I doubt that Alexei Navalny would ever have sought to become a martyr. His goal was simply to see his beloved Russia and its people living in freedom — freedom from tyranny, want, and fear. His method was to spread the truth: loudly, clearly, peaceably. He was met with persecution, poisoning, criminal prosecution, imprisonment, torture, isolation, starvation, and a long, slow, painful death in a penal colony in the frozen Siberian nowhere.

Vladimir Putin and his minions of course deny any complicity in Navalny’s treatment or his death . . . while at the same time threatening Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, with “the same fate.” As offered by Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov on Tuesday, February 27th: “The same fate awaits Navalnaya. If she comes to Russia, she will go to prison.” [Shannon Vavra, Daily Beast, Feb. 25, 2024.] Presently outside Russia, it is unclear whether Yulia Navalnaya will be able to attend her own husband’s funeral.

*. *. *

As I write this on the eve of the funeral (7:00 p.m. Thursday E.S.T. time, 3:00 a.m. Friday in Moscow), I see reports that there is already a police presence outside the church. Putin is well aware of the outpouring of grief that has already been seen since Navalny’s death was announced; and he must now realize that, in allowing this man to die while in custody, he has inadvertently created his own worst nightmare: a martyr, beloved by the freedom-seeking Russian populace and survived by a wife, children, mother, and team of compatriots who will carry on the fight against Putin’s tyrannical reign. Does he plan to kill them all?

We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Brendochka
2/29/24

. . . “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Dylan Thomas wrote those lines as he contemplated the inevitability of his aging father’s death. And the words themselves have become immortal . . . words of advice for all of us to heed.

One man who clearly believed, as Thomas did, that his only choice in life was to fight — to rage — against that finality was Alexei Navalny. But death was inevitable to him as it is to all of us. For him, though, it came far too soon, brought about by the evil of a regime that could not bear his honesty, his courage, or his raging.

He was the victim of the very sort of injustice against which he had fought so long and so honorably in life. Wrongfully charged, poisoned, imprisoned, tortured . . . yet he still could not be silenced. So he was murdered; and even after death, forced to suffer the further indignity of his body’s being held hostage as his killers sought to prevent any public show of grief and support. They arrested hundreds of those who laid flowers at makeshift memorials to him, and finally tried to coerce his family into keeping his funeral “secret.”

But his family showed that they, too, are made of sterner stuff, and began making proper funeral arrangements for him . . . only to run headlong into a blockade erected by those very same killers when church after church, burial ground after burial ground, were closed to him, some confessing that they had been “forbidden” by the authorities to accept him. Arrangements were finally made at a location near his former home in the outskirts of Moscow; burial is scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, March 1, 2024. In a show of defiance, the public has been invited by Navalny’s family and colleagues to attend, and have been urged to “come early.”

There is little doubt that attendance will be great . . . and accompanied by an equally great police presence. Whether Alexei Navalny’s final farewell will be peaceful, as he would have wished, remains to be seen.

*. *. *

In a final twist of the metaphorical knife, one of Navalny’s team, Maria Pevchikh, has said that, just before his sudden death, negotiations had been underway for his release and that of two (unnamed) U.S. citizens being held hostage in different prisons, in exchange for “a Russian hitman serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen fighter in Berlin.” [Anna Chernova, et al., CNN, Feb. 27, 2024.]

As of the time of reporting, CNN had been unable to independently verify Ms. Pevchikh’s claims, and the German government had declined to comment. An unnamed Western official told CNN that there had been “early discussions about a prisoner swap involving Navalny and US citizens, but no formal offer had been made prior to his death.” [Id.] But Ms. Pevchikh alleges that “because Putin could not tolerate the thought of Navalny being free, he instead decided to ‘get rid of the bargaining chip.’” [Id.]

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s typical response was that the accusations were “absurd,” that the Kremlin “has nothing to do with the case” and therefore “cannot exert pressure.” [Id.]

Okay, sure — I buy that. And I also believe the moon really is made of blue cheese.

