The memories I have of my one visit to Hungary, in the fall of 1990, are all positive: the architectural wonders of Budapest, the boat trip along the beautiful Duna (Danube) River to the artists’ village of Szentendre, the lights on the Lanchid (Chain Bridge) that were turned off precisely at midnight each night, a private tour of the magnificent Parliament building, the outstanding cuisine, the beautiful and friendly people, and so much more, all combined to make the week a magical one.

We — a small group from our Washington law firm — were there as co-sponsors of a conference on doing business in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Less than a year earlier — on November 9, 1989 — the Berlin Wall had been breached, and one by one, the satellite nations of the Soviet Bloc were finding their way toward independence and democracy. We were there to help.

The spirit of the Hungarian people seemed to permeate the very air. Their 1956 uprising had been quashed by the Soviet forces; but this time was different. This time they would remain free.

And so they have, for 35 years. But since the emergence of Viktor Orban on the political scene, things have begun to change. Head of the Russia-friendly, right-wing Fidesz Party since 2003, and Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010, he has instituted an authoritarian rule that is disturbingly reminiscent of the “bad old days.”

One of his recent laws prohibits the “exposure of young people to non-heterosexual lifestyles” . . . a euphemistic way of placing a jackbooted foot on the neck of the LGBTQ community of Hungary. Despite popular protests, as well as condemnation from the EU and human rights groups, he forbade a march scheduled for June 28th.

But the people came anyway. Budapest’s Mayor, Gergely Karacsony — an opponent of Orban — declared it a municipal event, thus exempting it from the requirement for police approval. The organizer of the Pride parade, Viktoria Radvanyi, estimated the crowd size at 180,000 to 200,000 people, despite a record-setting heat wave. To avoid confrontations with an anticipated counter-demonstration by right-wing groups, the parade route was changed, and the march was on. [RFE/RL, June 28, 2025.]

Radvanyi said, “We’re not just standing up for ourselves … If this law isn’t overturned, Eastern Europe could face a wave of similar measures.” [Id.]

And one of the marchers told RFE/RL, “We need to stay together. In Europe, we see fascism … The Orban ban is not legal.” [Id.]

Peter Magyar is a leading oppositionist whose popularity makes him a major threat to Orban in the 2026 parliamentary elections. He wrote of the event on social media:

“I call on our police officers to protect all Hungarian citizens.

“The goal of the failed leadership is to turn Hungarians against Hungarians, to create fear and divide us.

“I ask everyone not to give in to any provocation. If anyone is injured or hurt in Budapest today, Viktor Orban alone will be responsible.“ [Id.]

According to Orban, participants in the march would be subject to “legal consequences” — most likely a fine of up to $580 — while organizers could be imprisoned for a year. It was also suggested that authorities might use facial recognition technology to identify the individuals.

But Mayor Karacsony said that there would be no reprisals. He insisted that the job of the police “is a serious one: to ensure the safety of Hungarian and European citizens attending the event” . . . to which the Hungarian Justice Minister, Bence Tuzso, responded with a threat of a one-year prison term for Karacsony’s part in organizing the event.

And so it goes in Hungary. As in much of the world today, threats of a resurgence of authoritarianism — even fascism — are on the rise. But the spirit that I saw in 1990 Hungary lives on.

And we might do well to take a lesson from their experience.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/1/25

On June 30, 2020, the world was in the throes of a pandemic — a virus known as COVID — that would forever alter the lives of millions of people.

And on that same day, I was in the middle of a move that would irreversibly reshape the remainder of my life. That was the day the last of my worldly belongings — what had not already been sold, donated, or trashed — were loaded into a moving truck and a rented van and driven from my apartment in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., to a house I had never seen 578 miles away in the southern state of Georgia.

It was the day I finally admitted to myself that I was getting old.

Did I say “getting”??!!! Hell, I was old. Just three years shy of the age at which both my mother and my older sister had died, I was counting up the encroaching disabilities that seemed to pop up out of nowhere, and counting down the days to my inevitable departure from this earthly realm.

I had been forced into retirement three years sooner than intended. My retirement fund wouldn’t last forever. Most of my friends had predeceased me, so my social life was . . . to put it kindly . . . limited. So when my son suggested that I come to live with him and his family, it felt as though I had been rescued from an uncertain, but certainly unappetizing, fate.

