Putin’s Prisoners and Others

Pavel Kushnir was a Russian pianist, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. He criticized the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine. He has now died in jail, age 39. To read a report from the Associated Press, go here. To see further details from the Khodorkovsky Foundation, go here.

As in Soviet times, some of the bravest people in the world are Russian. A lot of them wind up dead.

• Valentina Bondarenko was a Russian economist. She has died at 82. Fell out of a window. Lots of people die that way. To read a report on Bondarenko, go here. Incredibly clumsy, those Russians are. Falling out of windows, falling down flights of stairs . . .

• Here is Trump, talking to Farage:

Donald Trump has “flip-flopped” on many issues. Among recent examples are early voting and TikTok. But on Putin, he has remained utterly consistent: only praise, never criticism. Never a word of sympathy for Putin’s victims, whether in Russia or abroad. In my view, Trump is unworthy to represent the United States. The United States is not just “another pleasant country on the U.N. roll call, somewhere between Albania and Zimbabwe,” as the first Bush put it. We stand for things, or should.

• Ilia Ponomarenko is a war reporter and a Ukrainian. Many of us have relied on him since 2022. I podcasted with him in May. Last week, he made a statement that I found striking. Many will gag on it. There is a stark division in our country, as in plenty of others.

Here is Ponomarenko:

• To borrow language from social media: She seems nice:

• Stephen Fry, the British actor, writer, etc., has made a documentary about his experiences in Ukraine. Watch it here.

• Here is the photo that many people have been waiting and praying for (and working for): Vladimir Kara-Murza back with his family:

Kara-Murza was part of last week’s prisoner swap. As I wrote in a post on this development, there are many questions to weigh when it comes to a swap of this type. I don’t envy those who have to weigh them. As President Biden said, “Deals like this one come with tough calls.”

Many, many people are very, very sure what should be done: “Do a deal, period.” “Don’t do a deal, period.” Both of these views are myopic.

I thought of the swap that included Natan Sharansky in 1986. That was such a dramatic day, at the Glienicke Bridge. The release of Sharansky gave the Free World a jolt of joy, and a jolt of hope. He went on to write Fear No Evil, one of the great prison memoirs. He was one of the breakers of the back of the Soviet Union. He became a spokesman for freedom and democracy all over the world.

A lot of good came out of that swap. Some of the questions to weigh — some of the factors to consider — are intangible. They are psychological, even spiritual, if you like.

As I see it, the release of Kara-Murza and Evan Gershkovich and the 14 others gave the Free World jolts of joy and hope.

Was it bitter to return to Putin those eight? Those killers and thugs? Of course it was. But life comes with trade-offs, and foreign policy, in particular, comes with trade-offs. Sometimes you do what’s nearest right instead of absolutely right. You achieve rough justice rather than pure justice.

And on we go . . .

• At one of his rallies, Trump said, “I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal.” I’d like to congratulate the American team, for a piece of difficult and delicate diplomacy.

Again: On we go . . .