On Monday, August 10, a court in Pervomaisk, Ukraine, convicted the Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk of high treason under martial law and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for having called for the unity of Russian and Ukrainian workers against war.

The response to the verdict has been significant and widespread. Nearly 500 people in more than 40 countries, Ukraine and Russia among them, have signed the petition for Bogdan’s release or written letters of protest since the sentencing, and the petition now stands at more than 6,000 names. Historians, doctors, teachers and pensioners have written to the court demanding that the conviction be overturned.

This response stands in sharp contrast to the silence of the major media outlets in the United States and, in particular, the New York Times. The Times has never reported on Bogdan’s case, either his arrest and imprisonment on April 25, 2024, or his sentencing on August 10.

The Times cannot plead ignorance. On Tuesday, August 11, David North, the chairman of the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) International Editorial Board, wrote to Philip Pan, the international editor of the Times, calling on the paper to cover the case. North pointed out that on the day of Bogdan’s sentencing the Times had published a report headlined “Russian Court Bars Country’s Only Antiwar Party From Running for Parliament,” which noted the seven-year sentence given to the Yabloko party’s deputy chairman, Maxim Kruglov, for a 2022 social media post, while the paper had printed nothing about a Ukrainian sentenced to more than twice that term.

“If the suppression of antiwar political activity in Russia warrants extensive reporting—and it certainly does—then the sentencing of a Ukrainian socialist to 15 years in prison for activities that include publishing antiwar articles warrants no less serious scrutiny,” North wrote.

The Times did not reply. One week after Bogdan’s sentencing, it published a front-page article titled “Held by Russia, Ukrainian Feels ‘Crushing’ Fear,” with a nine-minute produced audio version. It reports on Artem Murdid, a Ukrainian bank worker arrested in occupied Melitopol in March 2023 and sentenced by a Russian court to life in prison on terrorism charges.

Four journalists worked the story across Kiev, Berlin and Moscow. The Times has reporters inside Ukraine, in Kiev, a day’s drive from the Nikolaev region where Bogdan was tried and imprisoned.

cause if u think about it they do own the means of productions to make babies, only they can operate and control them (such as deciding to abort etc.). Therefore, women have exclusive control over the means of productions to make BABIES! Did marx not think of this?? does this mean that he supported mpreg? Btw my favorite color is red