I won’t go into the lurid details of the preparations for the move; suffice it to say, it was horrible. But once the apartment had been emptied, my son (who had driven up from Georgia to fetch me and my stuff) and I spent the night at a nearby Hilton, where there was no food service — actually, no service of any kind — due to COVID restrictions. In fact, there were no other visible signs of life, other than one clerk at the front desk. A nearby grocery store was open, and our dinner consisted of pre-made salads and sandwiches, some of which we carefully conserved for the next morning’s breakfast. And then it was time to hit the road.

The drive down was long — somewhere between eight and nine hours — but smooth, due to COVID’s having induced people to stay home more and travel less. However, the ride from the I-95 exit to the town in which I would actually be living seemed endless. I had no idea we would be so far out in the middle of nowhere.

And hey! Wait a minute! Was that a cotton field??!!!

It was. And it was followed by a lot of Spanish moss hanging from all sorts of oak trees; a small town straight out of “Deliverance,” with a City Hall that looked more like a doll house, and a Dollar Store around every bend in the road; a slew of churches of every known Christian denomination; and more cotton fields and Spanish moss.

Finally — like Brigadoon springing magically from the mists of the Scottish highlands — there appeared a neighborhood of lovely, big houses. And we were home.

As I was welcomed into my new abode by my daughter-in-law, teenaged step-granddaughter, an extremely friendly dog named Dixie, and a cat who . . . well, who still ignores me five years later . . . my first thought was, “Oh well, it will probably only be for about three years, and then I’ll be dead.”

Not that there was actually anything wrong. The house was beautiful, and my family are terrific people. It just wasn’t home, despite their assurances; and I knew it never would be. Because I’m a city girl.

Of course I miss my friends . . . the ones who are left. I miss my daughter being just an hour and a half away, and my cousins a mere ten minutes up the road. But I also miss the things that a lot of people find most annoying about cities.

It’s too quiet here. I lie awake at night, listening for the sounds of traffic — honking horns, squealing brakes, drivers shouting obscenities at one another — that aren’t there.

I miss the fire engines screaming past on their way from the nearby volunteer fire station to someone’s home up the street, and the police cars giving chase to the perpetrator of the latest area crime.

I even miss the noisy neighbors in my big, impersonal apartment building . . . people from every part of the world, speaking in a cacophony of unintelligible languages. And the enticing smell of their dinners wafting through the halls.

I long for the accessibility of everything: the small shopping centers within walking distance, with their supermarkets, pharmacies, banks, book stores, boutiques, and restaurants of every ethnicity . . .

. . . my old, familiar doctors, dentist, optician, hairdresser . . .

. . . the theaters — Kennedy Center, National, Signature, Wolf Trap . . .

. . . huge shopping malls, with the crowds of frantic people racing from store to store, or to the food court, or the multiplex movie theater redolent of popcorn . . .

. . . the many museums of the Smithsonian, the National Art Gallery, the Holocaust Museum, the National Zoo . . .

. . . the beauty of Washington itself, with its eternal reminders of our noble history: the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol, the White House . . .

. . . and on and on and on.

I’m already two years past my “sell by” date, and I’m still here. My days are mostly quiet, while everyone else is at work or school. The people I’ve met are lovely folks, gracious and kind; but they’re not my old friends . . . we have no history together. And as a Jewish, Yankee, liberal-leaning Democrat, conversation is limited to the mundane.

Oh . . . did I mention that I hate the climate?

But enough grumbling. Considering the state of much of the world today, I’m doing all right. As long as my words don’t fail me, the internet continues to work, and the wine holds out, I’ll be here . . . communicating in the way I know best, and calculating the number of days by which I have already exceeded the life spans of my mother and sister.

Happy anniversary to me.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/30/25

Anyone who follows the daily news could have come to the same conclusion that I did, less than 24 hours ago, when I wrote (again) that Vladimir Putin no more wants peace in Ukraine than he would want a hot poker shoved up his . . . well, you know.

After proclaiming that he was ready for another negotiation, and that he would soon be cutting Russia’s military budget, he launched the biggest air strike on Ukraine since the beginning of the war more than three years ago.