*. *. *

Whatever may be the truth of any behind-the-scenes prisoner “swap” negotiations, it is time now to give Alexei Navalny and his family the rest and the closure they deserve. Let’s hope he is at last allowed to “go gentle into that dark night.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/29/24

It’s not because they have eight children. It’s not because they’re right-wing conservatives. It’s certainly not because they’re Canadian, or because they’re farmers. Or even because they’re anti-LGBTQ. I’m a firm believer that each and every one of us has a God-given right to his/her/their opinion on everything. But these people have done something so incredible, so unbelievable, so unimaginable, that it can only be classified as absolutely, positively, unequivocally STUPID.

And now you’re wondering “Who?” “What?” “Why?” Well, hang on to your hats, because this one really is hard to believe.

Meet the Feenstra family from Canada, who, in their haste to escape the perceived “LGBT ideology” of their formerly beloved country, decided the best place on Earth to live would be the one place that has the most stringent anti-LGBT laws, and where they would feel safe from the “Western influence” . . . the place they have called “the land of opportunity” . . . RUSSIA.

Yes, I said “Russia.”

I honestly don’t know how to feel about this. On the one hand, it’s so bizarre I want to laugh. But it really isn’t funny. This couple, in their misguided belief that their way is the only true way, have consigned their eight innocent children to a life in what can only be described as Hell on Earth.

Emotions aside, suppose we just examine this a little further, without in any way passing judgment on their religious or moral beliefs. Those are strictly personal matters, and as I said, to each his own. But from a purely logical point of view, I have to ask: WHAT HAVE THEY DONE??!!!

They look like a nice, average family, don’t they? Dad (Arend) was a beet farmer in rural Canada, while Mom (Anneesa) has obviously had her hands full caring for their substantial brood of really cute kids. And they’ve carefully raised the children according to their conservative Christian beliefs. Life has been good to them.

Then one day, the kids find out that Mom and Dad are selling the farm and they’re all moving far away . . . really far, halfway around the world to another country where the way of life is different, the laws are different, the people are suspicious of foreigners, and most people don’t even speak English. It seems logical that the older ones will have asked why this is happening, and I have no idea how I, as a parent, would have answered them. “Because life is better there”? “Because we can have more land there”? “Because they don’t allow gay people there”?

Wait . . . WHAT??!!! What was that last one? Oh, yeah . . . that one was the truth. Because Russia does have the most stringent laws against promotion of “deviant” sexual identity, and we need to protect our precious children from the evils of “wokeness” and LGBT’s “corrupting influences.”

Well, if that was their goal, they could not have chosen a better destination (although Hungary is working hard at trying to catch up). In fact, they had received advance assurances from Russian officials that they would be given the help they needed to get established there. And they believed it.

But if they thought life in their new home was going to be paradise, or even easy, well . . . to put it bluntly, their new reality sucked. Big time.

First they found that their new Russian bank account, containing the proceeds of the sale of their Canadian farm, had been frozen as being “suspicious.” Unable to find anyone who spoke English to help them, Anneesa flipped out and went into a rant on YouTube, saying she was “very disappointed in this country at this point . . . I’m ready to jump on a plane and get out of here. We’ve hit the first snag where you have to engage logic in this country and it’s very, very frustrating.” [Will Potter, Daily Mail News, Feb. 22, 2024.]

Wow!

Well, you can just imagine how that went over with the folks in the Kremlin. The details of what followed aren’t readily available, but the video was taken down from their YouTube account, and Arend “shared a groveling apology video where he said their ‘thoughts aren’t always conveyed properly.’” [Id.]

Then a follow-up video was posted on February 11th, in which Arend said their funds were no longer frozen, and that they intend to stay in Russia “for the long haul.”

Further kowtowing ensued, in which Arend went so far as to say:

“Western media for the most part is very biased, corrupt probably. Lots of lies, lots of nonsense being spread around the West about us. We are perfectly happy here, we’re not planning on leaving here, we’re not stuck here, we’re not hostages.” [Id.]

He even went on to encourage others to follow in his footsteps, claiming that officials “make it easy for Americans to move to Russia. Especially large families, Christian farming families, conservative people, and they want them here . . . there’s tons of land and opportunity here.” [Id.]

Ah, yes . . . it seems the good old “workers’ paradise” from the days of Lenin and Stalin has returned to Mother Russia. And it didn’t take long for the propaganda machine to take hold of the Feenstras, did it?

