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People And Nature ☭ This is the final statement by Aleksandr Nesterenko, one of thousands of political prisoners in Russia, to an appeal court on 31 March. 

1-May-2026

He appeared at the appeal via a video link from prison, and shared the statement in a letter, at the request of the For Human Rights (Za Prava Cheloveka) group.

On 19 December last year, the Liublin district court in Moscow sentenced Nesterenko, a university teacher, to three years’ imprisonment, for storing Ukrainian songs on a playlist in a social media account. He made a defiant final statement there, condemning “power based on lies and violence”, and was convicted of “public incitement to extremist activities” under Article 280.2 of the Russian criminal code.

Aleksandr Nesterenko at his first court appearance in November last year.
Photo: Mediazona

This statement at the appeal hearing was published on the For Human Rights telegram channel.

🔴My case was thought up in the investigator’s office. The first I knew of committing a crime was when I was arrested. Of course there is nothing new in all this. That’s exactly how they fabricated political cases in the VChK-NKVD [the Soviet security police, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs].

I got a three-year sentence for a song that I did not have [on a playlist on the social media site V-Kontakte], on the basis of evidence of so-called “witnesses” – evidence in court that contradicted evidence collected during the investigation, and evidence by witnesses who contradicted each other. I was convicted on the basis of so-called “expertise”, which in one paragraph said that in such-and-such a song it said so-and-so, and in the next paragraph said the opposite.

A year before being found guilty, I was put on the list of extremists and terrorists – that is, deprived of all civil rights and of the means of subsistence.

As a citizen of this country – still! – I can not but express my indignation that all the people who fabricated my “case” are not here, where I am. In the same way as we would not trust thieves and fraudsters to look after our money, we should not entrust the security of the state to those who, in carrying out criminal orders, are happy to transgress the law. Because a state that replaces the rule of law with despotism will perish from that despotism.

You have to be absolutely without any honour or conscience to accuse me of keeping, for myself, songs that have not been forbidden by anyone and are widely circulated on line, not because I like them or am somehow interested in them, but because – to quote the grounds for my conviction – I “feel persistent hostility to a group of people, defined by nationality, i.e. Russians, and am guided by the aim of arousing hatred and antipathy towards that group of people”.

You really have to trample all over the law, and common sense, to find incitement to extremist activity in songs that are a hundred years old – one of which was basically a Scouts’ song, that is, sung by Pioneers [the Soviet youth organisation, comparable to the Scouts]. These songs don’t have the slightest relevance to modern-day realities. Not even hypothetically.

If you follow the prosecution’s logic, then charges of incitement to extremist activity should be used to imprison French speakers, communists and other music lovers for the French national anthem the Marseillaise, for the communist anthem the Internationale, and for that wonderful revolutionary song, the Varshavyanka [popular in Poland and Russia during the 1905 and 1917 revolutions]. All the more so, considering that in these songs – in contrast to those that I am accused of listening to – there are actual calls for the violent overthrow of the existing order.

My “case” doesn’t just discredit the legal system, it makes it into a caricature. Who benefits? Is it those who declaim that they are Russian patriots and that, to do their duty, they must defend the basis of the constitutional order and the security of the state? I don’t think so. I think it’s entirely likely that this is not the result of the criminal activity of enemies of Russia who have infiltrated the law enforcement agencies – but, rather, the result of one of the two eternal Russian misfortunes. [The two misfortunes are “roads, and idiots”, according to a saying, wrongly attributed to the 19th century writer Nikolai Gogol, and more likely thought up by the Soviet-era comedian Mikhail Zadornov.] And if, at the end of the day, the roads can be repaired or rebuilt, how can we get away from the idiots?

It would be interesting to know the opinion of the “experts” at the Professor A.R. Shlyakhov Russian Federal Centre for Judicial Expertise, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, as to whether there is a public incitement to extremist activity in the song “Battle With The Idiots”, first sung half a century ago by “Mashina Vremeni” [“Time Machine” – see note at end], which includes the following lines:

Pass the rifles to the lads,

We’ll see who the brave ones are.

Pass the rifles to the lads,

And the idiots will get sorted sharpish.

I state, in full cognisance of my responsibilities, that this song is not on my social media channel, just as the Ukrainian folk song “Bandera is our father” is not and was not there … although the valiant warriors of the Federal Security Service and the Investigations Committee – in spite of the bequest left to them by F.E. Dzerzhinsky [the founder of the Soviet security police], and all the obvious facts – claim the opposite. Thank you for your attention.

