Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, has issued a chilling warning to the recently released political hostages in the United States and Germany: That they are not safe from the wrath of the Russian government, and perhaps should seek witness protection. (See today’s earlier post: “The Long Arm of the Lawless …”)
But Vladimir Putin’s vengeance has also descended upon those whom he once considered friends, when they dared to displease him. So I suggest a word of warning might also be in order for his newly returned “heroes” . . . and one in particular:
FSB Assassin Vadim Krasikov
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Ode To An Assassin
To Putin’s “good friend,” Vadim Krasikov, I offer a few words of caution: Remember what happened just one year ago To his other “friend,” Zhenya Prigozhin.
They have been freed from the hell of their Russian prison cells. Some are back home in the United States or Germany; others are temporarily stateless, kicked out of their Russian homeland with no time to make plans for the future. But they are free, and they will survive and thrive.
They are the lucky sixteen: former hostages of Vladimir Putin who were traded on August 1st for eight of his people — spies, thugs, cyber criminals, and a convicted murderer. He calls his eight returnees “heroes,” while to him our sixteen are “traitors.” And Vladimir Putin does not abide traitors . . . either real or imagined.
Pulling the Strings . . . Literally
The years-long, incredibly complex negotiations that resulted in this week’s historic prisoner swap may at last be over; but the fallout is yet to be seen. And there will be fallout.
Putin’s Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev — as always, sparing no drop of venom — openly threatened the opposition figures, saying in a post on Telegram that they “pose an existential threat to today’s Russia. They should not forget the transience of their existence in this world.” [DPA International, August 4, 2024.]
And in case that wasn’t clear enough, he went on to advise them to always “look around with caution,” to “hide under new names” and “actively disguise themselves.” [Shweta Kukreti, Hindustan Times, August 2, 2024.]
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman, Russian Security Council
But to justify their release, he added that: “[While] it would be desirable to see the traitors of Russia rot behind bars . . . it’s more useful to get our guys out.”
So . . . is it safe to assume Medvedev’s not going to be running for any Humanitarian of the Year award any time soon?
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But this is not new. Actual threats and physical attacks have long been made against Russian dissidents who have already fled the country. Leonid Volkov, a former associate of the late activist Alexei Navalny, was brutally attacked by thugs with hammers outside his home in Vilnius, Lithuania, a few months ago. He was lucky to have survived.
Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland, said the two Polish football “hooligans” (his word) had been paid to attack Volkov by a Belarusian man working for Russian intelligence. All three have been arrested . . . but it is certain that there are countless others out there, more than willing to be hired at the right price. [Will Vernon, BBC News, August 3, 2024.]
Leonid Volkov, Russian Political Exile – Attacked
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Dmitry Gudkov, a Russian opposition politician living in exile in an undisclosed EU country, flew to London last summer for a friend’s birthday. On arrival at Luton Airport, he was approached by two plain-clothes UK police officers, who had been waiting for him — not to arrest him — but to warn him that he was on a list of people considered to be in danger. They asked where he would be staying and what phone he would be using. [BBC News, id.]
Dmitry Gudkov, Russian Political Exile – Threatened
Reading the description of Gudkov’s experience, I immediately wondered whether those two “officers” were indeed members of UK law enforcement. Or were they Russian messengers, hired to plant the seeds of doubt and fear, and to track his movements? I assume their identity was verified by Mr. Gudkov, who took the warning seriously. But my initial doubts stem, not from paranoid delusions, but from the reality of the way Russia’s security forces actually operate.
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Another anti-Kremlin activist contacted by British police was the founder of the Russian Democratic Society, Ksenia Maximova. She said they told her “they needed to discuss the safety of me and my family,” and advised her not to travel to certain countries where Russian agents operate more freely. [BBC News, id.]
Ksenia Maximova, Founder, Russian Democratic Society – Threatened
Maximova stated that “[The Kremlin is] stepping up the campaign against ‘enemies,’ that’s absolutely true. They’re tightening the screws.” She and others have noticed an increase in cyber attacks. [Id.]
