On October 17th, British political commentator David Vance wrote that there was panic in Brussels (NATO and EU headquarters) and Kyiv as a result of Donald Trump’s change in policy regarding Ukraine.
Thereafter, Kirill Dmitriev — Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for economic cooperation and the man who regularly welcomes Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow — responded with a single word posted on X:
“CHECKMATE”
Kirill Dmitriev: A Man of Few Words
To my fellow Americans, the good people of Ukraine, and the rest of Europe, I can only say:
Before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, that small region between Lithuania and Moldova was known as the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic — one of the 15 that comprised the USSR. Afterwards the world welcomed, in addition to the newly named Russian Federation, 14 smaller sovereign nations, each struggling to create its own identity and find its place in the world.
The Former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
Of all of them, Belarus has maintained the closest ties to Moscow. It didn’t start out that way. Stanislav Shushkevich, who served as the first head of state of the newly independent (and newly renamed) Belarus, was a social democrat in favor of reforms. But in the first presidential election in 1994, he was opposed and defeated by Aleksandr Lukashenko, who campaigned on a platform of anti-corruption (pause for derisive laughter) and closer ties with Russia.
Throughout the next several years, Lukashenko consolidated his power, expanded his executive authority, and instituted Soviet-style “reforms,” even making Russian an official language alongside Belarusian.
And in 1999, when Vladimir Putin took the reins of power from Boris Yeltsin in Russia, Aleksandr Lukashenko jumped onto Putin’s wagon and never left. The government of Belarus is now a full-blown dictatorship, and has aided Russia’s war against Ukraine from the very beginning.
Aleksandr Lukashenko
It even has its own KGB — still named and patterned after the notorious Soviet-era Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti: the Committee for State Security. (Which, by the way, is still very much alive and operating in Russia as well, but as two units with new names: the FSB and the SVR.)
And, like its Russian forebear, the Belarusian KGB has its own academy. Known as the National Security Academy, it has recently begun construction of a new campus in the capital city of Minsk — a huge complex whose main structure is a six-story, 36,000-square-meter “academic building with a dormitory,” designed for 1,250 students and beds for 627. The plans include, below ground, space for a shooting gallery; separate warehouses for storage of weapons; radiation, chemical and biological protection equipment; and other military supplies. In another section, there is to be a canteen with three dining halls, and an elaborate sports complex.
KGB Building Under Construction Adjacent to Saint Roch Church
By now some of my readers have surely asked, “So what?”
And the answer is this:
Saint Roch Catholic Church, Minsk, Belarus
It is the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity (Saint Rochus), also known simply as Saint Roch, built in the 14th or 15th Century, and located on a protected property on Minsk’s Zalataya Horka (Golden Hill). And adjacent to the church is the plot of land on which the Academy is being constructed.
Apparently — aside from the nature of the construction having been kept secret until a recent discovery of the plans by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Belarus Service — the law protecting the property was overridden by Lukashenko’s executive order.
RFE/RL has been unable to coax a comment from the appropriate officials, who have said the information is “restricted.”
But the main problem seems to be, not merely the construction of a KGB facility, but the fact that the plot of land is the site of a cemetery — an historic cemetery, long occupied by centuries of ancestors of the people of Belarus. It was closed to burials around 1920, and over time the gravestones were destroyed.
As of now, it is not clear what has happened to the bodies of those who were buried there.
According to one parishioner, the parish should be told of the fate of the human remains on the construction site:
“When Christian cemeteries are destroyed, it is an insult to both the dead and the living. There should be a clear memorial, and there should be a Christian reburial of those people who were found beneath the excavator buckets. That’s why this looks very shameful and unacceptable.” [Steve Gutterman and RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, October 18, 2026.]
I should say so. But when you’re dealing with a tyrannical, murderous, totalitarian leader, human decency doesn’t merely take a back seat; it flies out the window.
It takes a massive amount of chutzpah for anyone to stand up in front of the world and lie with a straight face — especially when the entire world already knows the truth. But I suppose when lying is what you do for a living, it eventually becomes second nature.
Last evening, at a town hall in Michigan, U.S. Vice President JD Vance was asked whether he believes Donald Trump has engaged in corruption or allowed his business interests to influence his decision-making. Claiming to have heard allegations to that effect, and having supposedly conducted his own investigation, he fumblingly replied:
“I’ve never seen . . . a shred of evidence that Donald Trump participates in corruption . . . I’ve not once seen evidence that Trump has enriched himself.”
[Sources: Brian Tyler Cohen, October 18, 2026; CBS News, October 17, 2026.]
