Is The Child Kidnapping Charge Against Putin The Biggest Lie Yet?

The unique source for the charge is the State Department-funded Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, whose chief Nathaniel Raymond claimed on national television that the children’s camps set up inside Russia for Donbas youth constituted a “hostage situation”. Pundits and politicians from Fareed Zakaria to Senator Lindsey Graham immediately equated Russia’s move to Nazi behavior in World War II.

Amazingly, none of the shrieking accusers have even attempted to visit the camps! Yale HRL flatly asserts that it “does not conduct ground-level investigations”, relying instead entirely on Maxar satellite data, Telegram postings, etc—zero actual field research.

In sharp contrast, Grayzone reporter Jeremy Loffredo did indeed get unfettered access one such installation, the “Donbas Express” just outside Moscow. Notably, this was in November 2022, long before anyone anticipated the subsequent indictment. He found “a hotel full of happy campers receiving free classical music lessons in their native Russian language from first-class instructors”. The youth expressed gratitude for finding refuge from Kiev’s years-long campaign of bombarding Donbas. Overwhelmingly, they wanted to stay.

Even more astounding—and markedly contradicting Mr. Raymond’s incendiary televised remarks—whole sections of the HRL report actually corroborate the Grayzone account! It acknowledges that there are “free recreational programs for disadvantaged youth”; and that the intent is “to protect children from ongoing fighting” and “ensure that they have nutritious food of the sort unavailable where they live”. Furthermore, the HRL paper admits that nearly all the campers returned home in a timely manner after attending with the consent of their parents. It even states, however begrudgingly, that no documentation of child mistreatment exists.   

And when Moscow challenged its detractors to provide a single name of a kidnap victim, deafening silence was the response.

Asked if the killing of some 500,000 Iraqi children was worth it to topple Saddam Hussein, ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright responded with a blunt-as-a-crowbar “yes”. Barely an eyebrow was raised in the Western media. But teaching besieged Donbas kids classical music?! Now, there’s a truly Hitlerian crime against humanity!