🔴 Translated by Simon Pirani, 30 April 2026

🔴 Note. “Mashina Vremeni”, formed in 1969 and still going, is a Soviet, then Russian, rock bad with longevity comparable to the Rolling Stones. “Battle With The Idiots” is a popular name for the song, released in 1978, whose formal title is “Day of Wrath” (“Den’ Gneva”)

🔴 More about Aleksandr Nesterenko by Memorial: Support Political Prisoners

🔴 For more about all Russia’s political prisoners, look first at the English-languages pages of Memorial: Support Political Prisoners, Mediazona, OVD-Info,Solidarity Zone and The Last Word. Ukraine’s prisoners in Russian prisons are supported by Zmina, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, the Crimean Human Rights Group and others.

🔴Try Me For Treason, the film.

☭ People & Nature is now on mastodon, as well as twitter, whatsapp and telegram. Please follow! Or email peoplenature@protonmail.com, and we’ll add you to our circulation list (2-4 messages per month)

Political Prisoner Aleksandr Nesterenko 🪶 They Fabricate Cases, Just As They Did In Soviet Times

Rumble 📺 A powerful and controversial interview with attorney and human rights advocate Stanley Cohen discussing the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran.



Stanley L. Cohen is lawyer and activist in New York City.

'Time Of Mass Confusion'

Dr John Coulter ✍ Much is being made by the new pan nationalist front that it has a trio of First Ministers in three regions of the United Kingdom, but all this political spin hides the fact that those three nationalist and republican parties are deeply divided on a way forward.

The recent elections in Great Britain saw not just a severe battering for the Labour Party, but also significant gains for the Hard Right Reform UK party as well as wins for the Hard Left Green Party.

But here in Northern Ireland, where there were no elections, the Provisional IRA’s political wing has been burning the midnight oil spinning the spoof about the significance of Scotland and Wales joining Ulster in having a First Minister.

The Scottish National Party (SNP), in spite of losing seats, remains the largest party in the Scottish parliament holding onto the First Minister’s post. In Wales, the main Welsh nationalist movement, Plaid Cymru (PC), overturned decades of Labour rule to become the top party in the Welsh Assembly, thereby getting its hands on its First Minister position.

If folk swallowed the Sinn Fein spin like a bad tasting dose of cod liver oil, you would be forgiven for thinking the United Kingdom is being politically shattered. Nothing could be further from reality as there are radical differences between the directions of Sinn Fein, the SNP and PC.

What’s the point of the SNP mouthing off that it wants to work with Sinn Fein and PC when the exercise is constitutionally pointless because the IRA’s political wing does not take its seats in the House of Commons.

Indeed, the blunt reality which this supposedly new look pan nationalist front must face is that while Sinn Fein has a terrorist military wing, the SNP and PC are both purely democratic parties with no terrorist factions to their movements.

Put bluntly, neither the SNP or PC - unlike Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland - gained their respective positions in Scottish and Welsh politics on the backs of thousands of people murdered and maimed in Scotland and Wales.

While Sinn Fein’s military wing failed to bomb Northern Ireland out of the UK, the perception is that both the SNP and PC would be quite happy with increased devolved powers for their respective parliaments.

The real issue facing the 2026 pan nationalist front is - who calls the shots politically? Is it Sinn Fein, the SNP, or PC?

Given that both SNP MPs and PC MPs take their Westminster seats, is there the possibility that Scottish and Welsh nationalist MPs could ‘suck the Shinners’ into the British constitutional democratic process by persuading Sinn Fein MPs to ditch their outdated abstentionist policy and actually take their seats on the famous green benches, especially if the next Westminster General Election produces a hung Parliament?

Since its formation in 1905, Sinn Fein’s abstentionist policy of various parliaments has been gradually diluted. Perhaps Sinn Fein is still living in 1918 when it won the vast majority of Commons seats in Ireland when the island was still part of the British Empire? No seats were taken.

When the republican hardliners did not get their way over the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the early 1920s, they walked out of the Dublin Dail and sparked the bloody Irish Civil War which saw more IRA terrorists killed by the pro-Treaty Free State forces than were killed by the British during the earlier War of Independence.

Sinn Fein refused to take its seats in the 1982-86 Stormont Assembly, but 1986 also saw the movement vote to drop its traditional abstentionist policy in Dublin’s parliament in Leinster House. That sparked a walkout by hardline traditionalists to form the fringe Republican Sinn Fein party.

And in 1998, the abstentionist policy was further diluted when Sinn Fein took its seats at Stormont in the Assembly formed as a result of the Good Friday Agreement. Sinn Fein even sits in power-sharing Executive where its ministers spend cash given to their departments by the Westminster Government.

