Who Are Putin's Hostages?

One is a police officer, another a filmmaker, and the third a pilot. These three individuals have been illegally abducted from their home country and are held captive by a foreign government. Their lives have been destroyed and their futures are uncertain. These three hostages, two men and one woman, are victims of the jihad led by the Russian leader against regulations, customs, and international laws. Vladimir Putin has taken dangerous actions in recent years. Since Adolf Hitler, he is the only leader of a European country who has annexed part of another country's territory. He initiated a premeditated war in Ukraine that has claimed thousands of victims so far. He has created an atmosphere of repression, intolerance, and hostility in Russia and has started a dangerous game with the West over power and influence. In addition to all this, he has engaged in hostage-taking, which is typical behavior of leaders of international criminal gangs. Russia claims that Eston Kohor is a spy for the Estonian government who was arrested while spying in Russia. However, he is not a spy. His only crime is doing his job correctly and being a suitable target for the policies of the Russian leader. Eston Kohor is an officer of the Estonian Internal Security Service. He was investigating a Russian criminal group operating in Estonia when he was captured. On September 5, 2014, he was on his way to meet an informant in a border village in Estonia, just a few kilometers from Russian territory. However, it later became clear that this meeting was actually a trap. Armed individuals kidnapped him on his way and took him to Russia. The border guard units of Estonia and Russia, in their joint investigation report on this incident, which was prepared in both languages, state that evidence indicates a group from Russia entered Estonian territory and returned to Russia after taking this individual hostage. At the end of a show trial that has been heavily criticized, a court in Russia finally sentenced Eston Kohor to 15 years in prison for espionage. The Russian government claims that Oleg Sentsov is a terrorist. However, he is not a terrorist. His only crime is courageously opposing the annexation of his homeland to Russia. Oleg Sentsov is one of the prominent filmmakers of the young generation in Ukraine and a father of two young children. He was born in Crimea and was an active supporter of the pro-West protests in Kyiv that occurred in 2014. He was a staunch opponent of the annexation of Crimea to Russia and played an active role in delivering food and supplies to Ukrainian forces besieged in Crimean bases. Oleg Sentsov was arrested by security agents of Russia in Simferopol shortly after participating in a demonstration against the annexation of Crimea to Russia on May 14, 2014, and disappeared. A few days later, he surfaced in a prison in Moscow and was accused of setting fire to the office of the United Russia party and plotting to blow up a Lenin statue in Simferopol. The prosecution has not provided any convincing evidence to support these accusations, and one of the main witnesses in the case retracted his testimony against the director, stating that he had made these claims under duress. The show trial of Oleg Sentsov in Rostov in southern Russia concluded with the prosecution seeking a 23-year prison sentence. In his final defense, Mr. Sentsov stated: 'I will not ask you for anything. Everyone knows that a court run by an occupying power is not fair.' Among Putin's foreign hostages, this Ukrainian female pilot named Nadia Savchenko is the most famous. The Russian government claims that Ms. Savchenko is a murderer. However, this is not true. Her only crime is risking her life to defend her country's independence. She is the first female military pilot in Ukraine and volunteered to fight against Russian-backed rebels. During a mission to rescue a group of Ukrainian soldiers in the Luhansk Oblast in mid-June 2014, she was captured by separatists. A few days later, the Ukrainian rebels released a video of her interrogation. She was handcuffed to a metal pipe. A few weeks later, she surfaced in a prison in Moscow and was accused of participating in the murder of two Russian journalists who were killed during shelling and illegally entering Russian territory. Nadia Savchenko's defense attorney states that her mobile phone conversations and video footage show that at the time of the deaths of the two Russian journalists, Savchenko was in prison. The Russian prosecution has requested a 25-year prison sentence for her. These three individuals, besides being Vladimir Putin's foreign hostages, share another common point. They were all born in the former Soviet republics, which later became loyal and successful citizens of the countries that gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. For Vladimir Putin, who considers the collapse and disintegration of the Soviet Union a disaster, this fact could be a major crime. However, others should regard these three individuals as hostages who have been illegally abducted by agents of a rogue and aggressive government.