*. *. *

As for the kids, who will no doubt learn Russian fairly quickly, as kids usually do . . . well, the school system will take care of their essential “re-education.” Though I’m not sure what’s going to happen to their earlier Christian religious upbringing. Perhaps they’ll be allowed to join the Young Pioneers instead. What fun!

Желаю удачи, дети: “I wish you luck, kids.” I really do. I’m afraid you’re going to need it.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/28/24

If you are not aware that Queen Elizabeth II passed away about a year and a half ago, then you’ve probably been doing the Rip Van Winkle thing, and I’m sorry to have to be the one to break the sad news to you. But she really did leave this world in September of 2022, and her son — after waiting in the wings for some 70 years as Prince Charles, heir to the throne — has been ruling the United Kingdom since then as King Charles III.

However, the late Queen — if she were still with us — would no doubt be flattered and delighted to know that former President Donald Trump has taken it upon himself to defend her and her good name in the only way he knows how: by dissing — and one might even say threatening — her younger grandson, Harry, and his wife, Meghan.

Now, if you’re that same sleepy-headed individual who wasn’t aware that the Queen was dead, you may also be oblivious to the fact that the Sussexes — as the aforesaid Harry and Meghan are known — made the decision some time ago to leave their royal duties behind, move to the United States, and live like normal people . . . well, normal rich people, anyway. They seem to be happy here, and there’s no question that they’ve done well for themselves financially, building on the already substantial bankroll and the advantageous name recognition they brought with them to the Colonies.

Needless to say, the rest of the royal family — and most notably Queen Elizabeth herself, who was still very much alive at the time — were less than thrilled by this unexpected turn of events, not least because of the unflattering things her grandson and granddaughter-in-law had to say about some of the daily trials and tribulations of life in that rarefied royal environment. And honestly, I’d have been pissed too, in her place. While wanting to live their own lives is understandable, would it have hurt them to keep their personal grievances to themselves? Did they have to air the family’s dirty laundry at every opportunity? Really?

Well, if you consider that keeping mum doesn’t bring in book deals or TV appearances, I guess we know the answer to that. Because that’s what it’s all about: Harry’s book, and the notorious Oprah interview. In short, when they went public, they screwed the pooch . . . big time.

You see, Harry put it all out there, including (or so I understand, because I haven’t read the book and don’t intend to) his past history of youthful indiscretions involving sex, drugs, and whatever. Not unusual experiences for a young man with lots of charisma, money, and a wide range of contacts. But again, did he have to advertise it to the world?

Obviously, he thought he did. And whether we approve or not, and regardless of what we think of Harry and Meghan and their lifestyles, the choices they have made were theirs to make. They’re adults; they’re entitled to live their lives without our input or judgment . . . right?

Wrong! Because they are public figures, who have chosen to remain in the public eye while also claiming to have escaped all of that four years ago when they fled the U.K. They knew perfectly well what they were doing, and they have orchestrated it spectacularly.

*. *. *

But here is where it gets interesting. Because, in being so open about his boyhood peccadilloes, Harry may have inadvertently contradicted himself on one very crucial point. On his application for a U.S. visa, one of the questions he had to answer was whether he had ever used illegal drugs. Did he answer honestly? That hasn’t been revealed yet, but he is surely hoping he did . . . since, in his book, he apparently goes into some detail on that score. And if it turns out he lied on his visa application . . .

So there’s a whole legal can of worms here, and it’s just fortunate that he has the money to pay those exorbitant attorneys’ fees, as this could become very expensive . . . and inconvenient, if the Sussexes ultimately have to move again.

*. *. *

And now . . . enter Donald Trump, stage right (far-right), with a group of his Merry Men from the conservative Heritage Foundation to save the United States from the evils of this dangerous young couple.

“What the hell do Donald Trump and the Heritage Foundation have to do with Harry and Meghan’s immigration status?” . . . I hear you thinking. Excellent question.

It’s unclear who first became interested in the issue — Trump or the Heritage folks — but it seems likely that one inspired the other to join in the fray. Heritage has gone so far as to bring a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempting to seize Harry’s immigration records! What standing they claim to have in the matter is beyond me, but that’s for the courts to decide.

In the meantime, never one to pass up an opportunity to run his mouth and hopefully ruin someone’s life, Trump declared that, if he were to win the 2024 election, “I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me.”

