For the past 100 weeks — just four weeks shy of two years — I have been reporting on the fates of journalists and others being arrested and imprisoned by Vladimir Putin and some of his allies for having done nothing more than speaking or writing in opposition to his war in Ukraine, or simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But there are many ways of being held hostage other than being physically confined to a prison cell. And that is what is happening to the people of Europe — and specifically the members of NATO and/or the European Union (EU) — as Putin’s hybrid war threatens to spill over into neighboring countries.

Borders have been closed, travel disrupted, trade agreements cancelled. And everywhere — from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and from the Atlantic to Eastern Europe — defenses are being ramped up against the possibility of a future Russian incursion.

The people of Europe are once again living in fear of the behemoth on the far side of the “Iron Curtain.” And in that sense, they are indeed being held hostage to the whims of one cruel, narcissistic dictator. So this week, we add the entirety of the European Continent to our list of Putin’s hostages, along with those who have already been on it for much too long:

*. *. *

Europeans Under Threat:

The people of NATO and EU member states

Prisoners of War:

The 19,500 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:

Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Azerbaijan:

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

In Belarus:

Ales Bialiatski
Andrei Chapiuk
Marya Kalesnikava
Uladzimir Labkovich
Andrzej Poczobut
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In Georgia:

Mzia Amaglobeli

In China:

Chenyue Mao (American)

In Russia:

The “Crimea 8”:
— Oleg Antipov
— Artyom Azatyan
— Georgy Azatyan
— Aleksandr Bylin
— Roman Solomko
— Artur Terchanyan
— Dmitry Tyazhelykh
— Vladimir Zloba

David Barnes (American)
Gordon Black (American)
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
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

*. *. *

You will not be forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/7/25

. . . and remember what they fought and died for:

Never to be forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/7/25

My regular readers know that Theodore Roosevelt holds a special place in my heart. When I worked in the Victorian-era building that had once been his home, his spirit still roamed the halls and played in the elevator that hadn’t existed during his time. So it is altogether fitting that I quote him from time to time.

T.R. was a frail, sickly child, and worked hard over the years to transform himself into the fine physical specimen we recognize. Tough, strong-willed, and possessed of an insatiable lust for life and a wicked sense of humor, he gave the world numerous bits of advice for success in politics, war, and life in general, such as:

“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”

– and –

“Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!”

But perhaps he went a bit too far with this next one, which seems to have been adopted as the ethos of 21st-century strongmen such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and Donald Trump:

“If you’ve got them by the balls,
their hearts and minds will follow.”

If T.R. were to come back today and observe the current state of world affairs, do you suppose he might consider retracting that one?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/6/25

December, 1978:

In 1978, the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, was anxious to gain control over neighboring Afghanistan, which it considered vital to Russia’s national security.

At the time, Afghanistan was in the throes of a civil war between the unpopular pro-Soviet regime and the rebel Muslim Mujahideen. In April of 1978, members of the Afghan Communist Party had overthrown the rebels and killed its leader, President Sardar Mohammed Daoud. The head of the Communist Party, Nur Mohammed Taraki, then took control of the government and declared one-party rule in Afghanistan.

To support the Communist bloc against the Mujahideen, the Soviet Union had for years been supplying economic aid and military assistance. But on December 5, 1978 — 47 years ago yesterday — they went a step further and signed a “friendship treaty” with the Taraki government, establishing a 20-year period of “friendship and cooperation” between the two countries, and promising continued military cooperation. [“This Day In History,” History.com, December 5, 2025.]

But, as they say, what goes around comes around. In September of the following year, Taraki — who was unpopular even within his own circle — was in turn killed by members of the Communist Party.

Shades of Julius Caesar!

*. *. *

December, 1979:

What a difference a year makes.

Shortly before Christmas of 1979, I was hard at work at my desk in the Washington law offices of Surrey, Karasik & Morse, not really aware of the soft music issuing from the radio behind me. I took a lot of good-natured flak from my boss, Walter Sterling Surrey, about that radio; he couldn’t understand why I found it soothing. But I refused to give it up.

Suddenly, the music was interrupted by an urgent news flash: Soviet troops had entered Afghanistan, joined up with the Afghan military, and declared war against the rebel Mujahideen and their Pakistani allies.

Our law firm had multinational corporate clients doing business throughout the world, including in the Soviet Union. The U.S. and Great Britain, among others, were sure to back the rebels against the Soviet-led Communist forces. This did not bode well for our clients’ business interests.

Those were the days before the miracle of the internet. I immediately shouted out the news to Walter, who began calling clients while I got onto the phone with the State Department’s press office, arranging to obtain a first copy of their press release. That early report saved several of our clients a great deal of money and angst, allowing them to slam the brakes on any potential transactions with Soviet entities.

And Walter never teased me about my radio again.