Casualties and damage were reported from at least six regions across the country, including Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk in the west, Mykolayiv in the south, Zaporizhzhya in the southeast, and Poltava in central Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on social media:

“Almost all night long, air raid alerts sounded across Ukraine — 477 drones were in our skies, most of them Russian-Iranian Shaheds, along with 60 missiles of various types. A residential building in Smila was also hit, and a child was injured.” [RFE/RL, June 29, 2025.]

Zelensky accused Russia of “targeting everything that sustains life,” and reiterated his thanks and pleas to the West for continuing support:

“Ukraine needs to strengthen its air defense — the thing that best protects lives. These are American systems, which we are ready to buy. We count on leadership, political will, and the support of the United States, Europe, and all our partners.” [Id.]

The massive attack prompted Poland and allied countries to scramble aircraft to protect Polish airspace.

But Putin says he wants peace.

*. *. *

Meanwhile, in the Dnipropetrovsk region — close to the Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia — families who had already been displaced once are being forced to flee again as Russian forces push closer.

Six-year-old Damir’s family left Pokrovsk a year ago, seeking shelter in Dnipropetrovsk. Now his grandmother says, “I don’t even know if my apartment is still intact. I know that the ones nearby are completely burned out. The neighborhood where my children lived has been razed to the ground.” [Oleksiy Prodayvoda and Mykyta Peretiatko, RFE/RL’s Current Time, June 30, 2025.]

As Damir begins to cry, his grandfather tries to console him: “Why are you crying? Your mom is going with you, your sisters are going, your brother is going … You’ll keep them all on their toes over there.” [Id.]

It doesn’t appear to work.

Damir’s teenage sister Amelia says, “The war is getting closer and closer. You can already hear gunfire and explosions. We want to be far away from all that.” [Id.]

So the women and children are being evacuated. But grandfather Mykola is staying. “I feel sorry for my grandkids and children, not for myself. I’ll just grab my pitchfork and guard this place,” he jokes. [Id.]

But Putin says he wants peace.

And he expects the world to believe him.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/30/25

Isn’t that how all fairy tales begin? Even the Russian-language version of “The Wizard of Oz” — which I read as a study exercise many years ago — began that way. (In case you’re wondering, it’s titled “Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda”: “The Magician of the Emerald City.”)

In fact, Russia is noted for its wealth of magical fairy tales. My favorite happens to be “The Firebird.” But not all Russian fairy tales are ancient; new ones are being written every day. And the modern ones are every bit as unbelievable and diabolical as those from olden times.

The principal difference between the old and the new is that, instead of the fictitious sweet-talking, child-eating witch known as Baba Yaga, we have the very real warlock named Vladimir Putin (“Dyed Vlad”?).** And he weaves his magic spells with words meant to deceive his listeners, lulling them into a sense of security, hope, and — above all — absolute loyalty to the master storyteller.

(Hmm . . . sound familiar?)

** NOTE: The Russian word “Baba” means “grandmother”; “Dyed” (rhymes with “red”), as you might expect, is “grandfather.”

Anyway, this week’s installment of “Tales From the Kremlin” involves the usual hero — Putin himself — and his Special Military Operation in Ukraine. It’s a twisted story, and is being spun in a series of statements from various sources, so it gets a bit confusing at times. But that’s nothing new.

> To begin with, the Moscow Times reports on June 27th that “Russia and Ukraine [are] nowhere close on peace terms,” their respective demands for peace terms being still “absolutely contradictory.” [AFP, June 27, 2025.]

> On the same day — after the NATO summit meeting had produced an agreement among the member nations to incrementally increase their military spending to 5% of GDP — Putin tells a press conference in Minsk, Belarus, that that is none of Russia’s business, and says:

“But now here is the most important thing. We are planning to reduce defence [sic] spending. For us, next year and the year after, over the next three-year period, we are planning for this.” Acknowledging that nothing has yet been finalized by the Ministries of Defense, Finance and Economy, he adds, “but overall, everyone is thinking in this direction. And Europe is thinking about how to increase its spending, on the contrary. So who is preparing for some kind of aggressive actions? Us or them?” [Gleb Bryanski and Vladimir Soldatkin, Reuters, June 27, 2025.]

> The next day — after Donald Trump repeats his demand that Putin end the war — Putin says Russia is ready to resume peace talks with Ukraine. [Sky News Australia, June 28, 2025.]

*. *. *

So now everyone is supposed to begin jumping up and down, clapping their hands and yelling “Hooray!” and “Whoopee!” while preparing for yet another wasted trip to Istanbul . . . all while Putin takes the high road and claims the role of peacemaker?