He never did specify what alleged offense against the Queen had particularly incurred his wrath, but it hardly matters. After all, if anyone would know what constitutes betrayal, it would be Donald Trump.

And he didn’t spare Meghan Markle, either. As far back as last September, in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show, the always-respectful Trump described her as “disrespectful,” and said, “I didn’t like the way she dealt with the queen. They treated her with great disrespect and I didn’t like it.”

It’s clear that he’s had it in for Meghan at least since the 2016 presidential campaign, when she described him as “divisive” and “misogynistic.” In his usual eloquent manner, he responded as follows: “I wasn’t referring to, she’s nasty. I said she was nasty about me. And essentially I didn’t know she was nasty about me. She was nasty to me. And that’s OK for her to be nasty. It’s not good for me to be nasty to her and I wasn’t.”

I’ll see your six “nasties” and raise you one “divisive.”

Okay, that’s enough. Let’s not be nasty.

*. *. *

I’m so glad to know that someone — even if it is, oddly, Donald Trump — still has the late Queen’s interests at heart, and is protecting her dignity . . . though I did think that would have been better left to her actual family. And personally, I would much prefer that Trump relegate the soap opera stuff to Oprah, and run a campaign based on actual issues of importance to the country and the world at large. Like what? Oh, I don’t know . . . maybe actual details of how he would try to solve the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the Israel-Hamas crisis, the energy crisis, the environmental crisis, the climate crisis, the population crisis, the immigration crisis, the mass-shooting crisis, the inflation crisis, the mental illness crisis, and perhaps even the why-isn’t-there-anything-decent-to-watch-on-TV crisis. That should keep him busy enough to keep his nose out of other people’s personal business.

But then it wouldn’t be all about him, would it?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/27/24

Let’s add another couple of names today to the ever-expanding list, beginning — almost unbelievably — with Alexei Navalny’s younger brother, Oleg. He hasn’t been arrested yet, as he is apparently living outside Russia. But on February 20th, as Alexei’s family continued to haggle with officials over the release of his body for burial, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Oleg. He now appears as “Wanted” on the database of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs . . . on unspecified charges of alleged criminal activity, presumably to be figured out at some later time.

*. *. *

And already in prison is one Ilya Yashin, another anti-Putin activist. Somehow, amidst all of the publicity regarding Alexei Navalny and the others, I managed to overlook this case until recently, for which I apologize to Mr. Yashin.

In December of 2022, Yashin was sentenced to 8-1/2 years in a “general regime” prison colony: for spreading “fakes” about the Russian military. His appeal was denied the following April. His actual “crime”: making statements on his YouTube channel about war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces in Bucha, Ukraine — incidents already well documented by numerous international news services.

In November of 2023, attorney Mikhail Biryukov reported that Yashin had been transferred from a pretrial detention center in Moscow to a detention center in Smolensk, noting that this was not to be his final destination and that the exact prison colony in which Yashin would serve out his sentence was still unknown.

In December of 2023, it was reported that he had been placed in a stricter-regime unit after serving five days in solitary confinement, following which he was “not allowed to use a phone to call his relatives now; parcels and visitations are also restricted.” [RadioFreeEurope / RadioLiberty, Dec. 8, 2023.]

On Friday, February 23, 2024, upon learning of the death of Alexei Navalny, Yashin expressed his concern for fellow activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, writing that Navalny’s death had made it “obvious that the life of every Russian political prisoner is under threat.” He pointed out numerous similarities between the cases of Navalny and Kara-Murza, and wrote in an open letter to world leaders: “Almost all Western leaders spoke out about Navalny’s death, blaming Putin for this tragedy. Prove your good will and use all your diplomatic resources to attain the immediate release of Kara-Murza. Do this before it’s too late.” [Novaya Gazeta Europe, Feb. 23, 2024.]

*. *. *

So I urge you once more: Do not forget or forsake those men and women being held HOSTAGE by the Russian government, who have done no more than speak out against the dictatorial, fascist regime of Vladimir Putin. While they have been forced into silence, we have not.

Let us use our voices for them.

*. *. *

Please . . . bring them home!

