We all know that history tends to repeat itself. But it doesn’t usually happen so quickly.
Does anyone remember the case of Russian-American Ksenia Karelina, who was arrested in 2024 on charges of treason while visiting her family in Yekaterinburg, Russia? She was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the alleged offense of having contributed $51 to a pro-Ukraine fund — a transaction only discovered when her cell phone was seized and her data reviewed.
Karelina was lucky; in April of 2025, she was included in a multi-nation prisoner swap and returned safely home to the U.S. after serving more than a year of her sentence.
Ksenia Karelina – Returning Home
In what may be an indication that the Putin regime is running out of excuses to arrest people — and specifically Russian citizens living outside of Russia but returning to visit relatives — they’ve done it again. Or perhaps it’s a ruse that has worked so well in the past, they simply keep repeating it.
Mikhail Loshchinin, 48, is a Belgian and Russian citizen who has lived in the European Union since 1999. In 2021, he traveled by motorcycle to Russia and returned to his home in Western Europe without incident. So last summer (2025), when his father, who still lives in Russia, suffered a heart attack, he decided to make the trip again.
Mikhail Loshchinin
But this trip did not go well. Shortly after legally crossing the border into Russia from Latvia, he was detained, tortured, and tried on a charge of treason — specifically, for “financing representatives of a foreign state recognized as an adversary of the Russian Federation.” [RFE/RL’s Russian Serivce and Current Time, June 5, 2026.]
Again, the government’s only evidence consisted of a single transfer of the equivalent of $245 to a Ukrainian former girlfriend.
According to Loshchinin’s mother, he was sent to a facility for Ukrainian prisoners of war in Stary Oskol, a city in the Belgorod region of Russia near the Ukraine border. She reports that his eyeglasses were taken from him, leaving him nearly blind, and that the guards “tortured and humiliated him, both morally and physically,” including stripping him naked and beating him. [Id.]
In response to questions he received from the Russian-language media outlet Bereg, Loshchinin wrote:
“I won’t describe all the atrocities. . . . But the psychological and physical torture was daily. It’s a world where you’re no longer a person. Where you’re happy when you’re in your cell with the door closed and the hallway silent. Where hell comes in every time the door opens. And the door opened often.” [Id.]
But, he said, “I met people who suffered a lot more.” [Id.]
In August, he was transferred to a pretrial detention center in Pskov, which “looks [like] a five-star hotel” compared to the prison at Stary Oskol. But there was no medical care, despite the fact that he needs surgery on one eye. Authorities have even refused to provide the vitamins that could slow the deterioration of his eyesight. [Id.]
On June 2, 2026, Mikhail Loshchinin was (of course) convicted of treason and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He has been designated a political prisoner by the Russian rights group Memorial, which has a current list of 1,170 such cases.
Loshchinin maintains his innocence, and has vowed to keep fighting. He says that:
“Because of everything that has happened, [my life] now has more of a spiritual than a physical meaning. I have seen and felt so may lies, so much terror and lawlessness, and have heard so many stories that made me cry upon returning to my cell. Fighting alone is much easier than watching other innocent people suffer and not being able to help them.” [Id.]
If there are still people who believe that today’s Russia under Vladimir Putin is a “kinder, gentler” place than the former Soviet Union, they have only to study Mikhail Loshchinin’s case — or any of the thousands of others like his — to discover the barbaric treatment that continues unchecked despite worldwide condemnation and sanctions.