We’re not supposed to see the modern-day Baba Yaga in all of this?

I hope to heaven we’re smart enough not to buy into Dyed Vlad’s “happily ever after.” But I’m not so sure we are.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/29/25

Until 2023, Finland chose to remain militarily non-aligned. But following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the neutral nation — which shares an 830-mile border with Russia — made the decision to join NATO.

And considering Moscow’s reported military build-up at various locations along its border with Finland, as shown by recent satellite images, that was a wise move. The Finnish authorities are unlikely to forget the Kremlin’s protestations that their 2022 military presence at the Ukrainian border was merely a routine exercise . . . one that is now in its fourth devastating year of all-out war. Nor can they ignore Moscow’s threats of repercussions when Finland joined NATO.

According to military expert Emil Kastehelmi of Finland-based Black Bird Group, which analyzes Russia’s forces near NATO’s eastern borders:

“We have now noticed some new organisational [sic] changes, such as new divisions which are beginning to appear near Finland’s borders. Russia continues to build, prepare and train in the vicinity of Finland’s and NATO’s eastern border.” [Anna Korkman, AFP, June 26, 2025.]

Last month, the Finnish Defense Forces said that “Russia is building more infrastructure to be able to bring in more troops after the war [in Ukraine] is over,” and that Helsinki was “closely monitoring and assessing Russia’s activities and intentions” together with its allies. [Id.]

Finland closed its border with Russia in December of 2023 until further notice, following the arrival of about 1,000 migrants without visas . . . a move that Helsinki attributed to Russia, but which Moscow denied. Now Finland is building a 200-km. (125-mile) border fence to prevent Russia from further “instrumentalising migrants” across the border. [Id.]

While hoping for the best, and trying not to panic at the prospect of a future Russian invasion, the people of Finland are understandably unnerved and are preparing for the worst . . . just in case.

*. *. *

And across the Gulf of Finland in Estonia — another NATO member bordering on Russia, which is already host to a rotating base for NATO jets tasked with protecting Baltic airspace — Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has stated that his country is ready to accept nuclear-capable jets, if necessary.

“If some of them, regardless of their country of origin, have a dual-use capability to carry nuclear weapons it doesn’t affect our position on hosting F-35s in any way,” he told the Postimees news outlet on Thursday. [Andrew Osborn and Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, June 27, 2025.]

While most of the world recognizes this as a defensive strategy, Moscow, needless to say, does not. And never one to disappoint, our old friend Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s amiable spokesman, had this to say:

“Of course it would be an immediate danger.”

Calling Minister Pevkur’s statement “one of many ‘absurd thoughts’ voiced by politicians in the Baltic region,” he added:

“We have practically no relations with the Baltic republics because it is very difficult to make them worse.” [Id.]

My goodness, Dima, I do believe you made a Freudian slip there: You referred to Estonia as a “Baltic republic.” That is indeed what it was called when it was — unwillingly, I might remind you — one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. But it is now, and has been since December 1991, a free and independent nation . . . as are the other former Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania. They no longer belong to Russia; they are not your “republics” any more.

But methinks you just implied that you and your boss wish it were otherwise.

“Oops!”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/29/25

Last week we were happily able to scratch three names from our list of hostage-prisoners who were included in the release of 14 people from Belarusian prisons: Ihar Karnei, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, and Vladislav Yesypenko.

Sadly, though, Ales Bialiatski and Ihar Losik remain imprisoned, along with too many others who were, for reasons that were not explained, denied release at this time.

So this week we congratulate those who were freed: Karnei, Tsikhanouski, Yesypenko, and eleven others whose names have not been made public. And we continue to support those who await their turns:

Prisoners of War:

The People of Ukraine
The Azov 12

Political Prisoners:

The Azerbaijan 7:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

David Barnes
Ales Bialiatski (in Belarus)
Gordon Black
Andrei Chapiuk (in Belarus)
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Sergey Karelin
Ihar Karnei (in Belarus)
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Uladzimir Labkovich (in Belarus)
Michael Travis Leake
Aleksei Liptser
Ihar Losik (in Belarus)
Mikita Losik (in Belarus)
Daniel Martindale
Farid Mehralizada (in Azerbaijan)
Nika Novak
Marfa Rabkova (in Belarus)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Eugene Spector
Valiantsin Stafanovic (in Belarus)
Siarhei Tsikhanouski (in Belarus)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland
Vladislav Yesypenko (in Crimea, Ukraine)
Yuras Zyankovich (in Belarus)

. . . and any others I may have overlooked.

