Rachel Bauman 🌻

Covering 🇺🇦(✊🏻)🇷🇺🇧🇾🇲🇩 @HelsinkiComm. PA native, cat lady, one-time Jeopardy contestant, avid reader, eternal student of русский язык. Views are my own.

[Rachel Bauman 🌻 @rkbauman]

Chagall. A real mood

[Oksii ✚ 🇺🇦 @Oksii33]

Good boy🥰

[Nate Sibley @NateSibley]

In Moldova, the oligarch who stole $1 billion for himself and laundered $20 billion for Russia has been sentenced to 19 years in prison.

A huge win for rule of law in a country that is making great strides.
https://t.co/O2s3tPxufc

[U.S. Helsinki Commission @HelsinkiComm]

Lukashenka is trying to rehabilitate his reputation by releasing wrongfully imprisoned Belarusians into exile while filling Belarus' prisons with more journalists & dissidents.

Read @RepCohen's statement about the imprisonment of 2 more journalists here: https://t.co/5f2KmrjPh0

[Hanna Liubakova @HannaLiubakova]

#Belarus Don't get blindsided into thinking the regime is changing, liberalising.

We've seen this game before: a cynical hostage-trading cycle to get concessions, funding, and legitimacy - with zero systemic change.

Let's look at the latest cases ⬇️

[Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya @Tsihanouskaya]

While 52 hostages were freed in Belarus today, 8 more were added to the list of political prisoners by human rights defenders.

Real freedom is more than release—it means no deportations, no exile. Belarusians must be safe in their own country. All repression must end.

[Rachel Bauman 🌻 @rkbauman]

Hanging out the passenger side of his best friend's ride, tryin’ to holla at me

[Дождь @tvrain]

Фото: Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP

[Alsu Kurmasheva @AlsuKurmasheva]

"Released" stickers on the names of @RFERL journalists Ihar Karnei and Vladislav Yesypenko on the @CPJ_Eurasia wall! Each of their stories is a testament to courage, and I was honored to carry their names forward in my advocacy work.

Even in all this happiness, I have also felt great sadness, as three of my colleagues remain behind bars in Belarus #FreeIhar, Azerbaijan (Farid Mehralizada) and Russia (Nika Novak) https://t.co/QnTUYWrRRR

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

Today’s rallies in defense of the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions in Kyiv.

The funniest part is that Russian Z-fascists are watching it, rejoicing and rubbing their hands, thinking these rallies somehow bring Ukraine closer to collapse and defeat.

While in reality, it’s precisely the fact that Ukraine’s civil society takes to the streets, protests, and keeps kicking its own government in the ass even during wartime -- this is one of the key fundamental reasons why this country broke free from Russian colonial subjugation, is carrying out difficult and painful reforms, reviving its identity and national pride, and has been resisting Russia’s power for twelve years already, including three and a half years of full-scale war.

If not for this, among other things, Ukraine would’ve ceased to exist long ago.

This is what makes Ukraine stronger - not weaker.

Russian fascists have spent years, with the stubbornness of an imbecile, refusing to admit that democratic, active Ukraine is not a servile tsarist Russia -- and that there is an abyss between the two countries, even on the mental level.

And that is what will ultimately bury them.

[Moldova Embassy U.S. @MoldovaEmbUS]

Bipartisan @HelsinkiComm delivered another strong reminder on The Cost of a Bad Deal in UA voiced by many of its members incl. Co-Chairs @SenatorWicker & @RepJoeWilson. Michael Cecire’s testimony highlighted Moldova’s reform progress &resilience against Russian hybrid warfare🇲🇩🇺🇸

[Franak Viačorka @franakviacorka]

A very hard day – 5 years ago today, my friend, @RFERL journalist Ihar Losik, was detained.

He's been enduring inhumane treatment, kept incommunicado for over 2 years.

We fight for his freedom every day. I hope that very soon he will be released & reunited with his loved ones.

[Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya @Tsihanouskaya]

I can't believe it. Siarhei is here—with me and our children. What we’ve dreamed of for 5 years has finally happened.

Tonight, I’m taking the evening off to talk with my husband, to let him see his children again, after so many years.

Thank you all for the tremendous support!❤️

[Kalev Tengelpung @Eesti_Stamps]

A series of soviet #stamps from 1990 depicting landmarks from the republics’ capitals. This series is a great example of how the ideological symbolism slowly faded away on the later stamps of the USSR.

[Ukrinform @UKRINFORM]

Під час масованої атаки на Київ, господар в метро тримав свого котика за лапку

📹 alenakazakova/TikTok

[Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya @Tsihanouskaya]

I carry Siarhei’s photo everywhere. When people ask how he is doing, I have no answer for them.

Five years in prison. Two years in total silence.

Our children grow up missing their dad.

But the regime hasn’t broken us. We still hope. We still fight. We will never give up.

[Senator Roger Wicker @SenatorWicker]

Yesterday I met Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader, to discuss her efforts to bring democracy back to her country. Lukashenko, a puppet of Putin, is an enemy of a free Belarus and democracy in the region. The U.S. stands with Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian people, and Lukashenko’s political prisoners as they continue to fight for freedom in Belarus.

[Olga Tokariuk @olgatokariuk]

Russian ballistic missile strike killed six children and at least 8 other civilians in Kryvyi Rih, president Zelensky's hometown. The missile hit near a playground in a residential area. Russia continues its terror of ordinary Ukrainians while pretending it wants peace

[U.S. Helsinki Commission @HelsinkiComm]

Dictators frequently show us who they are.

Vladimir Putin is a Russian imperialist to his core.

[Rachel Bauman 🌻 @rkbauman]

😳

[Дождь @tvrain]

Мясорубки подарили матерям погибших на войне в Украине единоросы из Мурманской области

«Креативная» акция прошла в Полярных Зорях.

«Их подвиг навсегда останется в нашей памяти, служа примером мужества и патриотизма для будущих поколений», — добавили в посте во «ВКонтакте»

[Ukrainian Art History @ukr_arthistory]

Three years ago, our previous world disappeared. Our peaceful cities and people were attacked. They gave us three days. But we keep fighting. Thank you, everyone, for your support, courage, and faith. Glory to Ukraine!

Kateryna Kosianenko, Basement, 2022.

[Meduza in English @meduza_en]

Mariupol, a Ukrainian city nearly wiped off the map by Russia’s 2022 siege, is getting a new museum — not to commemorate those who died, but to honor Andrey Zhdanov, one of the chief architects of Stalin’s repressions.
https://t.co/cMGDsXkWvF