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Alesya Marokhovskaya is a Russian investigative journalist living in Prague. She felt she was safe there. But she has been receiving anonymous messages, one saying, “Parasites can’t sleep in peace . . .” She thought it might be “some crazy Czech guy who was pro-Putin and had recognised me on the street.” But she moved to a new home, “to make it harder for them.” [BBC News, id.]
Alesya Marokhovskaya, Russian Political Exile – Threatened
And then the messages became more sinister. They called her a “scumbag,” and threatened to find her “wherever she walks her wheezing dog.” She really does have a dog . . . and it really does wheeze when it goes for walks. So she notified the Czech police.
Later, when she was preparing to fly to Sweden for a conference, she received threats including details of her flight, her seat number, and the hotel she had booked. “It was clear they had high-level access to documents. It looks like the behaviour of the Russian state,” she said. [BBC News, id.]
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These are just four of the horror stories coming from Russians forced to live in exile because they opposed the policies and actions of the Putin regime . . . proof that Vladimir Putin’s reach is long and deadly. While he sits in the Kremlin, himself under threat of arrest in accordance with a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, his goons are scattered around Europe — and who knows where else? — to do his dirty work for him. The occupants of the Kremlin have always been known for their short tempers and long memories.
As Alesya Marokhovskaya said:
“When I left Russia and came to Prague, I had this illusion of security. Now I realise that [Russian intelligence services] can get their hands on people almost anywhere in Europe. I can’t say I’m not afraid, because I am.” [BBC News, id.]
October 1st will mark his 100th birthday. And President Jimmy Carter says, “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris” in November.
President Jimmy Carter
In hospice since February of 2023, survivor of metastatic brain cancer and liver cancer, survivor of brain surgery after a fall in 2019 — he has defied the odds countless times. His grandson Jason Carter said in May of this year that his grandfather was “coming to an end.” It appears that he’ll be doing that on his own terms. I hope so.
You hang in there, Mr. President. And don’t forget to vote.
It’s fantasy. It was always fantasy. It could never be anything but fantasy. But it made us feel good.
Do you remember walking out of the movie theater, smiling at the Seven Dwarfs singing “Hi-ho, hi-ho,” as off to work they went?
“It’s off to work we go . . .”
Or the antics of Robin Williams’ irrepressible Genie in Disney’s “Aladdin”?
“Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space.”
Or Cinderella finally trading in her mop and bucket for a castle and a handsome prince?
“Someday my prince will come.”
Maybe you didn’t actually think for one minute that any of that could ever be possible. But didn’t you feel, at least for a little while, that there was good in the world, and that if you believed — really, really believed with all your heart — then something lovely could happen?
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And don’t you wish today’s generation, and the next, and the one after that could all experience what we did as kids: that innocent, accepting, all-believing wonderment of Disney’s fantasy world?
And not this crap:
Sweet dreams, kiddies.
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We were raised on Mozart, not Metal. On respect, not rebellion. On Disney, not Death. And we were happy. We didn’t have child protective services, or shrinks, or probation officers, because we didn’t need them.
We had parents and teachers who taught us right from wrong, and looked after us, and made sure we were okay. And we had Disney.
Happily, this is a “Hostage Sunday” to celebrate. Three of our American hostages — Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Paul Whelan — as well as dual British-Russian citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza, have been released and are safely back in the land of the free.
On the way home
In addition, the complex, multi-nation exchange included the release of twelve Russian and German political prisoners . . . all of whom were immediately deported and flown to Germany, where the Russian members of the group await uncertain futures. Some, understandably, have said they had hoped to remain in their homeland with their families and friends, despite the obvious dangers.
But the Russian government had other ideas, which did not include housing “traitors,” as they called them. The twelve now in Germany are:
Lilia Chanysheva Ksenia Fadeyeva Oleg Orlov Ilya Yashin Kevin Lik Rico Krieger Dieter Voronin Patrick Schobel German Moyzhes Vadim Ostanin Andrei Pivovarov Aleksandra Skochilenko
Three of the most vocal dissidents — Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin and Andrei Pivovarov — have already expressed their intention to continue fighting the Putin regime until the Russian people are able to live in a free and peaceful society . . . even though they will probably have to work from outside the country. No surprise there, and best of luck to them.