It would be nearly ten years before the Soviet forces were driven out of Afghanistan, in what came to be known as “Russia’s Vietnam.” That invasion served to heat up the Cold War, and to send U.S.-Soviet relations into a downward spiral that lasted until the glasnost and perestroika reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union itself.

But then, in December of 1999, along came Vladimir Putin, who for the past quarter of a century has been turning the clock back in a drive to reestablish Soviet-style rule, reclaim as many of the former Soviet Republics as possible within his sphere of influence, and ultimately recreate his vision of a new Russian Empire.

Most important — and proving most difficult — for Putin has been Ukraine, which, like Afghanistan in the ‘70s and ‘80s, is strategically vital to Russia as a buffer zone between it and Europe’s NATO-member countries.

So, while Putin publicly rhapsodizes about the historical and spiritual ties between Russia and Ukraine, his real goal is one of geopolitical pragmatism. He will never willingly retract, or even compromise, his “peace” terms.

More important, though, is this lesson to be taken from the annals of history:

Leonid Brezhnev thought nothing of abandoning his “friendship treaty” with Afghanistan in 1979. And Vladimir Putin will not hesitate to ignore any peace treaty he may sign with Ukraine, so long as it suits his purposes to do so. It is, and always has been, the way of tyrants, regardless of nationality.

And if the U.S. negotiators believe they can defeat him with sanctions, or wear him down with their amateurish attempts at “diplomacy,” they are living in a dream world. Putin knows that Ukraine and its allies are growing weary and want to end this war as quickly as possible. He will never agree to a treaty unless it is in his favor.

And even then, it won’t be worth the paper it is written on.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/6/25

Life is tough enough as we start to grow older. We lose things — not just the glasses that are sitting right on top of our heads, but things we can’t control or replace, like hearing, coordination, strength, hair, or bladder control.

But with the concern during the past 40 or 50 years over consumer protection — not to mention the manufacturers’ need to defend themselves against litigious consumers looking for ways to get rich from someone else’s insurance carrier — we seniors have been overlooked in one very frustrating area: accessibility.

Oh, yes, we have ramps and lifts and push-button door openers. Those are major helpers (when they work). But it’s the little things. When, for example, was the last time you tried to open the safety cap on a bottle of over-the-counter pain killers with your arthritic fingers?

There are no small children in my household any longer, but I sort of wish there were . . . because they’re the only ones who can actually open today’s supposedly child-proof containers. I have one bottle of hand lotion that must be three years old by now because I’ve never been able to get the plunger to pop up no matter how many times I turn it counter-clockwise, and I keep forgetting to ask someone to do it for me.

Yesterday, though, it was the Aspercreme roll-on — a wonderfully soothing analgesic for those generalized aches and pains that always accompany a rainy day (and almost every other day). They make a cream formula as well, but I prefer the roll-on because it’s less messy. So when mine ran dry, I grabbed the spare from the medicine cabinet, placed my thumb and forefinger on the indicated spots, pressed, twisted . . . and uttered an unrepeatable oath when all I accomplished was sending my right thumb into spasms of pain. Even my handy-dandy jar gripper didn’t help, and I had to wait for a younger, stronger family member to come home.

Do you younger folks have any idea how much we oldsters hate asking for help? Do you, really? You tell us you’re happy to do these little things for us, and most of the time you even mean it. But take it from me . . . it is humiliating and depressing to have to depend for the simplest tasks on the very people you once taught to walk, talk, and wipe their own backsides after going poo-poo.

And speaking of poo-poo . . .

We’ve all had those God-awful bouts of stomach flu, or just eaten a bad shrimp or one too many tacos from time to time. So when was the last time you tried to break into a pack of Imodium tablets?

The outer package is not the problem. It’s the hermetically-sealed, individual little segments inside the box that can’t possibly be breached with your bare hands.

Trust me: There is no way — when you’re already weak and debilitated from losing ten percent of your body weight after those three trips to the bathroom — that you have the strength or the determination to find a way into those little encapsulated caplets without first searching the house for a pair of shears.

But let’s say you’ve got some scissors handy. You carefully snip the plastic front and cardboard back — both of which are tough enough to have been used on the space shuttle — alongside the edge of the very tiny Imodium pill, and proceed to pry the tablet out of its embryonic home with a fingernail . . . only to watch the little white treasure pop loose and shoot halfway across the room, finally landing in a pile of dust bunnies under the bookcase where the vacuum cleaner hasn’t reach in years.

And as you curse the Imodium tablet, the packaging, the manufacturer, and your own misshapen fingers, your digestive system tells you to forget the pills for now because it’s time for another trip to the w.c.

*. *. *

I certainly understand the need for keeping dangerous products out of the reach of curious toddlers: those drain de-cloggers, toilet bowl cleaners, laundry detergents, medications, and all the other common household items that are hazardous, or potentially even deadly, in their little hands. (Of course, when my kids were little, and we didn’t have tamper-proof containers, we simply kept those items in a locked cabinet. But apparently that’s too much to ask of parents nowadays.)