Whilst they may crow about independence, the SNP and PC both know Scotland and Wales cannot survive financially without Westminster. Put bluntly, the Scottish and Welsh nationalist interpretation of ‘independence’ is radically different from the republican myth of Irish unity.

In a united Ireland, Sinn Fein would become a political irrelevance as traditional nationalist parties, such as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, would soon swallow up the Sinn Fein vote.

The best the new pan nationalist front can hope for is even more devolved powers for the three regions from London, along with a bigger budget and perhaps even tax raising powers - a move that may not make the nationalist and republican parties as popular as last week’s election results in Britain.

The really big worry for the pan nationalist front is the ‘stay at home’ brigade. Both the SNP and PC either retained their power or got into power because only around half the eligible electorate bothered to vote.

Unionism in Northern Ireland has suffered electorally in the past because of the ‘stay at home’ brigade in traditionally Unionist constituencies. Now that Sinn Fein is part of a power-sharing government at Stormont, could Sinn Fein suffer the same political malaise in next year’s Assembly elections in traditionally nationalist constituencies?

Just as opinion polls are seeing gradual support creeping up for the once election battered UUP and SDLP which dominated the original Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, could 2027 see the current Sinn Fein/DUP grip on the Stormont Executive radically slackened?

In terms of sound bites, the concept of the First Minister hat trick sounds politically delicious. But I wonder how Sinn Fein would sell it to its traditional hardline republican heartlands if the SNP and PC persuaded the republican movement to take its Westminster seats?

When that bitter political medicine is administered to Sinn Fein, all of a sudden the pan nationalist front’s crowing about three First Ministers can be dismissed for what it really is - republican spoofing!
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

‘First Minister Hat Trick’ Spin Is Only Nationalist Spoofing!

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Seventy Five

 

A Morning Thought @ 3149

Pádraic Mac Coitir ✒ Since I was a young lad and I began to take an interest in the politics here in Ireland I was also encouraged to read about other struggles. 


My two older sisters were in Armagh gaol and whenever I visited them they suggested books I should read about Cuba, Vietnam, Palestine and other places of struggle. 

I can't remember reading too many books but I would read the odd article in papers and magazines. As I got older I read more and when I ended up in gaol myself I had access to many books. The Palestinian struggle was one I took a lot of interest in and over the years I became very cynical of Arafat and his cronies but I knew there were many other organisations that I agreed with. After getting out I met a lot of Palestinians whose politics I agreed with and some had been imprisoned for years including the year of 1981 and they spoke about the influence they got from the hunger strikers. Below is statement from that period.

During the Hunger Strike in 1981 a statement was smuggled out of Nafha Prison from the Palestinian prisoners and sent to the families of the 10 men who died.

To the families of the martyrs oppressed by the British ruling class. To the families of Bobby Sands and his martyred comrades.

We, revolutionaries of the Palestinian people who are under the terrorist rule of Zionism, write you this letter from the desert prison of Nafha.

We extend our salutes and solidarity with you in the confrontation against the oppressive terrorist rule enforced upon the Irish people by the British ruling elite.

We salute the heroic struggle of Bobby Sands and his comrades, for they have sacrificed the most valuable possession of any human being. They gave their lives for freedom
.
From here in Nafha prison, where savage snakes and desert sands penetrate our cells, from here under the yoke of Zionist occupation, we stand alongside you. From behind our cell bars, we support you, your people and your revolutionaries who have chosen to confront death.

Since the Zionist occupation, our people have been living under the worst conditions. Our militants who have chosen the road of liberty and chosen to defend our land, people and dignity, have been suffering for many years.

In the prisons, we are confronting Zionist oppression and their systematic application of torture. Sunlight does not enter our cell. Basic necessities are not provided. Yet we confront the Zionist hangmen, the enemies of life.

Many of our militant comrades have been martyred under torture by the fascists allowing them to bleed to death. Others have been martyred because Israeli prison administrators do not provide needed medical care.

The noble and just hunger strike is not in vain. In our struggle against the occupation of our homeland, for freedom from the new Nazis, it stands as a clear symbol of the historical challenge against the terrorists.

Our people in Palestine and in the Zionist prisons are struggling as your people are struggling against the British monopolies and we will both continue until victory.

On behalf of the prisoners of Nafha, we support your struggle and cause of freedom against English domination, against Zionism and against fascism in the world.
 
Padraic Mac Coitir is a former republican
prisoner and current political activist.

Growing Up With Palestine

Anthony McIntyre ⚽While I have been to a few Celtic matches, never sober enough to pass a breathalyser, I am not a fan.

