkable is how quickly Russian genetic memory has come back, and how people who didn’t live in those times suddenly act as if they did. Suddenly they are squealing on others. It is a Soviet practice but it’s also something about the Russian genetic code, of fear, of trying to protect themselves at the expense of others.” [Id.]

Is it genetic, a peculiarly Russian trait? Or is it something learned, passed down from a generation who lived through it once before to succeeding generations, much like a religious belief, or a prejudice? I don’t know . . . but it is obviously destructive of a civil society.

And it is being, not merely tolerated, but actively encouraged by Vladimir Putin himself, in the most revolting terms.

I wonder how he’ll manage to blame this one on the West.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/14/24

It wasn’t enough to imprison, and ultimately to kill, Alexei Navalny. Now they’ve gone after his attorneys as well, in a blatant case of “guilt by association.”

In the United States, as in all or most democracies throughout the world, a person accused of a crime is entitled to legal counsel. And the lawyer who accepts representation of a client can be comfortable in the knowledge that, even if his client is found guilty, he (the lawyer) will not be implicated in the crime simply by reason of his professional association with the guilty party.

It’s just logical.

But not in Russia.

On Thursday, three lawyers who had once represented the famed (and now deceased) dissident Alexei Navalny were brought to trial — having been arrested nearly a year ago, in October 2023 — on charges of involvement with “extremist groups,” as Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation had been labeled. They were accused of passing information from Navalny to his team while he was locked away in prison. [Associated Press, September 12, 2024.]

During his incarceration, Navalny was kept in solitary confinement, his only permitted visitors being his lawyers. They were the sole conduit between him and his family and friends — the only way he could let the outside world know that he was still alive and fighting. It was part of his attorneys’ job to “pass information” on his behalf.

Two other former lawyers for Navalny — Olga Mikhailova and Aleksandr Fedulov — have been placed in absentia on a wanted list, also accused of extremism. Both now live outside of Russia. [Id.]

But this is just the quickest and easiest way for the Russian government to discourage lawyers from accepting representation of those charged with political crimes. These three — Sergunin, Liptser and Kobzev — each face up to six years in prison; and conviction is virtually a certainty, as in all such cases. The trial is being held, as always, behind closed doors . . . in the town of Petushki in the Vladimir region, about 60 miles east of Moscow, rather than in Moscow where the three lawyers have been held in detention until now. [Id.]

The outcome is a given; only the length of their sentences remains to be determined.

Russian human rights group Memorial has classified Sergunin, Liptser and Kobzev as political prisoners, and has demanded their immediate release . . . for all the good it is likely to do.

In Russia, there is no presumption of innocence.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/13/24

No! Not those sabers!

Unfortunately, we’re not talking about Aram Khachaturian’s famous Saber Dance, for that would be evidence of the creativity and beauty of which the Russian soul is capable — the soul that seems to have been buried beneath the dung heap that is today’s Kremlin.

No, we’re talking about the metaphorical sabers that Vladimir Putin and his cohorts are so fond of rattling at the world whenever things aren’t going so well for them.

Which is now.

Putin’s “special military operation” — more accurately known throughout the world as his war against Ukraine — isn’t going according to plan. Of course, it hasn’t been from the very beginning. What was supposed to have been a smash-and-grab operation of a few days or weeks at the most, is now rapidly approaching the three-year mark, with no end in sight. His recent gains have been measured in figurative inches rather than miles, slowly, and only painstakingly achieved through the loss of countless thousands of young lives.

And recently, the unthinkable happened: Ukraine turned the battle against the invader, daring to attack Russian territory . . . the first time anyone has done that since the end of World War II . . . even coming as close as Ramenskoye, a district within the Moscow region just an hour’s drive from the Kremlin itself. One woman was killed, three people wounded, and high-rise apartments damaged and burned.

Yet the Russian rhetoric never changes. The truth is meaningless, and only the bravado remains. Following Tuesday’s attack, our old standby, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, had this to offer:

‘There is no way that night time strikes on residential neighbourhoods can be associated with military action.

”The Kiev regime continues to demonstrate its nature. They are our enemies and we must continue the special military operation to protect ourselves from such actions.” [Lidia Kelly, Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn, Reuters, September 10, 2024.]

Pardon me, Dima, while I drag out the laughing man again:

Thank you; that always makes me feel better.

Once again, I have to ask, even though I’ll never receive an answer: Do you really believe this sh*t that you throw at us??!!! Do you honestly believe that we don’t remember who started the f*cking war??!!! Well . . . do you, Dmitry?????

And of course, we’ve heard from the likes of Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, tossing about the old nuclear threat . . . though he always does that, doesn’t he?

Then we were told that Russia’s official protocol as to the permitted use of nuclear weapons was being amended . . . as though that protocol was ever going to stop them from doing what they damn well pleased in the first place.