Brendochka
2/26/24

It is often true that our past deeds come back to haunt us, though usually not literally. The ghosts of Marley and Banquo were the products of the imaginations of Charles Dickens and Wiliam Shakespeare, whereas Alexei Navalny is . . . sorry, was . . . very real indeed.

And what venue better lends itself to a real-world haunting than the Moscow Kremlin, with its assortment of eerie edifices and its long history of palace intrigues and murderous conspiracies? Not to mention a leader already reportedly suffering from the sort of paranoia common to despots whose lives have left them with much to atone for.

But why, after all of the years of Putin’s evil-doing, should I imagine it would finally catch up with him now? Call it the perfect storm. He’s psychologically dragged down by this war . . . oops! . . . “special military operation” in Ukraine that, instead of his original estimate of a couple of weeks, is now entering its third year, and that he doubtless wishes he’d never started. He is reportedly so frightened that people are plotting to kill him or, at the very least, instigate a coup against him, that he often refuses to tell even his closest confidants in advance of his planned whereabouts. The entire free world has turned against him because of his treatment of Ukraine. And now . . .

Now he’s really gone and done it. He arrested, imprisoned, isolated, tortured, starved, froze, and denied medical care to the most loved, admired and respected member of the political opposition: Alexei Navalny. And, still fearing Navalny’s influence, even from a Siberian prison camp, on his millions of freedom-loving Russian followers, Putin ultimately had him murdered, either by direct order or as the result of years of barbaric mistreatment.

And Putin, never satisfied, has compounded that atrocity with yet another: His people at the penal colony and the nearby morgue, after refusing for a full eight days to allow Navalny’s family to see the body of their loved one, have only now permitted his mother to view him and to receive his body for burial, but only on the condition that the family agrees to a private, “secret” funeral in some isolated spot, away from the public eye. Otherwise, they threaten that he will be allowed to “decompose,” and will be buried without ceremony there, in the frozen Siberian wasteland.

So the first question that comes to mind is obviously: What the hell are they hiding? Is it some residual evidence of the true cause of his death? Are they afraid of the crowds of people who would be sure to gather to pay their respects to a man they admired and believed in? Or, most likely, is it both?

In the meantime, Alexei Navalny’s elderly mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, is left to deal with the prison authorities on her own; her son’s wife and children are living in exile, hopefully out of reach of Putin’s hit squads. Navalny’s team continues to fight by long distance, as condemnation from the free world rains down on Putin’s head. Hopefully the pressure will be sufficient to win the sort of dignified closure to Navalny’s life that every decent human being deserves.

*. *. *

And now — after all of the persecution, the indignities and the torture heaped upon him over the past decades, culminating in his sudden and unexplained death — I doubt that many would be surprised if Alexei Navalny’s ghost were suddenly to appear in Vladimir Putin’s bedchamber, pointing the bony finger of death at his killer and paraphrasing the words of old Jacob Marley himself:

“[We] wear the chains [we] forged in life . . .” *

Mark those words, Mr. Putin; they may well portend your future.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/25/24

* Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the world seems intent these days on self-destructing. Floods here, droughts there; blistering heat waves in one hemisphere, record-breaking cold in the other; volcanoes erupting, earthquakes splitting the planet’s surface, practically everywhere. And those are just the “natural” disasters . . . the ones we hardly have time to worry about because we’re so busy creating more and more man-made ones.

And, not surprisingly to anyone who knows me, my focus has been on recent activities as they relate to one specific, very busy individual: The Man Who Would Be Tsar . . . The Ruler of All the Russias (and Beyond) . . . The Kremlin’s Killer-In-Chief . . . Let’s hear it for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin!

“Boo! Hiss! Blow it out your ditty-bag, Vlad!”

Never a contender for Mr. Congeniality in any worldwide contest, he really seems to have outdone himself lately. First, there is today’s two-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine — not something brand new, but a tragic reminder that what he first tried to pass off as a routine military exercise near the Russia-Ukraine border, then a “special military operation” that was supposed to have been finished in no more than a couple of weeks, has actually turned out to be a full-fledged war of attrition against a sovereign nation that has cost his own country billions of dollars in military expenditures and economic losses resulting from sanctions . . . not to mention the lives of more than 300,000 young Russian citizens who had no idea why they were being sent to fight in the first place. Happy anniversary, Vlad.