The first time I travelled to Scotland for a game was in May 1973. It was cup final day in both Glasgow and London, and six of us sailed over on the Larne-Stranraer ferry. At 16, the youngest travelling, it was my first time abroad. 

A few hundred miles to the South, Leeds were taken out at Wembley by a combination of Ian Porterfield's strike and acrobatic acumen in the Sunderland goal from Jimmy Montgomery. In Hampden Celtic fell to Old Firm rivals Rangers, losing out by one in a five goal thriller. An official attendance of 134,000 - fans swore that was a very conservative estimate - the sway of the crowd left me wondering about the threat to public safety posed by heaving terraces, my friend urging me to grip his father who seemed in danger of being consumed by the moving mass. Two years earlier Rangers fans had suffered an appalling tragedy when 66 fans were crushed to death in Ibrox. Then too, the opponents were Celtic. On my left arm is a simple stencilled tattoo - Ibrox 66, an affirmation of my strongly held view that every soccer fan who who attends a game should return to their family safe, not in coffins. 

Things have improved in stadia since then despite, and because of, disasters at Bradford and Sheffield. So when fans gathered at Celtic Park yesterday for the final day showdown - the game that would see either Hearts or Celtic emerge as champions - what concerns they had, given so much at stake, being crushed was not amongst them. That is, if we set aside the emotional crushing that Hearts fans endured when their season, so filled with anticipation that after sixty six years they could emerge as champions of Scotland, came to a shattering end that was not climactic.

I had been at a Gaza vigil in the town centre, intending to make it home for the second half. As soon as I reached the house my son opened the door excitedly proclaiming 'Celtic penalty.' In the living room once the conversion proved successful, he went into a state of frenzied excitement, roaring, dancing, scarf waving and screaming. I thought my startle reflex was just not sufficiently finely honed for an afternoon of jumpiness. I turned around and made my way for the train to Dublin to see my daughter and then onto a friend. Thankful for small mercies, I was relieved that the four women in the seats next to me while following the match and cheering when Celtic took the lead, were not remotely near as eardrum bursting as my hyperexcitable son.

I followed the score throughout the journey on my phone. My son rang immediately after the home side took the lead to exuberantly inform me that Celtic would be champions of Scotland. While I was happy for him, for friends like Paddy Mooney and Davy Clinton, for Gary Robertson who has seriously raised my interest levels in Scottish soccer with his TPQ column, I had wanted Hearts to win. Because of my fond memories of big Scooby McCabe, a man I had on more occasions than one staggered into Celtic Park with after a feed of whiskey and beer - vodka for him - I felt a twinge of guilt, a tad disloyal. All sentiment aside, I feel a Hearts success would have been good for the game in Scotland. For the first time in years because of the Hearts challenge, Scottish soccer had become unpredictable and excitement enhancing, the race to get over the line even more appealing than that of the English Premier League.

Soccer in Scotland, with its history of success in Europe,  should not be a poor neighbour to its Southern counterpart. Although there are currently only twelve teams in the Scottish premiership, there is a huge gap between it and the League of Ireland Premier Division which has two fewer competing. Scottish soccer needs something broader than Celtic-Rangers. It needs more success from the two Edinburgh teams, one of the Dundee sides as well as Aberdeen.

Yesterday, Celtic fans left victorious, Hearts fans deflated. But they all left alive. There were emotionally crushed hearts but no physically crushed bodies. Hopefully, next year Hearts will come again. They deserve to having upped the quality of soccer in Scotland. 

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

Crushed Hearts

Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 11-May-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Journalists persecuted in occupied territories.
⬤ Oil refineries hit by drones.
⬤ Disaster in Tuapse, Russia/ Evidence of  Ukrainian civilians tortured to death.
⬤ Investigation into crimes against humanity. 

News from the territories occupied by Russia

“Child Diplomacy” or a Propaganda Tool? How Russia Uses Children to Legitimise the Occupation of Crimea (Crimea Platform, May 8th)

Russia brings ‘extremism’ charges against 86-year-old Crimean Jehovah’s Witness after sentencing his son to 6 years (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 6th)

The Crimean Prosecutor’s Office has initiated the first proceedings concerning a crime against humanity following a submission by ZMINA (Zmina, May 5th)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, May 5th)

Two fake trials and 16-year sentence for pro-Ukrainian views in occupied Crimea (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 5th)

5 May — Birthday of illegally imprisoned human rights defender Server Mustafaiev (Crimea Platform, May 5th)

Melitopol hostage sentenced to 26 years for supposed attempts on the life of a Russian-installed traitor (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 4th)

