19 January – 2 February 2026
by Aleksandr Podrabinek
Source: Facebook
19 January 2026
Donald Trump has invited both Putin and Lukashenko to his ‘Board of Peace’ alongside leaders of democratic countries. It will be interesting to see whether the invitation will cost them a billion dollars as well. Putin might still be able to shell out that amount, but Lukashenko is unlikely to. And it’s unclear why Trump hasn’t yet invited Ayatollah Khamenei and Kim Jong-un to his Board. For the sake of completeness, they’re clearly missing from the collection.
Source: Facebook
2 February 2026
The President of the 30 October Foundation, Evgenia Kara-Murza, responded to the smear campaign against the foundation, which assists political prisoners:
I have absolutely no desire to engage in any kind of discussion with the so-called ‘media outlet’ Sota Project, whose ‘investigations’ are cited in indictments in political cases in Russia, whose ‘reports’ are broadcast on Russian state television, and which recently lost a ‘defamation’ lawsuit in a Lithuanian court after it was labelled a collaborator of Putin.
But as president of the 30 October Foundation, I bear responsibility to our board and to the families that the Foundation supports, and therefore I cannot remain silent about the lies being spread in recent weeks by these ‘journalists.’
The idea to create the Foundation was born in 2022 when my husband, Vladimir Kara-Murza, already behind bars, was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Council of Europe and asked me to donate the entire monetary part of the award (60,000 euros) to help the families of political prisoners in Russia. The 30 October Foundation, which we established specifically to provide direct financial support to the families of political prisoners, has no connection to the Free Russia Foundation, where I held the position of Director of Advocacy from April 2022 to June 2025 and for which I received a salary. To those who are concerned that I received a salary for doing nothing, I can provide a report on my activities during those years, but I should warn you in advance that, in modern terms, it will contain a great many words, because 90 percent of my time was spent traveling, meeting, and giving speeches. And I am proud of everything that was achieved during this time, particularly my contribution to the creation of the Russian platform in PACE, and my work with the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and the UN to support anti-war and democratically minded Russians.
From October 2022 to November 2025, Vladimir and I received several international awards, including Vladimir’s Pulitzer Prize and my Lantos Prize, amounting to $175,629, which we transferred in its entirety (100 percent) to the Foundation. Not a single penny from this award money or from donations, which to date total $31,524 and for which we are endlessly grateful to all those compassionate people, goes towards the Foundation’s infrastructure. All these funds are used exclusively to support the families of political prisoners.
The Foundation’s infrastructure is maintained through grant support, and the monthly amount distributed to families, which currently stands at $12,500, exceeds the monthly expenses for infrastructure.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, who after his release from prison in 2024 took the position of Vice President of the Free Russia Foundation, has never received and does not receive any salary from the 30 October Foundation, and his involvement in the work of the Foundation is limited to transferring all the prize money he has received to support the families of political prisoners.
The first five families received assistance from the 30 October Foundation in May 2024. Since then, the number of families has grown every month, and currently 54 families of political prisoners in Russia are receiving monthly support. From May 2024 through to December 2025, assistance was provided to a total of 60 families, amounting to $149,585.
Yes, we have never published and do not intend to publish any personal information about the families receiving assistance. The people demanding reports and audits with names and addresses of the recipients of aid are either engaging in outright provocation (which raises the logical question: cui bono?), or they have hopelessly lost touch with reality. In other words, if this needs to be explained, then it doesn’t need explaining.
I am deeply grateful to everyone who supports the 30 October Foundation, and, so long as there are political prisoners in Russia, Vladimir and I will do everything we can to ensure that their families continue to receive the necessary support.
*A separate request: please do not confuse the disinformation outlet Sota Project with the independent Russian news agency SotaVision, owned by Aleksandra Ageeva, whose journalists are engaged in real, and extremely dangerous, journalism in Russia today. They cover protests and political trials in our country and often find themselves behind bars for their work. Journalists like Antonina Favorskaya and Artem Kriger are the best proof that, even in the most dreadful of times, there have always been, and still are, truly brave and honest people in our country, who challenge the monstrous state machine and speak the truth, despite the enormous risks.
Source: Facebook
Translated by Annabel Pedgley
