Georgian Orthodox Church elects new leader at fraught time for the influential institution

(RNS) — ‘It’s really the textbook example of a national church being the cornerstone of national identity,’ Samuel Noble, a scholar of Orthodox Christianity at Belgium’s University of Liège, told RNS.

Patriarch Shio III of the Georgian Orthodox Church during his enthronement at the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, outside Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo)

David I. Klein
May 12, 2026
RNS


(RNS) — Bishop Shio Mujiri will now be known as Patriarch Shio III, leading the Georgian Orthodox Church, one of the most prominent institutions in the country. He was enthroned in the 1,000-year-old Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, an ancient capital north of modern Tbilisi, on Tuesday morning (May 12), taking over one of Eastern Orthodoxy’s oldest churches after the death of one of its longest-serving leaders.

On Monday, Shio received 22 out of 39 votes from the Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, outpacing the two other hierarchs who had been shortlisted for the role after Patriarch Ilia II died in March. Shio will step into the shoes of a giant as Georgia faces one of the most politically tumultuous periods in its recent history.

The Georgian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Christian church bodies in the world, stretching back to the Apostle Andrew by tradition and by documentation at least as far back as the fifth century.

Shio, 57, who was born Elizbar Mujiri, became the 142nd leader of the church since it was first granted autocephaly — meaning self-headed in Greek — under the Byzantines in 480 A.D.

The church remains influential in Georgian society. A 2002 constitutional agreement gave the church special privileges far beyond the simple freedom of worship accorded to other religions in Georgia.

“The Church has always been an unshakable pillar of Georgian statehood and spiritual strength,” Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Kobakhidze said in a statement congratulating Shio on his election. “It is the Orthodox faith that has preserved for us those eternal values, thanks to which our country has reached this day.

Georgians with their children carry national flags as they take part in a religious procession to mark Orthodox Christmas in Tbilisi, Georgia, Jan. 7, 2024.

 (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

“I believe that your pastorate will serve the peaceful, united, and strong future of our country. May the Lord protect our country and its new spiritual father,” he added.

Kobakhidze wasn’t just being diplomatic. A 2020 poll by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that nearly 80% of Georgians agreed that the Georgian Orthodox Church is the foundation of their identity. And 50% agreed that Georgian citizens should be Georgian Orthodox — despite the country’s 10% Muslim minority, and long-standing Jewish, Yazidi and non-Georgian Orthodox Christian communities.

“It’s really the textbook example of a national church being the cornerstone of national identity,” Samuel Noble, a scholar of Orthodox Christianity at Belgium’s University of Liège, told RNS. “If you look up any polls done in Georgia, always the most trusted institution is the church, the most trusted individual was Patriarch Ilia.”

Ilia II served in the patriarch role for nearly 50 years. Enthroned in 1977, he is remembered by many as a source of continuity and stability in Georgia.

Under Soviet rule, even when the church was deeply infiltrated by the KGB, he earned respect for sheltering anticommunist Georgian activists. And when the Iron Curtain crashed down, he shepherded the church through the emergence of an independent Georgia, defending its canonical independence, defining its cultural identity and building ties with different political factions in and out of Georgia.

Pope Francis, center left, attends a meeting with Georgia’s Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Sept. 30, 2016. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

“His first two decades were probably the most difficult period for him with how the churches were organized and controlled under the Soviet regime,” Vladimer Narsia, a scholar of Orthodox Christian theology and head of the Canon Law Centre at Tbilisi’s Ilia State University, told RNS. “In the second part of his leadership, after the independence of Georgia, the church gained power and he went through these more than 25 years as a main player not just in the religious life of the nation, but in the political life as well.”

In a country where the median age is 37, Ilia was the only leader many Orthodox Christians knew for their church.

“There’s not really anybody comparable,” Noble said, adding that Ilia was responsible for a “great deal” of cultural rebuilding postcommunism. “ … Under Ilia, it wasn’t just that there was a new freedom for the church, but there was also a reassertion of the Georgianness of the church. … Traditional Georgian church music was revived, traditional Georgian liturgical practice, emphasis on Georgian rather than common Russian saints all came back, and the church was rebuilt in an incredible way.”

But Ilia’s tenure wasn’t without controversy. In 2017, a Georgian Orthodox priest was arrested in Berlin with cyanide in his baggage, allegedly planning on assassinating Ilia’s own secretary over an internal dispute.

In 2021, a leak exposed that Georgia’s state security services had been spying on church leaders, allegedly recording illegal activity for potential blackmail.

Georgian Orthodox priests, opponents of a march, pray as they block off the capital’s main avenue for an LGBTQ march in Tbilisi, Georgia, July 5, 2021.

 (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

The church under Ilia also faced criticism for its reactions to LGBTQ+ activism in Georgia. In 2013, a group of clergymen led thousands to counter a small antihomophobia protest in Tbilisi — an encounter that ultimately devolved into a riot, with activists and journalists assaulted. Days earlier, Ilia had called homosexuality a disease and called for banning LGBTQ+ activists from Tbilisi.

Though Shio doesn’t have the long-standing cultural cachet of Ilia, nine years ago Shio was appointed by Ilia to oversee the leadership transition after the patriarch’s eventual passing. Over the years, Shio had already taken over many of Ilia’s duties as his health deteriorated.

Shio isn’t expected to differ from Ilia much on social issues, but he is taking the helm in the midst of a second year of a protracted political crisis in Georgia, and many are watching to see how he navigates the church’s position. Nearly two years since disputed 2024 elections, Tbilisi is still wracked by protests against the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has responded with authoritarian crackdowns and legislation.

“What happened in 2024 was the most important mark in the recent history of the Georgian nation,” Narsia said. By that point, he noted, Ilia had stepped back from politics due to his health, but the church had been an active participant in earlier years. The same year, in an attempt to court church support, Georgian Dream floated the idea of enshrining the Orthodox church in law as Georgia’s state religion, but Shio and Ilia shot down the idea.