*. *. *

The work continues . . . you are not forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/29/25

While advanced math is not my field of expertise, I do have a pretty firm grasp of basic arithmetic, which was actually taught to us in a logical manner back in the good old days of “reading and writing and ‘rithmetic.” I can even add and subtract numbers in my head, without having to consult that little calculator thing on my phone.

But today I find myself faced with a puzzle I am unable to solve, and I’m here to ask my readers’ help. The calculations seem simple enough, but the result keeps coming up all wrong.

To begin with, I dug up some current figures (thank you, Google) on various segments of the U.S. population. As of the present time, we have:

26 members of the Presidential Cabinet
535 members of Congress, divided as follows:
— 100 Senators
— 435 Representatives
9 Supreme Court Justices
1,761 other federal judges in 208 appellate, district and special courts
50 state governors
8,500 +/- ICE enforcement agents
2,000,000 +/- active duty members of the military
3,000,000 +/- civilian government employees in more than 400 agencies
347,000,000 +/- total U.S. population
– and –
1 Donald Trump

My puzzle has nothing to do with total numbers, or percentages of government employees vs. civilians. What I really need to know is . . .

WHAT IN HELL ARE THEY ALL AFRAID OF??!!!

How can one person — one unattractive, unprepossessing, ineloquent, untruthful, unempathetic, narcissistic, sarcastic, insulting individual — wield so much power over so many?

Setting aside the millions of us ordinary taxpayers, both civilian and military, let’s just consider the so-called “power elite”: the 26 members of the Cabinet, the 535 members of Congress, the 9 Supreme Court justices, the other 1,761 federal judges, and the 50 state governors — a total of 2,381 highly-educated, supposedly intelligent people in positions of considerable authority. (Yes, I added that in my head.) Factor in an unknown number of heads of various governmental agencies, universities, media outlets, and the like, and we’re talking about well over 3,000 very impressive individuals . . . all knuckling under to one big bully.

For God’s sake . . . WHY?!!

Are they all so terrified of losing their jobs? Or might all 3,000+ people possibly have some deep, dark, personal secrets they’re afraid of having revealed? . . . every last one of them? Even if that were true, could Trump conceivably have knowledge of the skeletons in all of their closets?

And — let’s face it — could their dirty laundry possibly be any dirtier than his?

So what is it? How does one individual manage to gain that type of hypnotic control over masses of people. Vladimir Lenin did it in Russia; Adolph Hitler did it in Germany. And somehow — in some incomprehensible way — Donald Trump is doing it in the United States.

I can see only one link. Lenin and Hitler rose to power when their countries were in economic and social turmoil; they were in the right place at the right time, and they spoke to the outliers of society — the marginalized populace in search of a savior. And that is the lesson Trump has chosen to learn from centuries of the world’s history: the way to absolute authoritarianism.

We all know how things turned out for Russia, Germany, and much of Europe under Lenin and Hitler. Are we going to allow history to repeat itself again?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/28/25

A late headline in yesterday’s news read:

“Trump hails ‘giant win’ after Supreme Court
curbs judges’ power to block his orders.”
[BBC World News, June 27, 2025.]

Accompanying the article was this gloating image:

One of only three who dissented, Justice Sonia Sotomayor bravely spoke out, calling it an ‘open invitation for the government to bypass the Constitution.”

When the highest court in the land and the majority of both houses of the Congress are in the firm grip of a tyrant with no thought but his own satisfaction, the 250-year-old experiment known as American Democracy is within inches of failing.

What was once a shining beacon of hope . . . a symbol of freedom, equality and peace . . . is no longer the America I knew and loved.

I am bereaved.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/28/25

The human brain is a strange and wonderfully labyrinthine organ. A single, random thought can lead you to places you didn’t realize existed . . . and sometimes wish you had never discovered.

Now, you know I’m going to give you an example . . . right?

In Russia, Vladimir Putin declared 2024 to be The Year of the Family. For 12 full months, he promoted and rewarded — with great fanfare and monetary incentives — couples who had happily produced multiple children and espoused conservative, family-first values. In and of themselves, large families are great . . . provided you have the desire, the temperament, and the resources to house, feed, clothe and educate all those children.