Left to right: Vladimir Kara-Murza, Andrei Pivovarov, Ilya Yashin
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But while we were able to free a total of sixteen wrongfully-detained political prisoners, there remain hundreds of others throughout Russia’s prison system . . . including eight additional American citizens. And they must not be forgotten.
So who are these eight people still locked away, who now comprise our much-reduced HOSTAGE list?
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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.
Marc Fogel
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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 Romanov Woodland
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U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Gordon Black 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.
Staff Sergeant Gordon Black
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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.
Robert Gilman
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Ksenia Karelina is a dual US-Russian citizen. A resident of Los Angeles, she was visiting family in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in February of this year, when she was arrested for treason . . . for having donated $50 — while in the United States — to a charity that offered assistance to Ukrainian war victims.
Ksenia Karelina
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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!
David Barnes
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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.”
Eugene Spector
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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.”
Michael Travis Leake
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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.
I happened to stumble across an article today about an American man from Kansas, Joe Schutzman, who “decided to move his family from Kansas to the Moscow region because of his frustration with LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’ in the US.” [Daniel Zuidijk, Bloomberg, June 12, 2024.]
Joe and Ann Schutzman (apparently in Kansas)Four of the Schutzman children: Embracing a Russia that no longer exists
No need to go into detail here. Suffice it to say, I think Mr. Schutzman is certifiable, and his wife should have had him committed rather than follow him, with their six young children, halfway around the world to Putin’s Paradise. But maybe she’s as far off the reservation as he is. In any event, good luck to them in their search for the perfect life.
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What this article reminded me of, though, is the Feenstra family from Canada. Remember them? Back in February, I wrote about their nearly identical journey: heading for a “better life” in Russia in order to escape the new “wokeness” of their Canadian home, dragging eight of their nine children (the smart one stayed behind voluntarily) into the unknown of a country that . . . well, it’s Russia, for crying out loud.
And I realized I hadn’t heard any more about those eight youngsters and their wacko parents for many months. So I did what everyone does these days: I Googled them. And I came up with their YouTube channel, “Feenstra Faith and Family.” Disturbingly, the last entry seems to have been made four months ago, when it was announced that they had been “kicked out of Russia.”
Oh, dear . . . what had they done?
Well, it’s still not clear. When they first moved there, they said it was to be a permanent arrangement, and that they had been promised all the help they needed to get settled. Aden Feenstra was a beet farmer in Canada, and he said before leaving that he had been assured they would be able to acquire a home and land to farm in Russia. And he believed it. But in this video, and in other similarly dated reports, it is said that they had only been given “visitor” visas, which expired in three months.
Aden’s videos of five to six months ago show him out strolling through the snow in Nizhny Novgorod. There is no sign of a farm. His wife, Anneesa, is busy with the eight children and “editing [their] YouTube channel.” But later (four months ago), he speaks of the problems involved in leaving the country for the required three months before being permitted to reenter, and the cost (an estimated $10,000 each way) of moving ten people back and forth. What their destination would be, he doesn’t say.
What the hell is wrong with these people??!!!
“What now?”
Didn’t they stop to think of these things before they packed up, sold the farm in Canada, and went traipsing off in search of Utopia in one of the most repressive societies in the entire world? Didn’t they do their due diligence?
Obviously not. And I worry about those eight innocent children, who had no say in any of the decision-making of their delusional parents, as well as for the Schutzmans’ six little ones.
Unfortunately, they’re most likely not eligible for a hostage exchange . . . unless they’re found to have been “wrongfully detained.”
There seems to be some major controversy at the Olympics in France this week. It’s not about who should have won gold in a specific event, or whether the Russians should have been there at all, or about suspected doping issues. No, this one is about clothing.
First it was the U.S. uniforms for the opening ceremony. As an American, I’m sorry to say this, but they were seriously ugly. It may be time for Ralph Lauren to retire and write a book, or start a school for . . . oh, I don’t know . . . ex-convicts who have always yearned to be dress designers. Anything but this.
What an embarrassment!
Then there was the skimpiness — actually, the near non-existence — of some of those female volleyball teams’ outfits. Not only did they look supremely uncomfortable (ever hear of a wedgie?), but I kept waiting for the first costume malfunction to occur.
