Michal Spada

[Katsiaryna Andreeva @KatsiaAnd]

❤️Happy birthday to my beloved husband, journalist and political prisoner Ihar Ilyash! He was accused of “discrediting the Republic of Belarus” and sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment only for being an outstanding professional and telling the truth.

Ihar must be released.

[Andrzej Poczobut @poczobut]

Zazwyczaj, jeśli poczta zwraca wcześniej wysłany list człowiek jest delikatnie mówiąc niezadowolony. Jednak tu sytuacja jest inna. Krewnym wracają listy, które wysyłali mi do obozu. Na kopercie zaznaczono, że mnie w łagrze już niema. Wolność dla wszystkich więźniów politycznych!

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

I’m genuinely shaken to my core by how the Trump administration is ABSOLUTELY FINE with the fact that, right in the middle of yet another round of “peace talks,” literally while delegations are sitting across from each other discussing “compromise,” Russia is launching devastating missile strikes on heating and electricity in Ukrainian cities, leaving millions of people in a humanitarian catastrophe in the middle of a freezing winter.

And there isn’t the slightest objection, condemnation, or demand to stop. Nothing. Nobody appears bothered by these mass war crimes unfolding live.

Nothing, except regular Trump outbreaks in claiming that “Zelensky doesn’t want peace.”

And it’s easy to see why: they think that every Ukrainian apartment block demolished by a Russian missile in the middle of the night, along with the people inside it, helps them “pressure Zelensky into a deal.”

It’s astonishing. Down to the darkest depths of moral collapse. I genuinely can't wrap my head around how things could end up this way in this regard.

[Freedom Postcards | Belarus @v_pashtouki]

Andrzej Poczobut is yet again held in isolation in Belarus💔

His parents last heard from him before Christmas. Every day for them revolves around waiting to hear from Andrzej.

Isolation punishes both Andrzej (who's innocent) & his parents. The regime must release him.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

I genuinely don’t understand why everyone suddenly rushed to prove that soot is black and that there was no specific “attack on Putin’s residence.”

What I understand even less is why everyone automatically accepted these rules of the game, where Russia — in its aggressive war — is allowed to systematically plunge entire Ukrainian cities into cold and darkness, attempt assassinations on Zelensky, collapse apartment buildings full of civilians with missile strikes, wage full-scale warfare, and repeatedly refuse any ceasefire — and none of this is supposed to create any problems for the so-called “peace negotiation process.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine is expected to sit quietly and endure the strikes in silence, just so as not to “threaten the prospects of a peaceful settlement”?

That’s not going to happen. And the very fact that this state of affairs exists at all, in the largest war of aggression of the modern era, only shows how far the catastrophic degradation of global politics has gone under Trump.

[Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 @Mikiashvili_M]

It takes 0 EU, American taxpayer money to a deal a huge, potentially fatal, blow to the Georgian Dream.

They fear targeted sanctions a lot.

Their system can still get disrupted — and justice still prevail through free and fair elections.

#TerrorinGeorgia #GeorgiaProtests

[Salome Zourabichvili @Zourabichvili_S]

#TerrorinGeorgia 19 years old Saba Jikia has been sentenced for 4 years and 6 months jail time for taking part to peaceful demonstrations #Tbilisiprotests

[Rusudan Djakeli 🇬🇪🇺🇦 @rusudanjakeli]

Almost every Georgian opposition leader is now in jail:

1. Mamuka Khazaradze – arrested, sentenced
2. Badri Japaridze – arrested, sentenced
3. Zurab Japaridze – arrested, sentenced
4. Nika Melia – arrested, sentencing pending
5. Nika Gvaramia – arrested, sentencing pending
6. Giorgi Vashadze – arrested, sentenced
7. Giorgi Gakharia – believed to have fled to Germany
8. Helen Khoshtaria – recently arrested and mistreated in custody; mother of 4 (3 minors); today, prosecutors demanded pretrial detention, but the judge imposed a fine instead
9. Tina Bokuchava – still free; her husband was recently kidnapped and threatened for 9 hours; she’s also a mother of three minors

[Franak Viačorka @franakviacorka]

"Belarusian prisons change people so much that our daughter didn’t immediately recognize Siarhei yesterday. She had to hear, ‘I’m your dad.’ There was a sea of tears”, says @Tsihanouskaya during her press conference with Siarhei Tsikhanouski.

