Ukraine Detains Socialist Writer, Bans World Socialist Web Site

At least Ukraine doesn’t discriminate, when it comes to detaining writers.

On April 25, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained twenty-five-year-old socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk on a charge of treason. Just over a month later, while Syrotiuk remained in detention in the city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine banned one of the outlets with which he’s connected, the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), which has faced suppression in the United States in the past, as noted on this site.

In January, Chilean-American writer Gonzalo Lira died in custody after a lengthy detention. Most American media condemned Lira even in death, with headlines like “Kremlin Shill Dies in Ukraine” (The Daily Beast), “Pro-Putin American Expat Dies in Ukrainian Jail” (Newsweek), and “Anti-Ukraine Chorus Seeks to Exploit an American’s Death” (Substack’s own The Bulwark). The SBU also sought to have The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté removed from Twitter, and several organizations have published lists of Ukrainian media “enemies,” with a new one called Texty.Org.UA listing everyone from Noam Chomsky to Carlson as well as ice cream magnate Ben Cohen, Chris Hedges, CODEPINK and others (including me) as spreaders of Russian propaganda. The WSWS doesn’t appear, but someone invested real money and time in an elaborate Western-style media enemies list with snazzy graphics:

The SBU detained Syrotiuk, who leads an organization called the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists, in an April raid of his party’s offices in his home city of Pervomais’k, in southern Ukraine. The Ukrainian intel agency somewhat absurdly claims to have found a Russian army greatcoat, a backpack marked with a “Z” (ostensibly representing Russian chauvinism), and a gas mask in the party meeting hall, in close proximity to a portrait of Lev Trotsky.

Since his arrest, Syrotiuk has been denied contact with his affiliates at the WSWS. He has also been unable to obtain proper legal counsel or the blood pressure medication on which he relies, according to the WSWS. At one point, Syrotiuk was able to find a lawyer in Kyiv. A week later, his lawyers said that he would not be able to take the case, citing the danger of representing him.

Socialist or communist figures in both Ukraine and Russia have attracted particular official attention since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, perhaps because of the history of successful agitation in the region. Syrotiuk’s Young Guard, a Trotskyist group operating throughout the former Soviet Union, advocates for an end to the war and cooperation between the Russian and Ukrainian working classes, while opposing the governments of both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. A month before war broke out, in January of 2022, they made contact with the World Socialist Web Site, another Trotskyite organization that opposes “all governments” and “the defense of the national state,” not just in Ukraine but everywhere.

“The irony of this is, is that we could see our members who are active in Russia arrested by the Putin government,” says David North, chair of the Socialist Equality Party, which publishes the WSWS. North’s group blames “provocative and aggressive” policies of the U.S. and NATO for starting the conflict, but adds: “Nevertheless, we opposed Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.”

According to North, part of Syrotiuk’s offense is carrying out propaganda on behalf of a Russian state organ, by which they somehow mean the World Socialist Web Site, a consistent critic of Putin’s. Syrotiuk’s charging papers list North as a “leader of a Russian-controlled propaganda agency.” Ironically, North describes the WSWS as “bitter enemies of the Putin government” and says that the site is “very opposed to this view of Putin as some sort of great leader of a new multipolar movement.”  

That the Zelensky government would take a hard line with a domestic war critic should be unsurprising to anybody who follows speech issues, but the broader question about Syrotiuk’s imprisonment is whether Ukraine’s American partners knew of or approved his detention. North claims Syrotiuk’s charging papers list information to which only he would be privy. After filing a FOIA request on his own behalf, he adds he was told the government could neither confirm nor deny that it was collecting information on his activities. The WSWS this week sent an open letter to the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Oksana Makarova, but has not received a response.

It should be noted that similar jailings are taking place in Russia, with some hitting close to home. This past December, Russians arrested Boris Kagarlitsky, a longtime Moscow Times contributor who was the main writer on the “Russian Dissent” Substack sponsored by this site. Boris, a socialist himself but not connected in any way to the WSWS, was denounced as an “inoagent” (a foreign agent) and given a five year sentence, which Russian authorities called “excessively lenient.” The case is one of the more absurd in the history of speech offenses. Kagarlitsky was initially accused of making light of a 2022 explosion on the Krimsky Bridge linking Russia to Crimea, thanks to a video titled “Explosive Congratulations to the Cat Mostik,” sarcastically putting a cat in the frame for the blast. The Russian news agency TASS noted Kagarlitsky’s “negative attitude toward authorities,” and Boris remains in prison. We’re trying to get more information about his status.

For all its horror, the Kagarlitsky case has attracted some coverage from outlets like the BBC and organizations like Amnesty International. Detained Ukrainian dissidents like Syrotiuk have received zero attention in the U.S. Incidentally, the Twitter Files list of social media accounts denounced by the SBU to the FBI, on which Aaron Maté’s name was found, contained a number of socialist or communist organizations, suggesting a broad interest in both old and new left-leaning groups.

Syrotiuk is the kind of figure who’s rarely defended by American authorities, making his prospects for release poor, absent attention from international organizations. Will left-leaning outlets apart from the WSWS demand answers about our government’s role in this episode?