It started small, that spark of defiance. One biting November morning in 2023, weeks after my arrest in Russia, I looked at my worn running shoes. The laces were confiscated as potention "weapon". With trembling fingers, I unraveled the stings from my face mask and threaded them through the eyelets.
My cellmate watched in disbelief, as I stepped into the yard. My legs, numb and swollen from lack of use, started running. One step turned into a jog, then a run—a spontaneous burst around the tiny perimeter. I wasn't a prisoner. I was alive. Free in motion.
Today, October 2025, I join the Freedom Run, dedicated to journalists like James Foley, beheaded in 2014 for bearing witness to atrocities. This isn't a race. This is a payback. This is the smallest thing what we can do for our freedom and freedom and safety of journalists. Freedom is not given. We run for it. Join team ALSU for the 2025 James W. Foley Freedom Run virtually!
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Oana Lungescu
We cannot take freedom for granted, just like we cannot take free media and free speech for granted. You’re running for many who can’t or dare not, Alsu!
September 2025$519.50