*. *. *

But being a world leader also means being an accomplished multi-tasker, and our Vlad appears to be an expert in that department. He has managed, over the past two years, to detain 19,855 of his own citizens at anti-war protests; to chase hundreds of thousands of draft-avoiders out of the country, including an estimated 10% of Russia’s IT workforce; and to designate 444 individuals and groups as “foreign agents and undesirable organizations” under legislation “that allows [the government] to punish individuals and target groups for allegedly receiving support from outside of Russia or operating under foreign ‘influence.’” [The New Atlanticist, Atlantic Council, Feb. 23, 2024.]

He clearly has studied, and learned much from, an earlier leader, Josef Stalin, as to the use of fear to attain his goals and control the populace of his country. But he apparently missed the lesson on long-term effects.

But that’s understandable, considering how busy he’s been micro-managing his fear factory. I have inundated this blog — as shared on my Facebook account — with information about some of the more widely-publicized cases of the victims of Putin’s Purges: the arrests, charges, convictions, and imprisonments of those who have dared to speak in opposition to his regime: Vladimir Kara-Murza, Alsu Kurmasheva, Ksenia Fadeyeva, Lilia Chanysheva, Vadim Ostanin, Sergei Udaltsov, and more recently, Ilya Yashin.

Putin also has found time to roll up a few Americans along the way, as pawns in his little game of “Swap the Prisoners.” Basketball star Brittney Griner was one of the lucky ones; they let her come home in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout. Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich haven’t been so fortunate, and are still cooling their heels in Russian prisons while Putin calculates how much he can get for them.

And of course, there is the long list of those who have already paid with their lives for daring to incur the wrath of the all-powerful Putin: Boris Nemtsov, Anna Politkovskaya, Aleksander Litvinenko, Boris Berezovsky, Sergei Skripal (who managed to survive poisoning, but is now and forever in hiding), to name but a few.

At the head of this list, of course, is the most recent, and most notorious case of Alexei Navalny: pursued, poisoned, survived, returned to Russia, imprisoned, tortured, and now dead “of natural causes” in Penal Colony IK-3 in far-off Siberia. But simply knowing that Navalny is deceased is not enough for Vladimir Putin; the victim’s family must also suffer further by being denied access to his body for a proper, dignified burial. Nice touch, Vlad.

There is also, somewhere, a long list of individuals — many of them former friends or associates of Putin himself — who have somehow managed to irritate the Vozhd (Chief), and ended up falling from a conveniently-located open window, or suffering a sudden “heart attack,” or plummeting to earth in an exploding airplane. Surely, if there exists a survey of the most accident-prone countries of the world, Russia must be No. 1.

*. *. *

And finally, just ten days ago, Moscow sent hitmen to Spain to gun down a Russian deserter — 33-year-old Maxim Kuzminov — who fled to Ukraine in his helicopter six months ago because he opposed Russia’s war offensive. He sought safe haven in Spain, but that didn’t protect him from the long reach of Putin’s assassins. Maxim’s body was found on February 13th in the town of Villajoyosa near the coastal resort of Benidorm. He had been shot six times, then run over with his own car. Spanish intelligence officials called the killing a “settling of scores.” [AFP, Feb. 22, 2024.] Ya think?

Russian officials haven’t even tried to hide their involvement in this one. Stopping short of actually claiming responsibility, Sergei Naryshkin — head of Russia’s SVR (successor to the KGB) — remarked to Russian state news agencies: “This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse at the very moment when he planned his dirty and terrible crime.” [AFP, Feb. 22, 2024.] As stated by Matthew Schmidt, Assistant Professor of National Security and Political Science, University of New Haven, “The message is loud and clear: We will find you anywhere in the world. We will kill you just to send a message to the next person thinking about it. That’s an extraordinary power, and Putin did it effectively, making sure it wound up in the news.” [Business Insider, Feb. 22, 2024.]