[Viasna @viasna96]

Today, there are +4 political prisoners in Belarus

There are 1188 political prisoners in total.

[Franak Viačorka @franakviacorka]

If you wonder why Belarusians don’t protest publicly against Lukashenka’s regime these days...

Every month, the dictator's courts issue 143 politically motivated sentences – 7 per working day.

The terror against the Belarusian people has never stopped since 2020.

[Vladimir Kara-Murza @vkaramurza]

Today the 1st Western District Military “Court” in St. Petersburg handed its verdict to Alexander Skobov — a Russian historian, journalist, human rights activist, and Soviet-era political prisoner.

For his posts on social media and participation in the Free Russia Forum, Skobov was sentenced to 16 years, the first three of which will be served in a prison, and the remaining 13 in a strict-regime penal colony.

The “remaining”, of course, is a figure of speech. Skobov is 67 years old, nearly blind, suffers from diabetes, hepatitis C, and asthma. This is a death sentence for him.

The only thing that can save Alexander Skobov — just like Alexei Gorinov, Maria Ponomarenko, Igor Baryshnikov, and many other Russian political prisoners jailed for opposing the war in Ukraine — is an “all for all” swap as part of the forthcoming settlement.

This clause MUST be included in any post-war deal.

#People1st

[Radosław Sikorski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 @sikorskiradek]

Klasyka sowieckiej dyplomacji. Rosja grozi nam odwetem za wyjście z konwencji o minach przeciwpiechotnych, do której sama nie należy.

[Darth Putin @DarthPutinKGB]

Trump's ceasefire means Ukraine stops hitting refineries so my army gets more fuel, in exchange for me bombing more of Ukraine's hospitals.

[Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya @Tsihanouskaya]

Since August 2020, the Belarus regime has persecuted over 8,000 women simply because they demanded freedom and dignity. At least 167 brave women—including journalists, teachers, and lawyers—remain imprisoned today. Their strength fuels our determination to build a free Belarus.

[Salome Zourabichvili @Zourabichvili_S]

#TerrorInGeorgia students and professors evicted from university, new arrests of protesters, predetention extended without reason, massive reorganization in ministries, thugs chasing people on the streets and in the subway. Only new elections can reverse russian path ✊🇬🇪

[Katie Shoshiashvili @KShoshiashvili]

My former world literature lecturer was arrested near Rustaveli yesterday while sitting in front of the Tbilisi Opera, reading a book after his university lectures.

A car with tinted windows pulled up beside him, and three people got out. One, wearing a face mask, ordered him to come with them without giving any reason or informing him of his rights before what was clearly an unlawful arrest.

He was taken to a police station, where officers began figuring out why he had been arrested. They refused to let him call his lawyer or family, leaving his family searching for him for two hours around midnight. He was eventually released with two fine receipts. The police kept the blue scarf his wife had given him as “evidence.”

This is the absurdity of the state terror in Georgia. The regime is systematically arresting and fining people on fabricated charges, using the police as harassers and enforcers of this absurdity. March 2025, Georgia.

[Franak Viačorka @franakviacorka]

Natallia Ladutska, a 60 y.o. Belarusian political prisoner, has been sentenced to 4 years and a large fine. She was persecuted for helping political prisoners 177 times – sending over 500 kg of parcels and money transfers to those behind bars.

In Belarus, solidarity is a crime.

[Brad Mehldau @bradmehldau]

Thank you for taking the time to read this. This is addressed not just to my fellow Americans, but perhaps more urgently, to my friends and listeners around the world, everywhere. Please click to read: https://t.co/va0v6TpnYL