But Putin took the fun out of child-rearing by declaring it every couple’s obligation to the state, even going so far as to authorize time out on the job for a little afternoon delight, just to help things along. Russia’s population had been in serious decline for some time, and the loss of hundreds of thousands of young men to Putin’s war in Ukraine has only exacerbated the situation. So he declared that people must procreate.

And to further augment the numbers, he has been inviting conservative families with multiple children to emigrate from other countries to Russia, capitalizing on their naïveté by luring them with promises of an idyllic life on a piece of land of their own, and the opportunity to live free of the Western “evils” of liberalism. The Feenstra family of Saskatchewan, Canada, is a prime example.

But Putin is not the only one who has jumped on the “family values” bandwagon. Here in the U.S., I have recently read (and written) about the burgeoning pronatalist movement, and the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). The pronatalists, as the name suggests, are advocates of large families — the more, the merrier. And the CREC churches promote, not only large families, but an all-Christian, patriarchal society in which women would revert to being little more than baby-making machines and servants to their masters.

Elon Musk is one noted proponent of pronatalism, having already fathered at least 14 children with various women, and expressed his intention to keep going; JD Vance’s church is a member of CREC. Others have been known to speak in favor of “White Christian Nationalism,” including Donald Trump, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

And to be sure the increased population is comprised only of the most “desirable” individuals, certain steps have to be taken. So the current administration has plunged headfirst into a frenzy of deportations and entry visa restrictions, aimed primarily at Hispanics, Middle Easterners and Black Africans. But White South Africans have been made welcome, as well as Europeans with enough money to buy their way through the front door via Trump’s $5 million “gold” visa cards.

While Adolph Hitler went to the demonic extreme of slaughtering Germany’s “undesirable” citizens — Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and the mentally or physically disabled — Trump’s methods are far more subtle than those of a drug-crazed homicidal maniac. By simply eliminating programs fostering DEI and assistance to LGBTQ people, and withdrawing funding from universities and other institutions that promote DEI, he strives to make life untenable for a huge segment of the national population.

It appears to be a simple equation: While working to increase one sector of the population — the “desirables” — you begin simultaneously eliminating the so-called “undesirables” . . . thereby (hopefully) resulting in an eventual net gain.

And, with some careful planning and a little bit of luck, the remainder will be mostly comprised of White Christian nationalists.

At least, that’s the way it appears to me.

Now . . . would someone please prove me wrong? PLEASE??!!!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/28/25

To the rest of the world, the subtleties of Russian humor can be difficult to appreciate. But sometimes, Russian officials can be truly hilarious when they are trying their hardest to remain serious.

Take, for example, the statement by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at yesterday’s annual Ministry press conference, in which she announced that the German ambassador to Moscow will soon be summoned in order to inform him of “retaliatory measures” in response to the alleged “harassment of Russian journalists based in Germany.” [Dmitry Antonov, Gleb Stolyarov and Mark Trevelyan, Reuters, June 26, 2025.]

Some (an unspecified number) of Russia’s reporters in Germany have apparently recently been expelled. Zakharova said that Germany was applying undue “pressure and harassment” against Russian journalists and their family members, and she had previously addressed the issue of passports being revoked and limitations being placed on the journalists’ freedom of movement. Germany says that the expulsions were due to violation of residence rules, and that Russian journalists are able to report freely. [Id.]

This seems to be just another of those diplomatic tit-for-tat situations that arise between countries from time to time . . . and ultimately prove to be much ado about nothing. But coming from the nation with arguably the world’s worst record of persecution of journalists and others who dare to criticize the government, it is nothing short of ludicrous.

How quickly the Russians forget the hundreds of political prisoners currently being held on trumped-up charges of treason and espionage. Do they think the world has forgotten American journalist Evan Gershkovich? Or their own outspoken critics, including Boris Nemtsov, Anna Politkovskaya, and Aleksei Navalny?

Germany sent the Russian journalists packing; they weren’t sentenced to years in a maximum-security penal colony for “spying” . . . or assassinated while walking home.

Vladimir Putin and his minions really need to learn when to hold back on the righteous indignation. Sometimes it just makes them look foolish.

But I do so enjoy a good laugh at Putin’s expense.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/27/25