*. *. *

And here’s one final note, from the “If you believe in coincidence” file: The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, occurred one day after the February 23rd anniversary of “Defender of the Fatherland Day” . . . originally called “Red Army Day.” Huge celebrations were held yesterday in Moscow and elsewhere, with Putin himself laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and boasting about Russia’s advanced nuclear weapons. He does irony rather well, doesn’t he?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/24/24

Ksenia Karelina: Remember that name. She is the most recent American citizen to be thrown into Putin’s endless prison system for treason as a result of having at one time donated — while living in the United States — $50 to a humanitarian aid organization providing assistance to the victims of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The 33-year-old manager of a Los Angeles spa emigrated to the United States about ten years ago, and obtained her U.S. citizenship in 2021. She thus holds dual U.S./Russian citizenship, which — under Russian law — still subjects her to treatment there as a Russian citizen. She was arrested while visiting her family in Yekaterinburg.

But how did the Russian security forces even know about her little donation on behalf of Ukraine? The answer to that is terrifying. According to the Russian lawyers’ group known as Perviy Otdel (“First Department”), “such donations could be tracked by bank records that could easily be recovered from a person’s phone during a border crossing or other checks by authorities. . . . We recommend deleting the history of money transfers to foreign accounts from banking applications, including foreign banks.” [Jaweed Kaleem, Sabra Ayres and Laura King, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 20, 2024.]

Make no mistake: Big Brother is alive and well and living in Russia . . .

White House spokesman John Kirby stated on Tuesday, February 20th:

“I want to reiterate our very strong warnings about the danger posed to U.S. citizens inside Russia. So if you’re a U.S. citizen, including a dual national residing in or traveling in Russia, you ought to leave right now.”

Excellent advice. And I would add to that: If you’re planning a trip to Russia — or even one of those wonderful Baltic cruises that offer an overnight stay in port at St. Petersburg — CANCEL. Do it now. Do not wait. Get your money back if you can . . . or even if you can’t. Your life is more important than any amount of money.

Not just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/23/24

A few days ago, I said that I felt Elon Musk had come perilously close to fulfilling the definition of Treason according to the Constitution of the United States, when he urged that the United States discontinue all further aid to Ukraine in defense of its country against the brutal incursion by the Soviet . . . excuse me . . . by Russia (easy mistake). His rationale: that “there’s no way in hell Putin will lose.” And, “Putin risk[s] being ‘assassinated’ if he were to back off the fight in Ukraine” (as if we should give a crap about Putin).

If that’s not “giving Aid and Comfort [to the Enemy]” * . . . well, I’d like someone to tell me just what it is.

* Constitution of the United States of America, Article III, Section 3, Clause 1.

And using Musk’s statements as a basis for comparison, how do we then justify not holding Donald Trump accountable for every appeasing, mollifying, placating, supportive, ass-kissing statement he has ever made in favor of the Kremlin’s Killer-In-Chief, Vladimir Putin?

J’accuse, Donald J. Trump! J’accuse!

Without going back through all the years of Trump’s outrageous, inflammatory, and often inaccurate blathering pronouncements, just a couple of the more recent examples are enough to have made my blood run cold. In case you haven’t heard these yet, allow me to enlighten you:

About our NATO allies: “Look, if they’re not going to pay, we’re not going to protect, OK? . . . One of the heads of the countries said, ‘Does that mean that if we don’t pay the bills, that you’re not going to protect us?’ That’s exactly what it means. I’m not going to protect you.”

(Note his use of the pronoun “I.” He who would be king.)

And as though that weren’t enough, he has said he would “encourage” Russia to attack any of America’s NATO allies whom he considers to have failed to meet their financial obligations.

In other words, let’s just hand the world over to Russia now, and get it over with. First we cut off Ukraine, leaving them at the mercy of the ravenous Russian war machine. Then we dismantle NATO — the one military alliance that, for the past 75 years, has kept the free world . . . well . . . free. Never mind that, while freeing us of the obligation to defend our allies, so would our allies be free to thumb their noses at us.

About aid to Ukraine: “[T]hey [referring to other NATO members] laugh at the stupidity of the United States of America, where we have a guy that gives $60bn every time somebody comes and asks for it. We shouldn’t be doing that. They’re laughing at us. They think we’re the stupid country because of our leadership.”

About Alexei Navalny: Nothing from Trump for three days. Then . . . still nothing, other than to compare himself with Navalny, as a victim of persecution. But not a word of condemnation against the Putin regime; not even a suggestion that perhaps the Russians should turn Navalny’s body over to his grieving family. Nothing.