News from the front

Ukraine’s ‘Frozen’ Frontlines Are Shifting Significantly (Byline Times, May 7th)

Cyberspace as Another Front of War (Tribunal for Putin, May 2nd)

News from Ukraine

Belarussian volunteer fighting for Ukraine: Forbidden memory (Solidarity Collectives, 5 May)

(Un)safe shelter: Russia’s 2025 attack on Chornobyl (Ukrainer.net, 24 April)

War-related news from Russia

352,000 deaths in four years: Russian casualty monitor (Mediazona, 9 May)

Geraniums in bloom: The Insider and Nordsint reveal how a large Chinese firm supplies Russian drone production (The Insider, May 8th)

A Bell Is a Cup Until It Is Struck: The Disaster in Tuapse (Russian Reader, May 7th)

Alexander Okunev burned himself alive to protest against the war. The state tried to erase his memory (iStories, 6 May)

The biker jailed after flying Ukrainian flag: Sergei Dudchenko’s speech in court (Mediazona, 6 May)

Anticolonial fraud: The Kremlin in Africa (Links, May 5th)

Analysis and comment

Family Archives and Flowers Instead of Concrete: The Second World War in Research and Memory (Commons.com.ua, 8 May)

Statement on the absence of freedom of expression and the persecution of journalists in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (Zmina, May 4th)

Research of human rights abuses

Russia returns the bodies of 375 POWs and civilian hostages tortured to death or denied medical care (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, May 7th)

ZMINA took part in the Bring Kids Back UA Expert Day and submitted a civil society statement to the international coalition (Zmina, May 1st)

178 cases of pressure and persecution: ZMINA presented a report on the situation of human rights defenders and civil activists in 2025 (Zmina, May 1st)

Upcoming events

Monday 11 May, 1.0pm, Hermitage Hotel, Bournemouth. Ukraine fringe meeting at Communication Workers Union conference

Sunday 17 May: premiere of Try Me For Treason, the film. In-person premiere in London: 6.30pm, Upstairs room, the Lucas Arms, 245a Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8QY (arrive for drinks from 6.0pm). Youtube premiere at 8.0pm. Information at trymefortreason.org.

🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.


We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.

The bulletin is also stored on line here.

To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to:
2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.
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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 195

The i Paper ★ Written by Jonathan Singh.

The US President’s evangelical festival shows how he’s weaponising God

US politicians on all sides have long called on God to bless the United States of America, but having surrounded himself with evangelical firebrands, President Donald Trump is now being accused of weaponising American Christianity – and using it as pretext for an increasingly authoritarian approach at home and abroad.

The White House is preparing to host a prayer festival this weekend where speakers will include Trump’s spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain, who has compared him to Jesus, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who has talked of the conflict with Iran as a holy war.

The Rededicate 250 National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving – planned alongside the country’s 250th birthday celebrations and partly funded by US taxpayers – features mostly evangelical Christians. But the focus on appealing to a small subsection of Americans has big political risks, and could tear apart Trump’s Maga movement, experts have warned.

The festival, along with regular White House prayer meetings and the establishment by Trump of a White House Faith Office, are part of a wider strategy to cast the US as a righteous Christian nation . . .

Continue @ The i Paper.

What’s Really Behind Trump’s ‘Cosplay Christianity’

Right Wing Watch 👀 Written by Peter Montgomery.


A Guide To This Weekend’s White House-Sponsored ‘Revival’ To ‘Rededicate’ America to God

The Trump regime’s aggressive Christian nationalism will be on full display at two events being held in Washington, D.C. this coming weekend whose stated purpose is to “rededicate” the United States to God.

The government-sponsored “revival” reflects the extent to which the Trump White House has embraced the religious right’s contempt for the constitutional separation of church and state.

And it’s part of the Trump team’s hijacking of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to turn it from a bipartisan national celebration into a massive corporate-backed promotional campaign for Trump and the MAGA movement and what Rep. Jared Huffman has called “a platform for Christian nationalism.”

Here’s what to look forward to this weekend.

The Warm-Up Act

On Saturday, May 16, dominionist musician and MAGA activist Sean Feucht will host a worship service at an outdoor theater on the grounds of the Washington Monument. Since launching his “Let Us Worship” campaign against COVID-era restrictions on worship gatherings in 2020, Feucht has toured the country holding high-energy public worship services that double as Christian nationalist MAGA political rallies. 

Continue @ RWW.

Christian Nationalists, Grifters, Charlatans & More

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Seventy Four

 

Pastords @ 44

 

A Morning Thought @ 3148

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