Shio’s ascension to the patriarchal throne comes amid another great divide. For years, the Orthodox world has been defined by a major rift between Moscow, seat of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the world’s largest Orthodox church, and Constantinople, seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, a historical leader of Orthodox Christendom.

In 2018, the Russian church broke ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the latter’s establishment of a Ukrainian Church independent from the Russian church. It created the largest schism in Orthodoxy since the break with Rome in 1054.

In the weeks between Ilia’s death and Shio’s election, both Moscow and Constantinople accused the other of interference in the succession process. Ties with Moscow have also suffered ever since Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia, and the Russian church has often been criticized for giving spiritual justification to the war in Ukraine and the Putin regime.

Shio, who completed much of his religious education in Moscow in Russian Orthodox institutions, has many concerned over those ties.

“One of the great challenges that the Georgian Orthodox Church has today will be how the new patriarch reads the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church over the Georgian church,” Narsia said.

Russia: Anti-War Moscow Buddhist Leader Convicted Again In Re-Trial – Analysis

Judge Andrey Kuznetsov (left), Ilya Vasilyev (right in defendants' box), Preobrazhensky District Court, April 2026. Credit: Ilya Vasilyev Telegram Support Channel

May 4, 2026 
F18News
By Victoria Arnold


The re-trial of a Buddhist leader on charges of disseminating false information about the Russian Armed Forces ended on 28 April, with the Moscow court handing down another guilty verdict. Ilya Vasilyev’s initial conviction and 8-year prison term were overturned on a technicality in October 2025. This time, he received a sentence of 6 years’ imprisonment and a ban on “administering websites”. Vasilyev’s lawyer, Gevorg Aleksanyan, has already lodged an initial appeal.

lIt is unclear why the new judge decided to hand down a shorter sentence. Meanwhile, the 52-year-old Vasilyev remains in detention at Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison, where he has spent most of the 22 months since his June 2024 arrest (see below).

Vasilyev was on trial at Moscow’s Preobrazhensky District Court under Criminal Code Article 207.3 (“Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”), Part 2, Paragraph d (“for reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any social group”) for an English-language Facebook post (made “solely out of religious conviction”, his lawyer told Forum 18) about a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kherson in 2022 (see below).

“A prosecutor who doesn’t understand Zen has intervened in a conversation between Buddhists about religious topics and is dragging the court into it,” Vasilyev said in court on 23 April 2026. “Some people want to pressure Buddhists to fight on the side of one leader or another. But there are no soldiers’ belt buckles with the inscription ‘Buddha is with us’. Opening a ‘Russia against Buddhism’ front is not advantageous to Russia” (see below).

“When I took the Buddhist vow, I vowed to tell the truth. And when people here start saying in my name that what I say is a lie, it is, of course, a great challenge to me”, Vasilyev added in his final speech on 27 April. “These past six months have been difficult for me. But if the court insists that I committed a crime, of course, I will continue to tell the truth. We will continue to defend ourselves and seek my release” (see below).

“I was given six years for reposting a Christmas card on Facebook”, Vasilyev wrote in an open letter to supporters on 29 April. “This is significantly less than the eight they gave me a year ago. This is a great achievement for you, for not giving up and helping me. I am confident we are capable of more, of complete innocence proven in court, and I hope this stage will take less time. Upon release, I intend to continue my path to Zen monasticism .. I will be glad if some of you continue working to free other prisoners of conscience and restore freedom of speech in Russia.”

“Does the voice of compassion have the right to be heard in our society?” Vasilyev’s public defender Anna Tugolukova asked in her own final speech to the court. “Or will any call to stop violence be equated with the voice of an enemy?” (see below).

Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office press service did not respond to Forum 18’s questions as to why prosecutors had requested a custodial sentence and in what way Vasilyev could be considered dangerous (see below).

Preobrazhensky District Court did not respond to Forum 18’s questions as to why a custodial sentence had been deemed necessary and in what way Vasilyev could be considered dangerous, and also why the court had imposed a shorter sentence than in the first trial (see below).

Federal Penitentiary Service officials say that no possibility currently exists for a Buddhist representative to visit Vasilyev there. The Matrosskaya Tishina administration did not respond to Forum 18’s questions as to whether the prison service had yet concluded any agreement with a registered Buddhist organisation, and whether any other opportunity could exist for a detainee to see a Buddhist priest (see below).

On 24 March, the capital’s Gagarin District Court convicted Orthodox journalist Kseniya Luchenko on the same charge for a Telegram post in which she condemned a Russian missile strike on a Kyiv children’s hospital in July 2024, and contrasted this with the Russian state and Moscow Patriarchate’s promotion of so-called “traditional values”. The judge sentenced her in absentia to 8 years’ imprisonment. Before her criminal trial, officials had had her name added to the Interior Ministry’s Federal Wanted List, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) “List of Terrorists and Extremists”, and the Justice Ministry’s register of “foreign agents”.

Although Luchenko left Russia in 2022, these measures – and now her criminal conviction – could nevertheless carry consequences. These include the risk of extradition if she travels to any state with a bilateral extradition agreement with Russia, and possible problems with banking in Western countries as a result of being placed on the Rosfinmonitoring List.

On 27 March 2026, the Russian Justice Ministry added the Christians Against War project to its register of “foreign agents” for allegedly disseminating “false information about the decisions and policies of Russian government bodies, as well as about the Russian Orthodox Church”. Christians Against War was established shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in order to document the persecution of religious believers who oppose the war in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russian-occupied Ukraine.

Criminal, administrative convictions for opposing war on religious grounds

Since February 2022, courts have sentenced five people to imprisonment (including, most recently, Kseniya Luchenko in absentia, and Ilya Vasilyev) and have fined three on criminal charges for opposing Russia’s war against Ukraine in religious terms or on religious grounds. Investigators have also opened three criminal cases against people who have left Russia and placed them on the Federal Wanted List.

Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk was handed a 4-year prison term in September 2025 under Criminal Code Article 280.4 (“Public calls to implement activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation, or to obstruct the exercise by government bodies and their officials of their powers to ensure the security of the Russian Federation”). He is now serving his sentence in Vladimir Region, his daughter Svetlana Zhukova stated on her Telegram channelon 18 April.

Pastor Romanyuk’s prison address is: 601443, g. Vyazniki, ul. Zheleznodorozhnaya 37, FKU Ispravitelnaya koloniya – 4 UFSIN Rossii po Vladimirskoy oblasti

Individuals also continue to face prosecution under Administrative Code Article 20.3.3 (“Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”) for opposing the war in Ukraine from a religious perspective.

Most recently, Slavyansk City Court in Krasnodar Region fined independent Orthodox priest Fr Iona Sigida 40,000 Roubles under Administrative Code Article 20.3.3, Part 1 in December 2025. Police had based the case against Fr Iona on an article on his church’s website in which he wrote “Today, on the night of 23-24 February [2022], the newly revealed antichrist, the embodiment of the devil, V. Putin, sent his army to destroy the last unconquered holy Rus’ in the person of Ukraine”.

(Fr Iona remains under investigation for a possibly related offence of “overt disrespect for society about days of military glory” (Criminal Code Article 354.1, Part 4), apparently also for articles he posted on the website of the Holy Intercession Tikhonite Church in Slavyansk-na-Kubani. On 16 April, a judge released him from house arrest, but he is still barred from using the telephone and internet.)

Ever-increasing internet censorship has seen websites and materials blocked for: “extremist” content; opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine from a religious perspective; material supporting LGBT+ people in religious communities; Ukraine-based religious websites; social media of prosecuted individuals; and news and NGO sites which include coverage of freedom of religion or belief violations.

The Justice Ministry has also added at least 14 religious leaders and activists to its register of “foreign agents”, largely for reasons related to their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.

June 2024 arrest

The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Moscow Buddhist leader and computer programmer Ilya Vladimirovich Vasilyev (born 9 December 1973) on 20 June 2024, partly on the basis of information from the Federal Security Service (FSB). It arrested him the same day after a search of his home.

Prosecutors charged Vasilyev under Criminal Code Article 207.3 (“Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”), Part 2, Paragraph d (“for reasons of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or for reasons of hatred or enmity against any social group”).

This was based on an English-language Facebook post of 25 December 2022, which said: “Putin rejected Christmas armistice. His rockets are right now shelling peaceful Ukrainian cities and towns. Only yesterday 16 people died in Kherson, where my father’s family lives. Or lived? Millions of Ukrainians are now without electricity and water supply. The picture is called ‘Christmas 2022’.”

Included in the post was a painting by Ukrainian-born artist Iriney Yurchuk, depicting a nativity scene in the ruins of a bombed-out block of flats.

According to the prosecution, with this post Vasilyev deliberately “misled an unlimited number of people” and “created the appearance of illegal activity that violated international law” by the Russian armed forces and government. The prosecution claimed he was acting out of “political hatred, expressed in a ‘disdainful, unfriendly, hostile, aggressive’ attitude towards the authorities”.

Vasilyev made the Facebook post, as well as others on the VKontakte social network which led to a May 2023 administrative prosecution, “solely out of religious conviction”, he told Forum 18 through his lawyer in November 2024. He added that he is “not a politician and is engaged only in religion”.

(Vasilyev deleted his Facebook page in May 2023 immediately after his administrative prosecution, as his lawyer noted in court on 23 April 2026, but FSB investigators had already made a record of the Kherson post.)

June 2025 conviction

Ilya Vasilyev’s case first reached Moscow’s Preobrazhensky District Court in October 2024. The trial ended in a guilty verdict in June 2025 after thirteen hearings before Judge Valentina Lebedeva.

Judge Lebedeva convicted Vasilyev of disseminating “knowingly false information” about the Armed Forces and sentenced him to 8 years’ imprisonment (followed by a 4-year ban on “administering websites”).

Had Vasilyev’s 8-year prison term entered legal force, it would have been the longest known custodial sentence imposed for opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine on religious grounds.


A panel of three judges at Moscow City Court overturned the verdict on 22 October 2025, and ordered that a different judge at Preobrazhensky District Court should re-examine Vasilyev’s case. They concluded that the court had unlawfully refused Vasilyev’s request, early in proceedings, to have an acquaintance act as his public defender [zashchitnik], alongside his lawyer.

2026 re-trial

The re-trial of Ilya Vasilyev, founder of the Moscow Zen Centre and the Civil School of Hackers, began on 19 January 2026, also at the city’s Preobrazhensky District Court, but this time before Judge Andrey Kuznetsov. Vasilyev made a total of nine appearances in court.

At the hearing on 12 March, defence witness Mariya Popova, a family friend of the Vasilyevs, told the court that “accusations of disseminating any kind of false information are completely inconsistent with Vasilyev’s Buddhist worldview”, the independent SOTAvision news channel reported on Telegram the same day.

“It’s hard to create a school—to have people sit and listen to you,” Popova said. “All his schools are about kindness, about love.”

On 14 April, Judge Kuznetsov denied lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan’s request for another expert examination of Vasilyev’s Facebook post, independent of the FSB (whose expert carried out the original linguistic analysis). Aleksanyan argued that the FSB’s analysis “cannot be considered complete or reliable”, SOTAvision noted on 14 April.

The lawyer pointed to the FSB expert’s apparent lack of experience, the fact she did not cite the authors of the methods used, meaning that “The entire report is based on methods that cannot be verified”, and the use of two different Russian translations of Vasilyev’s English-language post – one a machine translation which investigators sent for expert analysis, the other a professional translation included in the indictment and submitted to the court.