But now, we have an added feature. Ukraine has for some time been pushing the United States to permit the use of U.S. long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, whereas they have thus far only been available for use against Russian troops within Ukraine. And Putin has regularly threatened reprisals if that were to happen.

This week, however, he has taken it one step further, telling reporters on Thursday:

“This will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia. And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.” [Avery Schmitz, CNN, September 12, 2024.]

And that, I’m afraid, is no laughing matter.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/13/24

Postscript: As of this writing, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is in Washington with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss Russia/Ukraine issues. Immediately upon returning to London, he is scheduled to fly to Rome to meet with Prime Minister Georgia Meloni of Italy, which presently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialized nations.

You can be sure I will be following the reports of those meetings as they are made available.

When I should have been drifting off to sleep this early a.m., this was running through my mind:

Vladimir Putin has been receiving missiles, drones, and God-only-knows-what-else from China, Iran, and God-only-knows-where-else, which he has of course been using in his “special military operation” against Ukraine . . . which, by the way, he started on February 24, 2022.

Meanwhile, he says that if the United States gives Ukraine the okay to use U.S.-made long-range missiles to strike inside Russia, then whatever happens — in fact, the whole megillah — will have been America’s fault.

But isn’t that kinda like Nazi Germany blaming Britain for the Blitz?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/13/24

Well, the six-year-old female runaway African penguin in Japan, of course. Did you doubt it?

Her name is Pen, and the folks at the Gekidan Penters traveling zoo on Japan’s Himakajima Island thought they had lost her when she escaped from her enclosure and swam out into open waters, where she had never gone before.

Her keeper, Ryosuke Imai, said that her escape had left him wracked with worry and guilt. An African penguin can usually swim up to 25 miles a day, but their muscle mass decreases when they’re kept in captivity as Pen had been. “The chances of her surviving in the wild were very low,” Imai said. [Nodoka Katsura and Lex Harvey, CNN, September 12, 2024.]

But then the region was hit by typhoon Shanshan, with high winds and torrential rain that killed at least six people, displaced millions, knocked out power, and disrupted air travel. But with no fishing boats able to operate in the area, Pen was free of obstacles; and the rainfall provided her with a source of hydration and cooling. She also managed to find food — likely fish or crab — along the way, as evidenced by her “substantial droppings” when she was found after two weeks . . . just eight miles from the beach where she first went missing, and ten minutes from her home facility. [Id.]

Way to go, Pen! The world needs happy endings like yours.

*. *. *

People tend to take up unusual causes — unusual for them, at least. Mine, for some reason I can’t explain, seems to be marine animals. First there was Laverna, the surfboard-stealing otter off the coast of Monterey, California.

Next came the sadder story of Hvaldimir, the Russian spy whale who defected to Norway five years ago, but met with an unfortunate accident at sea earlier this month.

And then it was Pen, who I am pleased to say is alive and well in her Japanese home, happily snuggled up with Mr. Imai, probably dreaming about her big adventure at sea.

There are worst causes, I should think.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/13/24

Marie Antoinette is famously (but erroneously) credited with having said, when told that the French people couldn’t afford bread: “Then let them eat cake.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of Belarus, has figured out a way to carry that to an even greater extreme: Let them not eat at all.

Aksana’s son, Anatol, is an IT specialist who was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison for participating in the 2020 anti-government protests in Belarus. Aksana had herself and a disabled mother to support, on a salary of 300 rubles ($92) a month as a caregiver. So she was forced to accept help in the form of food donations through a U.S. online non-profit — INeedHelpBY — that uses a Telegram bot to match donors with people in Belarus “whose ‘active political position’ cost them their job or other income or led to ‘a large fine,’ time in custody, or other restrictions on their freedom.” [RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, March 26, 2024.]

According to Belarusian authorities, this amounts to carrying out “extremist activities” by way of using “foreign donations” from an organization that has been declared an extremist organization.

And now scores — possibly hundreds — of needy Belarusians have faced prosecution simply for accepting a two-week supply of food from individuals registered with INeedHelpBY. These people, when convicted, have been sentenced to detention, confiscation of the donated goods, and fines equal to the value of the donations — usually hundreds, even thousands of dollars that they do not have. [Id.]

One retired man who had received groceries was found to have “threatened to harm state and public interests.” He was ordered to pay the state the assessed value of the groceries plus a fine equal to $184, and to surrender his laptop and (non-working) cell phone.

A woman caring for a small child was ordered to pay a fine of $300, plus the assessed value of the groceries — $5,550.

These people — deemed as national security threats — are also placed under travel restrictions. Some remain in pretrial detention, suspected of abetting “extremist activities.” [Id.]

All because they, or a family member, spoke out against the repressive regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko. And because they accepted humanitarian assistance from a foreign organization.

It appears that Lukashenko has found the perfect deterrent to those who would dare to oppose him: If you’re not afraid of prison, then we’ll just go after your family as well, and starve them to death.

That was justice in the former Soviet Union . . . and it seems to be working for Belarus today.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/12/24