So having help from manufacturers in protecting our children is a good thing. But pharmacies are thoughtful enough to offer the alternative of easy-open bottles for our prescription medications. Why can’t producers of other goods do the same: provide safety packaging for people with kids, and easy-access containers for those of us for whom life is already a little harder than it used to be?

Maybe I’ll start a crusade. But in the meantime, I just heard someone return home, and there’s that bottle of lotion that needs opening . . .

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/5/25

Erma Bombeck was a funny lady. From the 1960s to the mid-‘90s, she wrote a newspaper humor column and 15 best-selling books about everyday family life — the good, the bad and the ugly parts — and always with wit and a dash of good-natured, common-sense wisdom. And I read most of them, laughing all the way.

I don’t know what made me think of her today; I guess I was just in need of a chuckle. I’ve chosen this one to share with you as I reach for my daily portion of Haagen-Dazs:

“Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart.”

Question: How do you top a philosophy of life like that?

Answer: If you’ve got any sense, you don’t even try. You just enjoy the dessert.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/5/25

Once again, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff — this time accompanied by Donald Trump’s wunderkind son-in-law Jared Kushner — came away from a five-hour meeting in Moscow with Vladimir Putin on December 2nd telling his boss, and the world, that he believed the Russian leader “would like to end the war [in Ukraine].” [Jaroslav Lukiv, BBC, December 4, 2025.]

For once, Trump was publicly more cautious, saying that he believed the talks in the Kremlin had been “reasonably good,” but that it was too soon to forecast an outcome because “it does take two to tango.” [Id.]

We know that Putin was given the revised peace proposal and four additional documents at the meeting, but we have not been told what those other documents were, and no details of the discussions have been offered from either side. Presumably, Trump does know what was in the documents; and that is worrisome, given his attempts to negotiate one-on-one with Putin while leaving the parties with the most at stake — Ukraine and the rest of Europe — in the dark.

Witkoff’s expressed optimism indicates one of two things: either the real estate developer with no prior diplomatic experience or training is truly colossally ignorant, or he seriously believes he can continue indefinitely pretending to know what he’s doing and the rest of the world will never catch on.

But how can we not have figured it out by now, when, after each meeting with Putin, “negotiations” end up back at square one, the Kremlin’s demands remain unaltered, and Ukraine continues to suffer Russia’s relentless attacks?

And does Trump himself really think the leaders of the pro-Ukraine coalition — experienced politicians and diplomats from the EU, NATO, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland, and others — are going to continue relying on him to decide their future security?

If they couldn’t figure it out for themselves, all they’d have to do is consider Putin’s words following last Tuesday’s meeting:

“Either we liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories.” [Id.]

Translation: Back off, or we will destroy you.

In truth, Putin is fooling no one but Trump and his band of merry men. In a conference call among European leaders on the day before the meeting in Moscow, French President Emmanuel Macron is reported to have said:

“There is a possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees.” [Id.]

And German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was quoted as saying that Ukraine’s President Zelensky must be “extremely careful in the coming days. They are playing games, both with you and with us.” [Id.]

Finnish President Alexander Stubb also chimed in with this warning: “We mustn’t leave Ukraine and Volodymyr [Zelensky] alone with these guys.” [Id.]

So, no . . . we the people — and especially the leaders of the free world — are not clueless. But if the Trump team thinks we are, then they are even more stupid than we could have imagined. So I’ll spell it out for them in words of one syllable:

The jig is up.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/5/25

For nearly two years, I have been following the journey of the Feenstra family — Arend, Anneesa and their eight children from Saskatchewan, Canada — as they carve out a new life in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Following a very rough start, they quickly became the darlings of Russian social media. Their bank account, initially frozen upon arrival, was suddenly released; they were able to acquire a large piece of fertile farmland, where they built — with all of the materials, equipment, and part-time labor they could possibly have wanted — a large house, barn, shop, guest house, root cellar, and more; they have planted crops, acquired tenants in their guest house, and begun gathering flocks and herds of chickens, geese, cows, goats, and pigs; and they have faithfully televised nearly every day of their lives, from the most mundane activities to the trips they have somehow managed to take to Moscow, to Georgia, and even one visit back home to Canada for Anneesa and the eldest son, Wesley.

They have been Putin’s perfect propagandists, extolling in each video the alleged advantages and joys of living in Russia, where they say they are free to live and worship without what they perceive as the evil influences of LGBTQ+ and other liberal “movements,” and where the opportunities to build a bright future for their children are unlimited.

And they made their choice despite knowing that Russia was at war with Ukraine.

