This is Jacovin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. Today, we bring you a panel discussion recorded on July 4th at the Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago, where I served as moderator. The topic of the panel was Putin's

political prisoners, the repression of critical voices who have publicly opposed his war of

aggression against Ukraine. We've previously covered the case of Boris Kagalitsky, the well-known

Russian Marxist and anti-war critic, who is now serving a five-year

sentence in one of Putin's penal colonies. But he is far from alone. Thousands of left-wing

critics remain imprisoned in obscurity, many held under abysmal conditions. Our distinguished panel

draws attention to this silenced left, prisoners of conscience

resisting war and authoritarianism, both from inside Russia's prison system and in exile.

You'll hear from Kagalitsky's daughter, Ksenya Kagalitskaya. She's the founder of Freedom

Zone, the international campaign for Russia's political prisoners.

She will share a recorded message from Boris himself from his cell at Penal Colony Number 4 in Torzark.

Also joining us are Simon Perani, historian and activist, and Ilya Budrytskis, exiled Russian leftist, historian, political

theorist, and scholar at risk. The day before this panel, on July 3rd, 11 political prisoners,

including Kagalitsky, issued an open letter to world leaders. They called for the mass

release of Russian political prisoners and Ukrainian civilian hostages

and estimated 10,000 people as part of any peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

As pressure builds for an end to the war, their call must become ours.

Freedom for all political prisoners as a central part of any work in solidarity.

All that, coming up next when our program returns in just a moment.

Thank you very much for coming and all of those of you who are online.

I'm Susie Wiseman.

I am loosely representing the Boris Kagalitsky International Solidarity campaign,

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