On September 27th and October 4th, I wrote about the desperate plight of the people trapped in Russian-controlled Oleshky, Ukraine, confined by a blockade that has left them without food, water, medicines, electricity — the most basic necessities of life.
Risking Drone Attack at Aid Center in Oleshky
Others have also been moved by this tragedy.
On Friday, Pope Leo XIV — just days after undergoing surgery for the removal of part of one lung — phoned Vladimir Putin to ask him to arrange a ceasefire in order to allow food and other aid into the town to save the lives of the remaining 6,000 residents who otherwise face certain death during the approaching winter.
Pope Leo XIV – Praying for Others While Recuperating in the Hospital
Following their conversation, the Kremlin released the following statement:
“The Vatican’s intention to help create the conditions necessary to ensure the safety of the town’s population and to organize vital supplies has been supported. It has been agreed to cooperate on this matter.” [Joshua McElwee, Reuters, October 17, 2026.]
No mention was made of a ceasefire. And the language of the statement is not a promise to provide aid, but is intentionally vague and left open to interpretation. It promises merely to “cooperate,” placing the responsibility for organizing the relief operation to the Vatican itself, or whatever other governments or humanitarian aid organizations might step up.
The Pope deserves praise and thanks for coming forward, at a time when he should be thinking of his own recovery, to make this appeal on behalf of the people of Oleshky. I hope he realizes he was speaking to a man with neither heart nor soul, and — while I pray the Pope will somehow have managed to make a difference — I also hope he won’t take it personally if his appeal fails.
Because Vladimir Putin is a man whose promises are worth less than nothing.
Still, I keep hoping that one of these times he’ll prove me wrong.
Vladimir Putin has arrested and imprisoned thousands of people, both Russian citizens and non-Russians, for nothing more than having openly opposed his war against Ukraine, or spoken out against any of his many dictatorial policies. And it is those people whom we honor each week in this column.
But there is one individual who has been held hostage in his own country for nearly five years — not in prison, but under constant military bombardment and political attack — and who will spend the remainder of his life suffering the after-effects of a war he did not start, punished for the “crime” of being Ukrainian. It is that man to whom we pay long-overdue homage this week:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelensky was a famous comic actor, enjoying life with his family in the country he loves, when duty called. And he has taken up the reins of leadership, never faltering, never backing down, never losing sight of the importance of the task he has undertaken.
He cannot just turn in his resignation and walk away from his job when it becomes too hard to go on, because he understands that the freedom of his country and its people, and indeed of much of Europe, rests on his ability to defeat the aggressor. And in that sense, he is being held hostage by Putin’s maniacal determination to fulfill a vision of a new Russian empire.
In the face of overwhelming odds, and the unforgivable betrayal by his most valuable and trusted ally, he continues to inspire us with his steadfastness and determination. And so we pay our respects this week to Volodymyr Zelensky, in the hope that his efforts and his sacrifices will soon be rewarded with the victory — and thus the independence and peace — that he and his country so richly deserve.
*. *. *
And, this being Sunday, here again is the list of those hostages still being held in Putin’s prisons. Sadly, it still hasn’t gotten any shorter.
Prisoners of War:
The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children The People of Ukraine The 6,000 Starving Citizens of Oleshky
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 Aleksandr Kynev Michael Travis Leake (American) Aleksei Liptser Svitlana Loi (in Ukraine) Mikhail Loshchinin “Madame Z” (in Ukraine) Grigory Melkonyants Dmitry Morozov Boris Nadezhdin Nika Novak Svetlana Petriichuk Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea) Ilya Remeslo 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 Arseniy Turbinin (age 18) Laurent Vinatier Robert Romanov Woodland (American)
You have not been, and will not be, forgotten. Stay strong.
Well, I was all geared up for Eric Deters’ release of his mysterious 16-minute tape — you know, the one that was going to take down the Trump administration. I waited for it all day yesterday, scanning the incoming news reports every 15 minutes, ready for a little excitement on an otherwise boring day, and then . . .
Nothing.
My first thought is that someone got to him, either to warn him off or to buy his silence. My second thought . . . no, I don’t really have a second thought. What I believe — and it is just a guess — is that the whole thing was a scheme in search of a big payday, and he has already received his answer.
Of course, if I’m right, we’ll probably never know the whole story. But I have other things to worry about besides Eric Deters’ wellbeing, like what to scratch off of my grocery list this week to keep it within budget . . . or whether I can squeeze in another hour of sleep before starting on those weekend chores.
I’m sure there will be something more interesting in the news a little later. Unfortunately.
We thought he had hit bottom when he berated Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
We were disappointed when nothing came of the summit in Alaska, or all of those trips by Witkoff and Kushner to the Kremlin.