“Key thesis of the prosecution – the motive of political hatred – is contrary to .. Zen Buddhism”

In court at his re-trial, Ilya Vasilyev “disagreed with attempts to attribute emotions and intentions to him that he did not experience”, independent Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta reported on 28 April. He said he had timed his post for 25 December (in 2022) – “a day significant for many religious traditions” – and did not address it to a Russian audience.

Vasilyev admitted only that he had indeed made the post, and denied the accusation of disseminating false information motivated by hatred, insisting that his intention was completely the opposite. He stated: “They’re trying to throw me behind bars here on a far-fetched pretext.”


Vasilyev’s public defender Anna Tugolukova also argued that “the key thesis of the prosecution – the motive of political hatred – is contrary to the very nature of Zen Buddhism”, at the core of which is “compassion, which does not divide people into ‘us’ and ‘them'”, Novaya Gazeta quoted her as saying.

“For a mind nurtured in the Zen tradition, there is no difference between the suffering of a soldier in one army and the suffering of a soldier in another,” Tugolukova said. “There is simply suffering”.

“Does the voice of compassion have the right to be heard in our society,” Tugolukova concluded. “Or will any call to stop violence be equated with the voice of an enemy?”
“When I took the Buddhist vow, I vowed to tell the truth”

“The history of Buddhism is the history of victory over ignorance. And Buddha wins not because you take the winning side. Buddha wins because you stop engaging in momentary nonsense and focus on what truly matters”, Ilya Vasilyev said in his final speech to the court on 27 April.

“My [teaching] method is traditional. Students come to me for training, reach their hacker level, and return to defend their businesses, their families, and their countries. They don’t attack their neighbours or engage in criminal activity; they serve their nations with their acquired skills, being worthy citizens. The FSB, however, can turn law-abiding citizens into criminals, locking them up in pre-trial detention on trumped-up charges.”

“When I took the Buddhist vow, I vowed to tell the truth. And when people here start saying in my name that what I say is a lie, it is, of course, a great challenge to me. These past six months have been difficult for me. But if the court insists that I committed a crime, of course, I will continue to tell the truth. We will continue to defend ourselves and seek my release.”

“Reducing religion to some kind of puppet show backed by security forces means Buddhism becoming a department of the FSB. I’ve met practitioners who are afraid to adhere fully to Buddha’s teachings because they fear prison.”

“I wonder what we’re bringing to the new territories [i.e. Russian-occupied Ukraine], what kind of culture? True greatness is achieved not by force of arms, but by wisdom, the power of conviction, and personal example.”

Vasilyev expressed his belief that Russia would soon start respecting human rights and that convictions under Criminal Code Article 207.5 would be overturned. He stated that he would continue to practice Buddhism if sent to a penal colony.

“Ultimately, people will no longer be jailed for words in Russia, and Russia will protect the rights of Russian-speaking people not only in foreign territories, but also in its own territories and even in Moscow, my home city, which I love,” Vasilyev told the court.

Buddhist leader convicted again

On 28 April 2026, the re-trial of Ilya Vasilyev, at Preobrazhensky District Court, also ended in conviction. Judge Andrey Kuznetsov sentenced Vasilyev to 6 years’ imprisonment for disseminating “false information” about the Armed Forces, plus a ban on “administering websites” for 3 years and 6 months, the Moscow court system announced on its Telegram channel on the same day.

Vasilyev’s lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan has already lodged an initial appeal, he told Forum 18 shortly after the final court hearing. In the meantime, Vasilyev remains at Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison, where he has been detained for almost all of the 22 months since Investigative Committee officers arrested him in June 2024 for the Facebook post about a Russian missile strike on Kherson in Ukraine.

Freedom of speech “is not a whim of human rights activists for the sake of grants. It’s essential for survival, for the preservation of territorial integrity”, Vasilyev told the court on 23 April. “My case has religious and political overtones. A guilty verdict complicates international relations, which Russia is currently trying to maintain.”

“The situation in Russia, Russian Orthodoxy, and Russia’s attitude toward religion will be judged by this verdict.”

“A prosecutor who doesn’t understand Zen has intervened in a conversation between Buddhists about religious topics and is dragging the court into it,” Vasilyev continued. “Some people want to pressure Buddhists to fight on the side of one leader or another. But there are no soldiers’ belt buckles with the inscription ‘Buddha is with us’. Opening a ‘Russia against Buddhism’ front is not advantageous to Russia.”

On 23 April, prosecutors requested a sentence of 8 years’ imprisonment for Vasilyev. “Of course, it is difficult to say anything” as to why the judge decided on a shorter term, Aleksanyan commented to Forum 18.

During the final exchange of arguments [preniya] on 23 April, Aleksanyan remarked that “had he been tasked with examining charges for words more than ten years ago, when he was graduating from university, he would have reconsidered his career choice”, the independent SOTAvision news outlet reported the same day. He noted that by requesting such a long prison sentence, the state was “equating murder cases with cases for words”.

“What should [Vasilyev] have learned in that time? Never to call for peace again? I’m sure this [Criminal Code] article will be repealed one day, as it is unconstitutional,” Aleksanyan stated to the court.

Forum 18 wrote to the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office press service on 24 April to ask why prosecutors had requested a custodial sentence and in what way Vasilyev could be considered dangerous.

Forum 18 also wrote to Preobrazhensky District Court on 28 April to ask why a custodial sentence had been deemed necessary and in what way Vasilyev could be considered dangerous, and also why the court had imposed a shorter sentence than in the first trial.

Forum 18 had received no response from either institution by the end of the Moscow working day of 29 April.

Nearly two years in detention

On 20 February, the court extended Vasilyev’s detention period again – this time until 6 June 2026 – refusing Aleksanyan’s request to have him placed under house arrest instead. Vasilyev appealed unsuccessfully against this decision on 24 March.

