Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic, has been jailed for 25 years on charges including treason over criticism of Russia’s offensive against its neighbour Ukraine. The 41-year-old’s high-profile trial is the latest in a string of cases targeting those critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. As per AFP, the crackdown has worsened since Putin ordered Russian troops to begin a military offensive 14 months back.
Charges against Kara-Murza include treason, spreading “false” information about the Russian army, and affiliation with an “undesirable organisation.”
Following a closed-door trial, he has been found guilty of all charges. The Kremlin critic has been sentenced to 25 years in a strict regime penal colony.
Here’s all you need to know about Vladimir Kara-Murza:
Who is Vladimir Kara-Murza?
He is a historian, a journalist and an opposition politician. The Kremlin critic is a dual citizen and holds Russian and British passports.
Kara-Murza was a close associate of Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Russian President Putin, who was assassinated on February 27, 2015.
Nemtsov was a stringent critic of the Putin government, which he viewed as an increasingly authoritarian, undemocratic regime. He suffered four bullets, which were reportedly shot from the back. In the weeks before his death, he had even expressed a fear that Putin will have him killed.
Vladimir Kara-Murza is also a known close associate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch turned Putin critic.
Did Kara-Murza face any “assassination attempts”?
In 2015 and then again in 2017, the Kremlin critic suddenly fell ill. Both times, his condition worsened to the point of him slipping into a coma. As per the Guardian, he nearly died from kidney failure in the first attempt on his life.
Kara-Murza alleges that he was poisoned by the Russian security services. However, Russian authorities deny any involvement in the incidents.
Reuters reports that even today Kara-Murza is suffering the effects of the alleged poisonings. As per his lawyers, the Kremlin critic is plagued by a nerve condition called polyneuropathy, which was triggered due to the said assassination attempts.
Did he flee Russia after these “attempts” on his life?
AFP reports that almost all of Putin’s best-known political opponents and critics have either fled the country or, like another prominent Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, are in jail; a fate that Kara-Murza now faces.
He is one of the small numbers of Putin’s opposition politicians who remained active in Russia, even after the nation invaded its neighbour country and the resulting Ukraine war.
Kara-Murza’s criticism of Putin and the Ukraine war
The politician has been a vocal critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the get-go. He even launched an anti-war committee with fellow leading Russian opposition figures.
Kara-Murza infamously described the Kremlin as a “regime of murderers.”
In April 2022, appearing on CNN, he said: “I have absolutely no doubt that the Putin regime will end over this war in Ukraine, doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen tomorrow. The two main questions are time and price, and by price, I do not mean monetary – I mean the price of human blood and human lives and it has already been horrendous, but the Putin regime will end over this and there will be a democratic Russia after Putin.”
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When was he arrested? What charges were imposed against him?
Kara-Murza was arrested on April 11, 2022, on charges of disobeying police orders and faced up to 15 days in jail or a small fine. However, the arrest came hours after he referred to Putin’s government as “a regime of murderers.”
Subsequently, on April 22, 2022, he was charged by a Russian court for spreading “false” information about the Russian troops. The charges were reportedly imposed for his March 15 speech to the Arizona House of Representatives, in which he denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was declared a “foreign agent” for his statement.
In July, new charges of cooperating with an “undesirable” foreign NGO were added, which comes with up to six years in prison. In October, for public speeches he made in Lisbon, Helsinki and Washington, he was charged with treason, a crime that carries up to 20 years in prison.
How did the Kremlin critic respond to the charges levied against him?
As per a copy of the speech Kara-Murza delivered to the court where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the Kremlin critic said he has done nothing wrong and that he was “proud” of his words.
“I subscribe to every word that I have said, that I am incriminated for today,” he said as per comments published by veteran journalist Alexei Venediktov.
“Not only do I not repent for any of it — I am proud of it,” he added.
“Criminals are supposed to repent of what they have done. I, on the other hand, am in prison for my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate,” said Kara-Murza, who has described the entire case against him as being based on “political vengeance” and compared the proceedings to Josef Stalin’s show trials of the 1930s.
(With inputs from agencies)
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