Jacobin Radio: Russia’s Anti-War Political Prisoners w/ Simon Pirani

At the recent Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago, Suzi moderated a panel about political prisoners in Russia and brings it now to Jacobin Radio.

We hear from Ksenia Kagarlitskaya, founder of the Freedom Zone campaign that organizes festivals around the world in support of political prisoners and their families. She plays a recorded message from her father, imprisoned Marxist Boris Kagarlitsky in Penal Colony No. 4. Historian Simon Pirani and exiled scholar Ilya Budraitskis draw attention to the silenced left prisoners of conscience resisting war — both from inside Russia’s prison system and in exile. This is not just about Russia. As authoritarianism surges globally, the criminalization of dissent follows a familiar script.

The day before this panel on July 3, eleven political prisoners, including Kagarlitsky, issued an open letter to world leaders. They called for the mass release of Russian political prisoners and Ukrainian civilian hostages — an 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!

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.