An outspoken Putin critic was sentenced to 25 years in a penal colony by a Moscow court on Monday, after being found guilty of treason and other offenses he denies committing. It is the harshest sentence of its kind since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three, is an opposition politician who holds Russian and British passports. He has criticized for years President Vladimir Putin and has called on Western governments to impose sanctions on Russian and Russian individuals for purported human rights violations.
State prosecutors, who requested a 25-year term, accused Kara-Murza of treason, among other offenses, and of discrediting the Russian military after spreading “knowingly false information” about its conduct in what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
In a CNN interview broadcast hours before his arrest in April 2022, Kara-Murza, whose family home is in Washington, alleged that Russia was run by a “regime of murderers.” He had also used speeches in the United States and Europe to accuse Russia of bombing civilians in Ukraine, a charge Moscow has rejected.
After hearing his sentence of 25 years in a maximum-security penal colony, Kara-Murza, who was listening to proceedings inside a glass courtroom cage, said “Russia will be free,” a well-known opposition slogan.
He also smiled and—according to one of his lawyers, Maria Eismont—said he regarded the harsh sentence as recognition of his effective work as an opposition politician.
“When he heard he‘d got 25 years he said: ’My self-esteem has gone up, I understand that I did everything right. It’s the highest score I could have got for what I did, for what I believed in as a citizen and a patriot,'” she said.
In his final speech to the court last week, Kara-Murza compared his trial, which was held behind closed doors, to Josef Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s. He declined to ask the court to acquit him, saying he was proud of everything he had said.
Eismont said Kara-Murza’s team would appeal Monday’s verdict, which she said had been marred by legal violations.
Envoy Summoned
London—which in 2020 imposed sanctions on the judge presiding over the case for alleged human rights violations—said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest over what it said was a “politically-motivated” conviction.“Russia’s lack of commitment to protecting fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, is alarming,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement.
Outside the court in Moscow, British Ambassador Deborah Bronnert told reporters that Kara-Murza had been punished for bravely speaking out against Russia’s war in Ukraine and demanded he is immediately released.
U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy, speaking alongside her, said Kara-Murza’s conviction was an attempt to silence dissent.
“Criminalization of criticism of government action is a sign of weakness, not strength,” Tracy said.
The European Union on Monday condemned the sentencing, describing the Russian court ruling as “outrageous” and “politically motivated.”
“This is yet another demonstration by Russian authorities of the political misuse of judiciary, in order to pressure activists, human rights defenders, and any voices opposing Russia’s illegal aggression against Ukraine,” spokesperson Peter Stano said.
Shortly after sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year, Moscow introduced sweeping wartime censorship laws that have been used to silence dissenting voices.
“Discrediting” the army can currently be punished by up to five years in prison, while spreading deliberately false information about it can attract a 15-year jail sentence.
Casting the conflict in Ukraine as an existential struggle with the West, Russian pro-government politicians say unity across society is vital. They have described Russian citizens who question Moscow’s actions in Ukraine as part of a pro-Western fifth column trying to undermine the military campaign.
Twice, in 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza fell suddenly ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security services, on both occasions falling into a coma before eventually recovering.
Russian authorities denied involvement in those incidents. Kara-Murza’s lawyers say that as a result, he suffers from a serious nerve disorder called polyneuropathy.
Eismont, his lawyer, said his legal team was concerned about his health after an examination by a civilian hospital at the end of March found his condition was worsening.
Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the R.Politik analysis firm, said Kara-Murza’s lobbying for sanctions on Russia had long irritated the Kremlin and that his conviction was a warning.
“This is verdict aimed at sending a signal and probably not the last of its kind,” she wrote on the Telegram messaging app, which was founded by two Russians.
More Information on Kara-Murza
Kara-Murza is a historian, journalist, and opposition politician who has studied in England at Cambridge University. He was a close associate of Boris Nemtsov, a leading opposition figure who was assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015, and continued to speak out against President Vladimir Putin despite the mounting risks.
Kara-Murza was one of a small number of opposition politicians who remained active in Russia after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and publicly condemned the war in defiance of new censorship laws.
He was declared a “foreign agent” and accused of spreading false information about the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine in connection with a speech he had given the previous month in the Arizona House of Representatives, where he said Putin was “dropping cluster bombs on residential areas, mothers’ homes, hospitals, and schools.”
In July, Kara-Murza was additionally charged over his involvement with two foreign-based opposition forums that are labeled by the Russian state as “undesirable.” Finally, on Oct. 6, he was charged with treason over public speeches he had made in Lisbon, Helsinki, and Washington.
The trial was held behind closed doors but Kara-Murza’s wife and lawyer released a copy of a speech he delivered to the court.
