Saturday, August 13, 2022

The volunteers go to a show trial

Putin is still playing his dirty games in Ukraine. Having captured five foreign volunteers -- Matias Gustavsson from Sweden, Vjekoslav Prebeg from Croatia, and John Harding, Andrew Hill, and Dylan Healy from the UK -- his proxies will try them on Monday and no doubt sentence them to death as "mercenaries". In June, a similar kangaroo court sentenced three others to death for the same absurd offense, including Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner from Britain and Saaudun Brahim from Morocco, though nothing more has been heard about that. Probably they will be used as hostage, much as Russian troops use Ukrainian civilians and more recently a nuclear reactor to protect themselves from return fire.

Following the full-on invasion of Ukraine on February 24, foreigners flocked to the country and enlisted in the National Guard, much as Americans did in the Spanish Civil War (the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) and in China (the Flying Tigers of the American Volunteer Group). Putin of course pretends that Russia has nothing to do with the mistreatment of these prisoners -- their fate is up to the breakaway "republics" he has created in eastern Ukraine.

Yet another Brit,  Paul Ury, died in captivity in July. It may be a coincidence that six British nationals have been caught up in this farce, or perhaps Putin plans to use them to influence the prime minister who replaces Boris Johnson, the West's most stalwart supporter of Ukraine.

Putin himself is an enthusiastic employer of mercenaries, including troops from Chechnya, Syria, and the men his own Wagner Group has recruited from Russian prisons with the promise of freedom after six months' service in Ukraine.

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