To anyone with the slightest understanding of the workings of the Russian government, it has been painfully obvious that the Feenstras have become tools of the Putin regime, proselytizing to families — large, conservative families, from predominantly White countries (notably Canada, the U.S., and Australia) — urging them to join the great migration to Russia.

Because of the casualties sustained since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, the westward flight of those seeking to avoid military conscription, and the declining birth rate in the country, Russia’s population has been shrinking at an alarming rate. The “Year of the Family” in 2024 showcased Putin’s desperation to reverse the trend, and the Feenstra family — while certainly not the only ones to have chosen to immigrate there — have been the poster children for the program.

But one thing has bothered me from the beginning: how a good, Christian couple like Arend and Anneesa Feenstra could rationalize the horrific war of attrition being waged by their adopted country on the innocent civilians of Ukraine. And this week I happened upon a YouTube interview with the Feenstras about their time in Russia that partially addressed that issue.

Following the usual background questions as to their settlement in their new home, the subject of the war inevitably arose . . . though briefly. And Arend — with apparent sincerity — parroted the official Kremlin line, saying that there were a lot of people in eastern Ukraine being “terrorized by their own people,” no longer allowed to speak their own (Russian) language; and that, if that were to happen in Canada, their American neighbors would surely “come to the border to help us out as well.”

In other words, he was touting Putin as a rescuer, rather than an invader.

Clearly, he is unaware of Russia’s targeting of civilians, hospitals, schools and critical infrastructure across Ukraine, or the kidnapping and “re-homing” of nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children.

Arend was then asked whether they had initially considered moving to any conservative countries other than Russia, or perhaps even one of the more conservative states in the U.S., and his reply was as shockingly un-Christian as any I have ever heard. He said that he had eliminated those other places because of their continuing pressure to conform to so-called “human rights.”

As though human rights were a bad thing!

The video then segued to a shot of the family sitting in a group as dad Arend read to them from the Holy Bible (Old Testament) of Lot’s disastrous decision to settle in the prosperous but wicked land of Sodom, rather than living a life of spirituality and morality in a poorer place.

But Arend seems to have overlooked a different book of the Bible, this one in the New Testament, where it is written:

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” [Matthew 25:40.]

*. *. *

Still, personal prejudices aside, the Feenstras appear to have sincerely believed they were choosing the more spiritual and moral path for their children to follow when they left the “evils of wokeness” behind in Canada. But I am still haunted by the question of whether they truly believe the Kremlin’s lies about the “root causes” of the “special military operation” in Ukraine . . . or have simply had to accept the unpleasant reality of life in their Russian paradise.

Either way, I fear for the futures of the eight children who had no say in the matter.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/4/25

G.K. Chesterton was a multi-tasker a century before the term entered the English lexicon. He was “an English author, philosopher, Christian apologist, poet, journalist, magazine editor, and literary and art critic.” He was, among other things, the creator of the fictional character Father Brown — still the subject of the popular BBC-TV series of the same name. [Wikipedia biography.]

Known for his wit, he has been referred to as the “prince of paradox.” It was said of his writing style that:

“Whenever possible, Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories — first carefully turning them inside out.” [Time, “Orthodoxologist,” October 11, 1943.]

In the 21st-century world, where people in power push the envelope as far as possible, never accepting the possibility that legal or moral limits might apply to them, one of Chesterton’s observations on the human condition is particularly relevant:

“Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.”

-G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The question remains, however: Exactly where is “somewhere”? And how do we know when we’ve arrived?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/4/25

My daughter used to live just a few miles from Ashland, Virginia, so I know it well — an historic, mostly residential town of around 8,000 people, and home to Randolph-Macon College, the Henry Clay Inn, our favorite Iron Horse Restaurant (which my grandkids called the “Choo-Choo Restaurant” for its location next to the railroad tracks) . . . and the Ashland ABC liquor store.

On Saturday, the normally quiet routine of this lovely little college town was enlivened by a break-in at the ABC store . . . not by masked men looking for money, but by a little four-legged masked bandit with a big thirst.

The audacious heist has even made the world news. As reported today by Emma Rossiter of the BBC, it seems that a raccoon we’ll call Rocky (for lack of a better name), while the store was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, had fallen through a ceiling tile into the store. Following his natural, mischievous raccoon instincts, he began rummaging through the merchandise, broke a few bottles of scotch, and found it much to his liking.

Upon searching the premises, the employees of the store found Rocky in the bathroom, where he had done a classic face-plant between the toilet and the trash bin. Happily, he was very much alive, but completely wasted.

The Hanover County animal control folks were called to the rescue, and Rocky was given time to sober up and safely released back into the wild — probably more than a little confused and embarrassed, but none the worse for his adventure.

I can only imagine the chatter around the local raccoon community when Rocky reported to his friends on how he had spent the Thanksgiving weekend.

And how surprised he’ll be when he gets the bill for the damage.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/3/25