*. *. *

And those are just the highlights. You want more? Just read tomorrow’s news . . . and the day after that . . . and all the days after that. Donald Trump, a.k.a. “the Mouth That Roared,” will be glad to provide you with all the s**t you can swallow.

I have just one question: How in the name of all that’s holy is he still walking around free, and not behind bars or in a rubber room?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/22/24

It hardly seems possible. It’s been thirty years since I last saw Moscow — the city I once called my “second home.” Looking at it today, I doubt that I’d feel the same way about it. In 1994, Russia was a country in the midst of growth, testing the waters of democratization, capitalism, and personal freedoms.

Industries were being revitalized, and new ones created by a youthful generation of entrepreneurs — soon to become “oligarchs,” counted among the wealthiest in the world. Technology found its way into the mainstream; independent news media were founded; young men and women looked to a bright future, free of the restraints and fears that had plagued their parents and grandparents. Life was exciting.

And seated at the head of the government was a man named Putin, hand-picked by his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Vladimir Putin: former KGB officer; born, raised and educated in Leningrad — now once again renamed St. Petersburg — and mentored by the one-time mayor of that city; then oozing his way through the ranks to sit at Yeltsin’s elbow, eventually to slide into the president’s seat upon Yeltsin’s resignation.

And, over the course of two decades in that seat, gradually showing his true colors, openly becoming the savage tyrant he had always been beneath the surface.

*. *. *

But not everything was rosy 30 years ago. Behind the scenes, we — Russia and the United States — were still political adversaries, spying the daylights out of each other. And on February 21, 1994, as I was returning to my Moscow apartment from a day of business meetings, a CIA officer named Aldrich Ames was being arrested near his home in Arlington, Virginia, where it was still morning. The charge: Treason. He was alleged — and later proven — to have been selling classified information to the Russian government since 1985. In Moscow, we didn’t hear about it on TV until the morning of February 22nd due to the time difference. And the general reaction was: “I’ll be damned! Are they still playing those games?”

That was pretty much my first thought. After all, I had never heard of this Ames guy; it had absolutely nothing to do with me. Did it?

Well, not directly, anyway. But life is funny. You think you’re on a straight path to a known destination, when suddenly — like one of those dreams that make absolutely no sense — you find yourself in a totally different location. Alice was about to enter Wonderland.

I’ve written about all of this, and even re-posted parts of it. It’s the tale that inspired me to begin this blog in the first place. Look back at Chapters 1-28, if you’re curious enough; it’s fascinating reading. But it’s not the main point of today’s monologue.

My point today is that tempus really does fugit. Those days of travel, of living and working in Prague and Moscow, of being caught up in the mysterious world of international intrigue . . . they’re as real to me now as they were 30 years ago, while what I did last week is already fading into oblivion. Perhaps because these past few days were unremarkable. Would I really want to write about a day I spent sitting at the computer for a couple of hours, then doing a little laundry, and talking to a friend on the phone? Would anyone care to read about that?

God, no! But that’s what happens when those 30, or 40, or 50 years are gone and the best times — the exciting times — are just memories. Vivid memories, but memories nonetheless. Maybe that’s why we (or most of us) are blessed with surprisingly clear long-term recollection, while short-term . . . well, not so much, really. Because the long-ago is more worthwhile remembering. Yesterday was okay, but it wasn’t the stuff I want to write about. The 1990s were.

And the 1990s, for me, were all about my Russian experience. Now, unexpectedly, those times have once again become disturbingly relevant. The things that make the headlines today, that don’t involve us directly but do impact us as human beings who live in this world . . . those are the events that have occupied my thoughts lately, and kept me tapping away at this keyboard. Compliments of Vladimir Putin, we are in another Cold War. I never expected or wanted to see it, but here it is. So, while I’m still regurgitating the memories of three decades ago, I’m also living through this new one vicariously, by way of other people’s experiences. That’s okay. I’m just glad to still be here.

But daily commentary is no longer enough to satisfy me. The reality of those long-ago days is still fresh in my mind, still significant, and already partially memorialized in writing. There is substance there, and it’s time to finish the job. Our time on this Earth is finite; we shouldn’t waste it . . . myself included.

So, back to work now.

Brendochka
2/21/24