I Know That The Nights Ends And Then The Morning Comes
“Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly
as the lack of courage on the part of the good.”
Leo XIII
It was not a good day for Vladimir Solovyov, whom the U.S. Department of State has reported “may be the most energetic Kremlin propogandists around today… a prominent radio and television presenter for the state-owned All Russia Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.”
During his Thursday, December 22, 2022 Moscow-based Full Contact talk show, his producers – presumably mistakenly – ran video of President Volodymir Zelensky presenting Ukraine’s flag, signed just hours before by soldiers on the frontlines, to American Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Vladimir desperately – and unsuccessfully – texted his producers to cut the video. Finally, he simply blurted out, “Guys, get rid of this video!”
Hopefully, Vladimir and his producers won’t meet the same fate as Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute, who died in September after “falling” down flights (plural) of stairs; Russian energy czar Ivan Pechorin, who “fell overboard” from his yacht on September 10; Ravik Maganov, chairman of a top Russian oil company, who died after “accidentally” falling from his sixth floor hospital window in September; Sergey Protosenya, his wife and daughter, who were found dead in Spain in an “apparent murder-suicide” in April; Vladislav Avayev, who died just two days earlier in another “murder-suicide”; Russian oil executive Alexander Subbotin, who died in the Moscow-region home of a shaman as he was seeking a hangover cure; Yuri Baranov, Russian shipping CEO, found dead of a gunshot wound in his St. Peterburg swimming pool; Dimitry Zelenov, whose real estate empire was taken over by Vladimir Putin and the Russian state and who succumbed to head injuries after “falling down a flight of stairs” in France in December; Russian sausage magnate and critic of the war on Ukraine Ravel Antov, who died after “falling” from the third floor of his luxury hotel in India in December; and, Vladimir Budanov, who had a “pre-existing heart condition” and “had alcohol on an empty stomach” the night before he was found dead in the same Indian hotel.
Citing sources at CNN, on December 27, Forbes reported:
“…at least 12 Russian elites have mysteriously died by suicide or under unexplained circumstances amid escalating geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine this year… Experts have started raising their eyebrows. ‘We can almost certainly rule out the official explanation of the deaths as suicides or poor health,’ University of South Carolina international business professor Stanislav Markus recently told Vox….”
Ah, be careful Mr. Solovyov and associates.
Mere hours earlier Mr. Solovyov [We considered referring to him as Vladimir, but there’s just too many of them to keep straight.] went off on an especially instructive political and theological rant when he announced:
“[Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky is already on his way to Washington. It’s perhaps a natural path for any traitor... He betrayed his entire Soviet past. Our weapon-makers are more talented anyway. Our men are more ingenious because we’re Russians - of many different nationalities. God is with us! Either we will win, or humanity will cease to exist, because the Lord won’t stand for the triumph of warriors of the Antichrist. We are the Lord’s weapon, we are his avenging right hand.”
[FACT CHECK: Volodymir Zelensky was born on January 25, 1978; the Soviet Union dissolved on December 26, 1991, when he was just thirteen years old.]
[CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY CHECK: In the Gospel of Matthew (26:53), as he is being taken prisoner on the night before his death, Jesus admonished one of his companions:
“Put aside your sword back in its place. For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”]
You must understand, the leading Bolsheviks
who took over Russia were not Russians.
They hated Russians. They hated Christians.
Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured
and slaughtered millions of Russians
without a shred of human remorse.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Stand up, World, and cheer for Yan Rachinsky, Oleksandra Matviichuk and Ales Bialiatski, ‘cause nobody hates the truth more than a bully and the bullies have it in for Mr. Rachinsky and his allies.
Never heard of Yan Rachinsky, Oleksandra Matviichuk and Ales Bialiatski?
There’s a short, balding, murderous, little man in Moscow who, if he had his way, would make it so that their names would disappear from our world.
But, Mr. Rachinsky is a man of honor. More importantly, he is a man of courage.
For this reason, Mr. Rachinsky, the head of the now-closed-by-the-Russian-government Memorial, was named one of three 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Memorial, often referred to as “the conscience of Russia” and one of the country’s oldest civil rights groups, worked to expose the abuses and atrocities of the Stalinist era for more than three decades before it was ordered to close by Russia’s Supreme Court in 2021.