According to the detention order appeal ruling, seen by Forum 18, Aleksanyan noted that Vasilyev has no previous criminal record and before his arrest had lived with and cared for his mother, who “suffers from chronic illnesses”. He argued that “the [district] court’s conclusion regarding the defendant’s potential to abscond or otherwise obstruct the proceedings is not supported by the case materials and was made by the court without regard to Vasilyev’s character [lichnost]”.

The Moscow City Court appeal judge nevertheless decided that “The circumstances that served as grounds for selecting detention as a preventive measure for Vasilyev have neither changed nor ceased to exist”, given that Vasilyev stands accused of “committing a serious crime”, which “provides grounds to believe that, if released, he might abscond from the court, continue his criminal activities, or otherwise obstruct the proceedings in the criminal case”.

In Matrosskaya Tishina Prison, Vasilyev appears to be free to meditate and read religious literature as he wishes. He also exchanges letters with acquaintances, discussing Buddhist thought and general topics (some of which are posted as open letters on his support channel on Telegram). He noted in one open letter, however, that he cannot write about either his case or “everyday life” in the detention centre.

The detention centre also continues to refuse Vasilyev access to a Buddhist priest, lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan told Forum 18 on 13 April.

In July 2025, Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) officials told Aleksanyan that a detainee could only see a priest if a formal agreement existed between FSIN and a centralised religious organisation. Officials said that, because so few detainees were Buddhist, no such agreement was in place.

FSIN officials nevertheless added that “the matter remains under review”, and would be reconsidered if there were an increase in the number of Buddhists or more requests were received.

Forum 18 wrote to Matrosskaya Tishina Prison on 15 April 2026, asking whether the prison service had yet concluded any agreement with a registered Buddhist organisation, and whether any other opportunity could exist for a detainee to see a Buddhist priest. Forum 18 had received no reply by the end of the working day in Moscow of 29 April.

Vasilyev is likely to remain in the same prison until his appeal is heard. His address:

107076 g. Moskva
ul. Matrosskaya Tishina 18
FKU Sledstvenniy izolyator No. 1 UFSIN Rossii po g. Moskve

 

Death From Above: How Drones Are Reshaping Wildlife in Ukraine

by Christopher Bancroft | Mar 31, 2026 | 

The skies over the Ukrainian frontline no longer belong to the birds. In a conflict now entering its fifth year, the rapid rise of small, low-cost drones has created a new kind of aerial pressure – one that hunters and wildlife managers would recognize as a permanent “landscape of fear.”

What began with hobbyist quadcopters dropping small explosives has evolved into swarms of fiber optic kamikaze drones that are nearly impossible to intercept. According to Euromaidan Press, a Ukrainian-based newspaper, the Ukrainian military aims to produce approximately 7 million drones in 2026, with Russia attempting to match their aggressive production goals. The result is a constant mechanical hum overhead that has become as familiar as wind in the grass.

The Threat from Above

In a BBC article describing the trauma associated with the use of drones in the Ukraine conflict, Joel Gunter reported on a new condition described as “Droneophobia.” Soldiers who have returned from the battlefield are mortified by everyday noises that sound like a drone’s hum. This includes the buzzing of a bee or the motor of the lawnmower. Veterans are triggered into thinking they are being hunted from the sky.

The paranoia appears to carry over to wildlife as well. Professor Janine Natalya Clark of the University of Birmingham speaks to the environmental effects of drones on wildlife in Ukraine. In Clark’s recently published study, she notes that some birds, such as mallards and goosanders, are particularly sensitive to the sounds of war and drones, which can cause them to panic.

Clark relayed the observation of an ornithologist in Ukraine, “If these birds are disturbed and need to expend valuable energy in finding other places in which to feed, they may not be in good physical condition when it is time for them to migrate”.

The same ornithologist went on to say, “Some bird species, including forest birds, herons and white storks, do not appear to be as sensitive as others to the sound of drones and other war-related acoustic disturbances”.

Clark notes, “The environmental risks that drones present are multi-layered and not solely acoustic in nature. The visual appearance of drones is also very relevant.”

Prey species like ducks, which are always on the lookout for attacks from carnivorous birds, seem to identify drones as predators. The incessant perception of being hunted leads to changes in behavior and to unnecessary calorie expenditure.

Habitat Destruction

On top of the nonstop buzzing and overhead shadows, the payloads themselves are devastating. Drones regularly deliver thermite, RPG-7 warheads, TNT, C-4, grenades, and fragmentation devices like landmines. In practice, if it explodes, it’s being flown into the fight.

The immediate habitat destruction caused by the explosives leads to fires and land degradation, which in turn cause erosion and the introduction of chemicals into the ecosystem. In a recent YouTube video called “How to Survive Drone Warfare in Ukraine,” a Ukrainian war veteran describes the landscape as a “Charlie Brown Christmas tree environment.”

The anonymous veteran goes on to say, “Trees have been berated, and berated, and berated for the last four years now with mortars, indirect fire, drones, fires–you name it. Every tree in Ukraine in a treeline is pretty much a waist-high stump, or the remnants of a tree.”

Similar to the use of napalm in the Vietnam War, the loss of cover isn’t just cosmetic. It removes thermal protection, bedding areas, and travel corridors that game animals rely on.

A 2024 study published in the Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology found “The war has caused more than $56.4 billion in damage to the environment. There has been widespread chemical contamination of air, water, and soil, and 30% of Ukraine has been contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance.”

Heavy metals and explosive compounds will remain in the environment for decades, leading to infertility issues, reduced microbial activity, and a polluted watershed.

Fiber Optic Bird Nest’s

Drones, while being the most effective weapon of this conflict, are not without their drawbacks. Both the Russians and Ukrainians employed a form of electronic warfare with the use of “jammers”–a device that interrupts the radio frequency of the drone to the operator, knocking it out of the sky.