“No! Not the bikini!”
And let us not forget the men’s swim trunks — if you can even call them trunks. What on earth were the designers thinking? Was the IOC awarding points for size? Maybe the water in the pool should have been colder.
Uh . . . nice abs, guys.
And now it’s this: too much coverage. Really? If a young Muslim woman is more comfortable in her traditional garb, and it doesn’t interfere with the performance of her sport, then we should all get over it.
Hijab vs. Bikini
Frankly, I’d rather look at her Hijab than at those male swimmers’ . . . uh . . .
So could we just concentrate on the sports, please? That is, after all, what the Olympics are supposed to be about.
Thanks to Russian journalist Aleksei Venediktov for posting (on Facebook) this heartwarming picture of Vladimir Kara-Murza, who just days ago was languishing, near death, in a “punishment” cell in Russian penal colony IK-7 near Omsk, Siberia. And now, thanks to years of unrelenting, incredibly complex, seven-nation negotiations, he — and 15 other former hostages — are finally breathing the fresh air of freedom.
Vladimir Kara-Murza
That is the most beautiful smile I have ever seen!
Sometimes there are just too many interesting news items circulating at one time, and as I bounce from headline to headline, reading one after another, they form a cacophony in my mind that won’t quiet down until I’ve written something about each one.
AI Depiction of the Inside of My Head
But — while fascinating to me — I have to admit that they’re not all earthshakingly important to everyone. And there are just so many hours in a day, and so many megabytes in an iPad, and I wind up playing the “Eenie, Meenie, Miney” game I wrote about yesterday. And the result is . . .
“This one? No, that one! Or the first one? HELP ME!!”
Well, it’s taken me a while — and a good bit of therapeutic Haagen-Dazs — but I’ve finally convinced myself that there may be a way to break this self-destructive pattern. So, welcome to:
“Bits ‘n’ Pieces”
. . . wherein I toss some headlines at you, with a brief — very brief — descriptor, and let you decide which ones are of sufficient interest to you to delve further into the news for the details on your own.
Can I do it? Well, that remains to be seen, doesn’t it? I mean, I am known to be rather verbose at times.
Oh, who am I kidding? I don’t know when to shut up (or to stop writing). Words are my friends. But sometimes more is just more, and . . .
And there I go again. So now, it’s on to the first “Bits ‘n’ Pieces.” Let’s see how it works out.
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Secret Service detains man for incident involving security detail for Harris’ stepdaughter. Actually, just someone who got caught doing damage to license plates on two parked Secret Service vehicles. The Vice President’s stepdaughter wasn’t in either car, no one was hurt, the perp was caught. No story here.
See? This is working out really well. Next . . .
Scientists reveal new details about ‘screaming’ Egyptian mummy’s life and death. Interesting story with lots of details about the process of mummification in ancient Egypt, and some theories but no conclusion as to why she appeared to have been screaming. So, not really a story here either.
This is great. Onward and upward . . .
No reason I shouldn’t still include pictures . . . right?
Russia pulled back weapons shipment to Houthis amid US and Saudi pressure. Great ending to earlier post on “Putin and the Houthis.” Enough said.
That’s three. We’re on a roll!
EU warns Hungary over easing of visa rules for Russians. Hmm . . . Viktor Orban again. Might actually want to do a little follow-up on this one.
Oh, well, that won’t take long. No problem.
Who were the Russian prisoners released in swap for Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich? Now, that’s a very good question. I’d really like to know more about them, so will probably leave this for tomorrow.
Oh-oh. I’m beginning to sense trouble here . . .
Children of undercover Russian spy couple only learned their nationality on flight to Moscow. Oh, this is a good one! It seems the young girl — she appears to be a pre-teen — didn’t even know who Vladimir Putin was when he greeted them at the airport, and . . .
Look at Putin’s face. What do you suppose he was thinking?
Oh, crap! I need to look into this. And the Wall Street Journal had a fantastic article on Evan Gershkovich, but it’s quite long and will take some time to digest. So I’d better get started.
Yes, I know . . . I’m hopeless!
Well, can I help it if things just keep happening?!! I think I did pretty well for the first time: three out of six. Most baseball players don’t bat .500.
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