We were stymied when he paused the sanctions against Russia that he had signed just weeks earlier.
We were appalled when he agreed to purchase diesel fuel from Putin, adding billions of dollars to Russia’s war chest to be used against Ukraine.
We were horrified when he told Zelensky the whole thing was his fault and that he should resign.
We were disgusted yesterday when he tried to con the EU into turning over to the United States some of the frozen Russian assets safely held in European hands. (Wisely, they have refused.)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz: “Those are assets that are frozen in Europe and they should remain frozen in Europe.”
But, just as we thought there couldn’t possibly be more, late last evening (Friday) — just two days before the deadline for the implementation of the sanctions — Donald Trump signed an executive order putting the sanctions package on hold, citing as the reason “the national interest.” [Will Weissert and Meg Kinnard, Associated Press, October 16, 2026.]
There has not yet been an explanation as to how this move could possibly be in the national interest . . . or, for that matter, in whose national interest it was directed. Because each and every one of the above actions can benefit one party, and one party only: Vladimir Putin.
And the one overriding question — the one that everyone asks but no one seems able to answer — is:
“Why?”
What is the hold that Putin has over him? It can’t simply be hero worship . . . can it? Or an ego so frail that Putin is able to sweet-talk him into anything? Many have suggested that Putin has incriminating information that could destroy Trump, and is holding him — and thus our whole country, Ukraine, and the rest of the world — hostage.
Considering the level of corruption we are seeing lately, anything is possible. And the prospect is terrifying.
Sorry, Mooch . . . your record has been topped. You are no longer the shortest-serving White House Press Secretary on record.
Yes, it’s true: Anthony Scaramucci, who served for about ten days during the first Trump administration, has been bested by MAGA-girl Katie Zacharia. She lasted for five days and one really disastrous press briefing.
Scaramucci was ousted for speaking what he considered to be the truth, which just happened to differ from Donald Trump’s version of the truth; whereas Zacharia blew it when 1) she proved to the world that she was colossally unqualified for . . . well . . . pretty much any job, and 2) she couldn’t even tell the truth about her own educational and professional background.
Personally, I’d rather have Scaramucci back. But he’s done quite well outside of government, and is probably too smart to walk back through that revolving door even if he were invited.
Anthony Scaramucci: “Oops!”
So, a not-so-fond farewell to K-K-K-Katie. Can’t wait to see who’s next.
“We have lost an ally in America. They have chosen their side. Not ours, not even the middle. Putin’s side. They have chosen the wrong side of history.”
His name seems to have come out of nowhere, and with quite a splash. To begin with, he is the man who just unleashed the scandal surrounding Kimberly Guilfoyle — Donald Trump, Jr.’s ex-fiancee — and deprived her of her cushy job as Ambassador to Greece and what was left of her reputation. When she accused him of lying, he immediately filed suit against her and her attorneys for defamation.
Eric Deters, getting the thumbs-up from DJT
But he wasn’t finished.
Yesterday (it is just after midnight on Friday as I post this) he said he would release a secret 16-minute recording today that, in his words, “might just bring down the entire Trump administration, an administration which I have supported from Day 1, whose policies I still support. It also may end the JD Vance / Marco Rubio ticket after you hear the phone call that I’m going to play tomorrow. It’s pretty freakin’ amazing.” [Caroline Wilburn, via Associated Press, October 15, 2026.]
Aside from the obvious question — why would he want to bring down an administration he allegedly supports? — I wanted to know more about him. And what I found was . . . well, not much, really. And what there was, wasn’t all that good.
In light of his statements that he had paid Guilfoyle some $300,000 in the past for speaking appearances at his conservative “Freedom Fest” events; that she had recently requested another $100,000 to pay off her personal American Express bill; and that he had been a Trump donor for some time, I wondered whether he might be one of Trump’s lesser-known billionaire friends. But that does not appear to be the case.
The Former Ambassador and the Angry President
On the contrary, Deters, 63, describes himself as a “retired” attorney (in fact, he was permanently barred from practicing law in Kentucky in 2014), one-time unsuccessful congressional candidate, “businessman,” and conservative radio host. And he has somehow managed to work his way into Trump’s circle of hangers-on.
So what could he know, and what incriminating evidence could he have, that would be capable of toppling an entire administration? And why, as an avowed MAGA loyalist, is he bringing this out now? Are we in for another blockbuster revelation? Or is it all much ado about nothing? The possibilities are endless, so trying to speculate would be useless . . . but I can hardly wait to find out.
I’m heading to bed shortly. But I’m sure I’ll be awake early, checking the news bulletins. There’s nothing like a juicy Washington scandal to get the blood flowing in the morning.