To counter drone losses, both forces began using fiber-optic cable. The drone is fixed with a spool of line and an explosive. The fiber optic line transmits data via light through the cable to the drone. As long as the line stays connected between the operator and drone, the payload is impervious to jamming technology.

The issue is that when the ordinance is delivered, the drone explodes as well, leaving that plastic fiber-optic cable stretched across the landscape. Reports and images being relayed from the frontline show what looks like a spider web across the landscape–similar to the bottom of a popular fishing hole and the remains of snagged fishing lines.

An article published by the Conflict and Environmental Observatory notes the ongoing conflict between wildlife and abandoned fiber-optic lines. Videos and images circulate online showing entangled and snarred birds, leading to suffocation. Reports of deer with cable woven into their antlers have been made, and a viral photo has circulated of a bird nest made in part with fiber-optic cable.

According to CEOBS, “The fluoropolymer cladding and outer layers of cables are also a concern. Fluoropolymers fall within the class of highly persistent per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which do not readily degrade in an environment and can contaminate soil and water.”

Once these plastics are introduced into the environment, they can persist for hundreds of years.

The Horrors of War on Wildlife

War has always been hard on wildlife, but drone technology has introduced a uniquely modern suite of pressures: nonstop disturbance, precise habitat shredding, toxic legacies, and durable plastic entanglement. The front lines in Ukraine are showing us what happens when cheap, mass-produced aerial weapons meet rich biodiversity.

As hunters and conservationists, we understand that healthy game populations depend on intact habitat and low-stress environments. The Ukrainian experience offers a sobering preview of how emerging military tech can quietly erode the wild places we care about. Even if a particular conflict like this never reaches our shores, the lesson is worth noting: the tools of modern warfare don’t just affect soldiers – they reshape landscapes and the animals that live in them for decades to come.

Christopher Bancroft is a Wyoming native, writer, and photographer specializing in hunting, fishing and conservation stories. Passionate about the outdoors and the natural world, Bancroft seeks to highlight the human and environmental impacts of critical issues through authentic storytelling. Many of his previous works can be found on the MeatEater website.

Trump threatens legal action against Grammy host over Epstein comment

THIN SKINNED TYRANT THREATENS COURT JESTER

By AFP
February 2, 2026


South African comedian Trevor Noah hosting the 68th Annual Grammy Awards - Copyright AFP VALERIE MACON

Donald Trump threatened legal action on Monday against the host of the 68th Grammy Awards over the comedian’s comment on the US president and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

After congratulating Billie Eilish for winning the Grammy for Song of the Year for her track “Wildflower,” host Trevor Noah brought up Trump and Epstein.

“Wow. That’s a Grammy that every artist wants — almost as much as Trump wants Greenland,” he quipped, referring to the president’s threats to seize the autonomous Arctic territory.

Noah then added: “Which makes sense because, since Epstein’s gone, he needs a new island to hang out with Bill Clinton.”

Noah, who announced that this will be his final year hosting the Grammys after six turns as emcee, has been light on political commentary in previous years.

His comments drew the ire of the president, who took to his Truth Social platform first saying that the “Grammy Awards are the WORST and virtually unwatchable,” before criticizing Noah.

“I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory, statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media,” Trump asserted.

The Republican then branded South African Noah a “total loser” who needs to “get his facts straight.”

“I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C. … Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you!” Trump added.

Trump, who moved in the same social circles as Epstein in Florida and New York, has fought for months to prevent the release of a vast trove of documents about the disgraced financier and has given varying accounts of why he eventually fell out with Epstein.

More than three million documents were released on Friday that included mention of numerous powerful figures, including the 79-year-old president, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Gavin Newsom's press office mocks Trump's Grammy tirade with 'participation prize' jab

Ewan Gleadow
February 2, 2026 

RAW STORY

California Governor Gavin Newsom, along with local congressional representatives, state officials and supporters, speaks as he announces the redrawing of California's congressional maps, calling on voters to approve a ballot measure, in response to a similar move in Texas being supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Gavin Newsom's Press Office has released a mocking statement over Donald Trump's comments on the Grammy Awards.

The president made his distaste for this year's music awards show known with a lengthy Truth Social post earlier today. Governor of California Newsom's press office

A statement written in capital letters, posted to Governor Newsom's Press Office X account, reads, "I can't believe very talented artists like Kid Rock and Nicki Minaj were snubbed again and will be walking home with zero (0) Grammys.


"The haters will say they are 'trash' artists who are just desperate for attention. Wrong!!! They are okay artists who are desperate for attention. Their recent PR 'performances' are strong enough to earn a participation prize at minimum.

"Because the Grammys failed, I will be awarding Kid and Nicki the California Music Participation Peace Prize (at the Newsom Kennedy Center), a very prestigious award decided by my 'peace' board, which I alone appoint. This restores fairness to music. Thank you for your attention to this matter. - Governor GCN."

The mocking statement from Newsom's Press Office comes shortly after Trump made his own post to Truth Social criticizing Trevor Noah and suggesting his legal team may get involved over a joke about Epstein's Island.

Trump wrote, "The Grammy Awards are the WORST, virtually unwatchable! CBS is lucky not to have this garbage litter their airwaves any longer. The host, Trevor Noah, whoever he may be, is almost as bad as Jimmy Kimmel at the Low Ratings Academy Awards. Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island.

"WRONG!!! I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media. Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast.

"It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$. Ask Little George Slopadopolus, and others, how that all worked out. Also ask CBS! Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you! President DJT."

Trump denies visiting Epstein Island in Truth Social post criticizing Grammy Awards

Ewan Gleadow
February 2, 2026 
RAW STORY


U.S. President Donald Trump listens to remarks during a swearing-in ceremony for Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Donald Trump has denied he ever visited Epstein Island in a Truth Social post criticizing this year's Grammy Awards show.