Putin’s government immediate asked that he turn down the honor because he would be sharing it with Ukrainian activist Oleksandra Matviichuk, who runs the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, and Belarussian Ales Bialiatski, a prisoner of conscience and founder of the Viasna Human Rights Center, who has been hailed by The New York Times as "a pillar of the human rights movement in Eastern Europe."
In his speech in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, Mr. Rachinsky claimed resistance to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is known as “fascism,” adding that this has become “the ideological justification for the insane and criminal war of aggression against Ukraine” that continues to “sow death and destruction on Ukrainian soil.”
Mr. Rachinsky confirmed to BBC that Russian authorities warned him not to accept the award, but he decided to ignored the advice despite threats to his safety.
“In today’s Russia, no one’s personal safety can be guaranteed. Yes, many have been killed. But we know what impunity of the state leads to… We need to get out of this pit somehow.”
In a separate interview, he asked rhetorically,
“But did our work prevent the catastrophe of 24 February [when Putin launched his war on Ukraine]? The monstrous burden that fell on our shoulders that day became heavier after we received the news that the prize had been awarded us.”
The number of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Russia today is more than the total number in all of the old Soviet Union in the 1980s. In essence, the past and the present have come together in Putin’s Russia and the struggle for freedom continues.
In her speech accepting the Peace Prize on behalf of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, laureate Matviichuk called for an international tribunal to bring Putin and Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko to justice over “war crimes” and to “ensure justice for those affected by the war.” She cautioned that war criminals should not only be convicted after the fall of authoritarian regimes because “justice cannot wait… We have to establish an international tribunal and bring Putin, Lukashenko and other war criminals to justice.”
Natalia Pinchuk accepted the Peace Prize medallion and certificate on behalf of her husband, jailed Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, and delivered a speech he had prepared. In part, it read:
“This award belongs to millions of Belarusian citizens who stood up and took action in the streets and online to defend their civil rights. It highlights the dramatic situation and struggle for human rights in the country…
“I recently had a short dialogue.
“’"When will you be released?’ they asked me.
“’I am already free, in my soul, I replied.
“My free soul hovers over the dungeon and over the maple leaf outlines of Belarus…
“I believe because I know that the night ends and then the morning comes with light. I know that what pushes us forward tirelessly is hope and a dream…
“Cells and prisons are akin to Soviet public toilets, where people are kept for months and years. I am absolutely against women being in prison but imagine their imprisonment in Belarus — this branch of hell on Earth!
“… As I can, I keep peace in my soul, I grow it like a delicate flower, I drive away anger. And I pray that reality does not force me to dig up a long-buried axe and defend the truth with an axe in my hands. Peace. May peace remain in my soul.
“And at this ceremony on Saturday, December 10, I want to repeat for everyone: ‘Do not be afraid!’ These were the words that Pope John Paul II said in the 1980s when he came to communist Poland. He didn't say anything else then, but it was enough. I believe because I know that spring always follows winter.”
The Nobel Committee explained its decision to jointly honor three recipients from neighboring countries:
“Through their consistent efforts in favor of humanist values, anti-militarism and principles of law, this year’s laureates have vitalized and honoured Alfred Nobel’s vision of peace and fraternity between nations – a vision needed in the world today”
The Committed noted that the three recipients and their organizations “have for many years promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens.”
Only weeks after Putin’s initial assault on Ukraine, Russian journalist and television personality Marina Ovsyannikova made international headlines when she was arrested and interrogated for 14-hours after she destroyed a twenty-year career by interrupting a Channel One Russia TV program to protest the war. Days later Mr. Rachinsky came to her defense, writing on Facebook:
“You can’t blame someone for not being smart and righteous right from birth.
“There are believers among those who call Marina Ovsyannikova every name under the sun. So, it’s worth recalling the well-known verse: ‘Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’ (Gospel of Luke 15:7)
“Regardless of everything that came before and after, yesterday’s action by Marina Ovsyannikova is to her credit. She took a big risk and may have changed things quite a bit. Either way, she set an example that it’s possible not to step down quietly, but to state your position and express your contrition in public.
“And I hope that those who attack her today out of ‘righteous’ anger will be ashamed of themselves.”
In coming weeks, some politicos are expected to begin clamoring for cuts or suspensions in America’s support for the freedom fighters of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky. When they do, they will betray the hopes and dreams of Yan Rachinsky, Oleksandra Matviichuk and Ales Bialiatski.
Shame on them!