The Face of Evil
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Today, Mikhail Loshchinin’s name is added to our list, joining the others whom we remember again this week:
Prisoners of War:
The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children The People of Ukraine
Immigrant Detainees in Russia:
Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
Endangered Exiles:
Pavel “Pasha” Talankin Mikita Losik Yulia Navalnaya Oleg Orlov Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents
Political Prisoners:
In Afghanistan:
Mahmoud Habibi (Afghan-American) Paul Overby (American, missing since 2018)
Andrei Chapiuk Uladzimir Labkovich Andrzej Poczobut Marfa Rabkova Valiantsin Stafanovic Yuras Zyankovich
In Georgia:
Mzia Amaglobeli
In Russia:
The “Crimea 8”: Oleg Antipov Artyom Azatyan Georgy Azatyan Aleksandr Bylin Roman Solomko Artur Terchanyan Dmitry Tyazhelykh Vladimir Zloba
James Scott Rhys Anderson (British) Aleksandr Andreyev David Barnes (American) Yevgenia Berkovich Gordon Black (American) Hayden Davies (British) Yury Dmitriyev Anastasia Dyudyaeva Antonina Favorskaya Konstantin Gabov Robert Gilman (American) Stephen James Hubbard (American) Sergey Karelin Timur Kishukov Vadim Kobzev Darya Kozyreva Artyom Kriger Michael Travis Leake (American) Aleksei Liptser Mikhail Loshchinin Grigory Melkonyants Nika NovakSvetlana Petriichuk Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea) Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler) Lev Schlossberg Sofiane Sehili (French) Igor Sergunin Dmitry Shatresov Robert Shonov Grigory Skvortsov Eugene Spector (American) Joseph Tater (American, disappeared)Karina Tsurkan Laurent Vinatier Robert Romanov Woodland (American)
I just received a news flash on Facebook that dragged me away from packing for my upcoming move:
The entire Feenstra clan — Arend, Anneesa, and the eight youngsters — are on a vacation trip to Crimea.
Arend Feenstra – On the Train to Crimea
Yes, you read that correctly. Having just recently returned from several months in Canada and the U.S. in time for spring planting season, calving season, lambing-and-shearing season, and their myriad of endless farm chores, they have once again packed their bags and left Nizhny Novgorod . . . this time to spend two hours on the train, six days in Crimea, and another two days on the return ride.
Wait . . . did he say CRIMEA??!!!
What the #%?*^%# ??!!!
Yes, that Crimea — the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula that is currently a war zone; where divers are retrieving pieces of exploded drones from the Black Sea waters; where gas is so scarce that drivers are restricted to purchasing 20 liters (just over 5 gallons) of gas at a time; and where the beautiful resorts exist side-by-side with bomb shelters.
And at the busiest time of year on the farm.
Oh . . . and Arend also mentioned something about being accompanied by “some friends,” as yet unidentified.
I am gobsmacked by this whole thing. It makes absolutely no sense. Is it another mandatory propaganda program? Is the war getting too close to Nizhny Novgorod? Where is the money coming from?
What the hell?
I guess we can only stay tuned for updates, and hope for the best. Meanwhile, it’s back to packing for me. I just had to take time to share this bombshell with you.
As I read the daily reports of man’s inhumanity to man — including the outrageous perversions of justice being committed by members of my own government — I can’t help musing on how lovely it would be if the perpetrators could be on the receiving end of their own heinous actions . . . having to live for a couple of months on minimum wage or Social Security, without medical insurance, for example.
I know that millions of people are thinking along the same lines. And it’s fascinating to know that Abraham Lincoln was way ahead of us . . . in his case, with respect to the issue of slavery, but equally applicable to today’s problems.
“Honest Abe” (1809 – 1865)
What he said was:
“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
This will be brief, because as I’ve already told the world, I’m cutting back on the writing for a few weeks to concentrate on my upcoming interstate move. But I can’t resist three quick comments on this week’s news:
Hooray for the Knicks!
Hooray for the people taking down the extraneous lettering from the Kennedy Center!
Hooray for Ukraine’s counter-attacks on Russian territory! (But please don’t hit the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.)
It’s not what you could call a vacation, R&R, or even work-related. The big news is that I am in transition — preparing to move from the great State of Georgia, where I have lived for the past six years, back to the equally great Commonwealth of Virginia, whence I came.
As I wrote on my blog’s Pages a few days ago, it’s time for this city girl to leave the peace and quiet of country living and head back to more urban surroundings, to reconnect with people I left behind and miss greatly, and to reacquaint myself with winter.
This will all take place over the next four weeks, and since I don’t move very quickly or steadily these days, it’s taking me longer than I would like to get through the sorting and packing and donating and recycling and trashing that such a move invariably entails. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave much time for writing about the daily news, or sharing the random thoughts that I’ve been tossing out into the universe for the past few years.
So I will be taking a semi-break from my daily writing routine . . . though I do intend to keep my regular Sunday vigil on behalf of Putin’s political hostages. And I’m sure I’ll be popping back in from time to time when there’s a bit of world news too juicy to ignore, or perhaps simply to let you know how the packing is coming along. It just won’t be every day. So please do keep an eye open for me.