The president posted a lengthy statement on February 2 regarding a joke made by Trevor Noah. Trump has since suggested he will contact his legal team over the comment made by show host Noah.

Trump wrote, "The Grammy Awards are the WORST, virtually unwatchable! CBS is lucky not to have this garbage litter their airwaves any longer. The host, Trevor Noah, whoever he may be, is almost as bad as Jimmy Kimmel at the Low Ratings Academy Awards. Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island

"WRONG!!! I can’t speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight’s false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media. Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight, and get them straight fast.

"It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$. Ask Little George Slopadopolus, and others, how that all worked out. Also ask CBS! Get ready Noah, I’m going to have some fun with you! President DJT."

Trump was named more than 3,000 times in the Justice Department’s release Friday of around 3.5 million files on Jeffrey Epstein, and on Saturday, he vowed vengeance against author Michael Wolff and potentially Epstein’s estate for what the president alleged was a conspiratorial effort to damage him politically.

“Wolff, who’s a third-rate writer, was conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to hurt me politically or otherwise and that came through loud and clear,” Trump told reporters Saturday, The Independent reported Sunday. “So we’ll probably sue Wolf on that… maybe the Epstein estate, I guess. I don’t know. But we’ll certainly sue Wolff.”

Despite the newly unearthed allegations, Trump has and is not facing any criminal charges related to his past relationship with Epstein, and has denied any and all wrongdoing.

New Epstein docs reveal 'nauseating' details about Trump's next Fed pick: GOP analyst

Robert Davis
February 1, 2026 
RAW STORY



FILE PHOTO: Kevin Warsh, Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S., May 8, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

The new Jeffrey Epstein files released on Friday include "nauseating" details about President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Reserve, according to one GOP analyst.

Rick Wilson, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, wrote in a new Substack essay on Sunday that the January 30 Epstein files dump included details about Kevin Warsh, who Trump recently announced as his pick to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in May. Wilson argued that Warsh's name appeared in the files "like a bad penny."

"It is a bit of timing so on-the-nose it would be rejected by a mediocre political thriller," Wilson wrote. "Warsh, a man whose resume reads like a checklist for the Davos-and-Hamptons set, isn’t just a “Wall Street veteran” or an Estée Lauder heir by marriage; he is now a recurring character in the Epstein ledger."


Several high-profile figures in the Trump administration and people who have known the president personally for years were implicated in the latest Epstein files release. The files include allegations that the president forced teenage girls to perform oral sex on him, emails showing Trump ally Elon Musk visited the infamous Epstein island, and details about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's friendship with the disgraced financier, which Lutnick has denied.

Wilson argued that the release paints a "nauseating" pitcure of the people in controls of the levers of power.


"While the DOJ is quick to point out that proximity isn’t a crime, the visual is nauseating: the man who will soon hold the literal keys to the American economy was once just another name on a spreadsheet for a monster’s social calendar," he added. "It is the ultimate 'loyalty test' for the new regime: appointing a man who rubbed elbows with the abyss to oversee the Federal Reserve, proving once again that in this administration, the only disqualification is a conscience."


Read the entire essay by clicking here.

Epstein files force resignation of Slovak diplomat Lajčák as PM Fico’s security advisor

Miroslav Lajčák resigned as Prime Minister Robert Fico’s foreign and security advisor. / Miroslav Lajčák via X

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By Albin Sybera in Prague February 1, 2026

Slovak and EU diplomat Miroslav Lajčák resigned as Prime Minister Robert Fico’s foreign and security advisor after the publication of the latest round of the so-called Epstein files. 

The files appear to show Lajčák discussing arranging women for himself with the sentenced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who died while in custody in 2019. In 2018, Lajčák was also reported to have offered to set up a meeting between Fico and Donald Trump’s then aide and far right ideologue Steve Bannon.

Lajčák wrote that he was offering his resignation to Fico “not because I would commit something criminal or unethical”, but so the PM “does not carry political costs for something, which is not connected to his decisions”.

“I realise I am used as a tool for a political attack on the prime minister today,” Lajčák wrote in a statement shared by Slovak press agency TASR and other Slovak media on January 31.

Fico accepted the resignation and used the opportunity to describe the public outrage over the extent of Lajčák’s involvement in the Epstein files as “an attack against me”. He also praised Lajčák as “a great diplomat” for offering his resignation.

Lajčák has been under increased pressure from the opposition in Bratislava since January 30, after the revelations that in October 2018, while serving as the Slovak minister of foreign affairs, he reportedly asked Epstein to participate in his “games”.

In a private conversation shared by the BBC, Lajčák added that “I would take the ‘MI’ girl” to which Epstein replied in a text message "who wouldn’t”, adding "you can have them both, I am not possessive. And their sisters".

The conversation later includes parts where Epstein asks Lajčák to ask Russian chief diplomat Sergei Lavrov to get him a t-shirt with Lavrov and Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, who died in 2017.

"You get the tee shirt. Then you get the girls," Epstein wrote to Lajčák, who agreed, and the two then exchanged more comments about women.

The latest round of more than 3mn Epstein files, released by the US Justice Department on January 30, also includes an email by Lajčák in which he asks Epstein for help to get a female film producer shortlisted for 2017 Oscars.

Lajčák was also reported to have offered to set up a meeting between Fico and Bannon after Fico was forced to step down as PM amid mass demonstrations sparked by the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak in 2018, Slovak online news outlet 360ka highlighted.   

“Btw, I have a person for him in Slovakia – my ex-PM Fico. He is out of government and looking for a new agenda. He would be happy to play Steve’s game. And he is good,” Lajčák reportedly texted Bannon. Lajčák denied to 360ka that he was setting up a meeting between Bannon and Fico.

Lajčák, who also served as president of the United Nations General Assembly in 2017-2018 and EU’s special representative to the Western Balkan region in 2020-2025, said he did not recall the communication “after such a time span”.

He stressed that “sexual services had never been offered to me, I never took part in any, I did not witness any” while he also “condemned the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein”, adding that “there would have been no communication if I knew the full scale of his deeds at the time”.

Michal Šimečka, chairman of the largest opposition party, centrist Progressive Slovakia, called on Lajčák to step down shortly after the release of the latest batch of the Epstein files, recalling Lajčák’s previous appearances in the files.

“As though it has not been enough, he [Lajčák] also says there [in the Epstein files] he loves Lavrov, and offers Robert Fico as suitable figure for goals of the American far right,” Šimečka wrote on his Facebook social media profile.

After Lajčák resigned, Šimečka also called on Fico to tell the public whether he had ever met Epstein or Bannon, noting that the “prime minister must clearly disprove, or bear responsibility for suspicions of influencing our domestic as well as foreign politics from similarly toxic persons”.     

Fico steered his Smer party deep into national conservative waters after 2018, then managed to return to power in 2023 on a radical nationalist and anti-Ukrainian ticket.

Fico and Trump have curried favour with each other ever since Trump’s return to the White House, and the Slovak strongman even visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence last month. Both of them have attacked the EU for its green policies, and have been criticised for being pro-Russian.

Hedonism’s Dance: How the Governing Classes Fell for Jeffrey Epstein

by Binoy Kampmark / February 2nd, 2026

How did he generate so much paperwork, traffic and comment? New York financier, mountebank, all purposes conman and dedicated rake that he was, Jeffrey Epstein continues to nag living figures from beyond the grave and place them in a tight spot of bother. His correspondence with these individuals runs into the millions, a figure suggesting his only work in life was being a pimp for pleasure and valet to the rotten.

The press vultures have been feeding most excitedly on the latest carrion released by the US Department of Justice on January 30 in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, comprising some 3.5 million pages with more than 180,000 images and 2,000 videos. “Today’s release marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people and compliance,” stated Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Leaving aside Blanche’s perky claim to thoroughbred compliance, those found corresponding or engaging with Epstein have had to qualify any engagement with the late financier as utterly innocent and certainly unconnected to the sexual trafficking arm he operated with the incarcerated Ghislaine Maxwell, herself the daughter of that mighty confidence trickster, serial litigant and press mogul, Robert Maxwell. What did not seem to bother Epstein’s vast network of correspondents, foolish confidants and dissolute playmates was a conviction for soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl in 2008. The sinner always knows best.

The list of the dishonourable is long and impossible to enumerate without expectorating. A handful of rummy specimens will suffice. We have the morally stunted tech brat billionaire Elon Musk discussing travel to Epstein’s properties for reasons of entertainment. “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”, he asks in one yearning inquiry. Musk continued to press the financier for information of any planned parties, claiming that he needed to “let loose”. “I’ve been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose.”

In 2009, despite Epstein serving a prison sentence at the time, the emails reveal the financial provision of a loan to Lord Peter Mandelson’s husband Reinaldo Avila da Silva regarding an osteopathy course. Mandelson, the Mr Fixit of Britain’s New Labour, had his tenure as UK ambassador to Washington terminated once the cloacal gatherings of his association with Epstein proved too hard to ignore.

We find Britain’s founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson, expressing his pleasure at meeting Epstein before adding “Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!” (The company hurriedly tried to dispel any needless assumptions of prurience: “harem” in this case was a reference to three adult members of the Epstein team.)

As is already known, royalty is not exempt from the turd lined trough. Recently deprived of his status as prince for scouring Epstein’s fleshpots with rutting glee, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, known as “The Duke” in the correspondence, is most accommodating to Epstein in emails sent in September 2010. “We could have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy,” suggests Epstein. The reply: “Delighted for you to come here to BP [Buckingham Palace]. Come with whomever and I’ll be here free from 1600ish.”

The matter gets even more squalid with Mountbatten-Windsor’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, calling Epstein the “brother” she “had always wished for”. (The provision of £15,000 to pay off her debts probably helped.) Showing how liberal his house arrest conditions were, Ferguson implies that the pair had lunch. An August 2009 exchange points to a meeting between Epstein and her daughters, Prince Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. “I have never been more touched by a friends [sic] kindness than your compliment to me in front of my girls.”

Showing that the royals of other countries also slid into the honeypot, Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit had extensive contact with Epstein between 2011 and 2014. From what can be gleaned from the correspondence, the financier had made quite an impression, being “soft hearted” and “such a sweetheart”. In one message dated November 1, 2012, the crown princess responds to a message of sheer gibberish discussing the protective facilities of nature and the problems of unnatural products. “You always make me smile,” she reflects. “Because you tickle my brain.”

The timing was most unfortunate for Mette-Marit, as her son, Marius Borg Høiby, is facing 38 criminal charges, including allegations of rape of four women including assault and drug offences. “I showed poor judgment and I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein,” she said in a statement, conjuring up contrition. “It is simply embarrassing.”

Figures from the world of sports are not exempt. “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments,” claimed New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, mentioned over 400 times in the files. “I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”

To keep Tisch in sporting company is chairman of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, Casey Wasserman. In his case, it was an enduring infatuation with Epstein’s collaborator in vice, Ghislaine. “I think of you all the time,” he says in a charged exchange in 2003. “So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” A statement from Wasserman on the matter expressed “regret” for correspondence “which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light.”

A generous assessment of these files would suggest the sense of sheer beguilement shown by Epstein’s correspondents, who seemed to be playing fools during much of their acquaintanceships. But the cosmic expansiveness of it all at the highest social and political level points to the ethically desiccated nature of the governing classes and their willingness to be depraved and blinded. Operating in the realm of power and influence, these figures have shown themselves to be dunces and cavorters before hedonism’s dance, utterly indifferent to the prospect that they would, eventually, be found out.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com. Read other articles by Binoy.