Meanwhile, be well, be good to each other, and remember these words of wisdom (source unknown):
Tomorrow, a new milestone in the modern-day history of war will be reached. But it is an occasion to be mourned, not celebrated.
World War I — optimistically dubbed by British author H. G. Wells as “the war to end all wars” — lasted 1,568 days, between 1914 and 1918.
And today marks the 1,568th day of Russia’s war of attrition against Ukraine, beginning with the full-scale invasion of February 24, 2022. And its instigator, Vladimir Putin, continues to evade any serious hope of ending it.
Photos From Kyiv Post – June 10, 2026
As of tomorrow, Putin will have outdone Kaiser Wilhelm II. We can only hope that he is stopped long before he is able to break Adolf Hitler’s six-year record (1939 – 1945).
What person over the age of about 40 doesn’t remember this terrifying news photo of a five-year-old Cuban boy being removed from his relatives’ home in Miami, Florida, to be sent back to his father in Cuba?
Repatriating Elian Gonzalez – April 2000
His mother had tried to escape the Castro regime with Elian in November 1999, planning to join family members already living in the U.S. Those were the days when boatloads of desperate Cuban citizens risked everything to make the treacherous water crossing to Florida. Elian’s boat capsized, his mother and others drowned; but a few survived, including Elian, who was rescued by two fishermen.
He was taken in by his paternal granduncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, who wanted to keep him in the U.S. But Elian’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez Quintana, fought to have him returned home to Cuba. After a protracted legal battle between the two men, which involved both U.S. and Cuban officials, Elian was forcefully taken from his granduncle’s home by Immigration officials and returned to his father, stepmother and baby half-brother in Cuba.
Back in Cuba
Elian’s story was followed in the news for some time, showing him growing and thriving in a loving household, and being treated as something of a folk hero by the Castro regime. Eventually, of course, his story became old news, and the world (and I) lost track of Elian.
Until yesterday, that is, when his name cropped up in, of all places, a crossword puzzle. Remembering the heart-rending story of the adorable little boy, I did some checking to see what Elian has been up to over the past 26 years, and found that — as was predicted at the time of his return — he became a product of the Cuban communist regime, saying in a 2005 interview on 60 Minutes that Fidel Castro was considered “not only as a friend but as a father.” It is also reported that the following year, when Castro was unable to attend Elian’s 13th birthday party, he sent his brother Raul instead. [Wikipedia biography, as of June 9, 2026.]
Elian, now 32, joined the Young Communist Union of Cuba in June 2008, and began military school at age 15. In 2013, he described his time in the United States as “very sad times for me, which marked me for my whole life,” and blamed the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act for denying him his rights, including “the right to be together with my father, the right to keep my nationality and to remain in my cultural context.” [Id.]
Spoken like a good little communist.
Elian holds a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Matanzas, and is now an elected member of the National Assembly of People’s Power — Cuba’s supreme (and only) governmental authority.
Elian Gonzalez Today
So while the rest of the world may have forgotten about Elian Gonzalez over the years, the Cuban government did not. He received a good education, and is apparently on his way to a successful political career.
But how do you suppose Elian feels about the U.S. government today? Does he ever think that, if he had been allowed to remain with his granduncle and become an American citizen, he might now be a member of the U.S. Congress? Or, conversely, he could as easily be one of the people targeted by the Trump administration for de-naturalization?
How must he feel when he hears Donald Trump boasting about taking over his “shithole” country (Trump’s word, not mine)? What would his reaction be if he — and his fellow countrymen — were to wake up one morning and find that their homeland had just become a territory of the United States?
A Street in Havana, Cuba: Trump’s Latest Target
Granted, Cuba is a nation with enormous political, economic and social problems. But it is their country, and as far as I know, it has not been offered for sale. Threatening to take it by force is no different than what Russia has been doing to Ukraine. What Cuba needs is assistance, not forced assimilation into a different culture.
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Seeing Elian’s name in print yesterday and being reminded of his life story has made Trump’s threats feel much more personal than merely geopolitical. And, while Trump doesn’t concern himself with such trivia as the effect of his actions on ordinary people, in reality it is all about the people.
Are the citizens of Cuba living their best life? In most cases, probably not. But would they be better off living under a Trump-led regime?
