Time is ticking to save Vladimir Kara-Murza

A year ago today, the Putin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza was jailed for 25 years – the longest sentence handed down to a political prisoner in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union over 30 years ago. For the last year, Kara-Murza has been held in a prison in Siberia, often in solitary confinement, with only occasional visits from his lawyer, a couple of books and hostile prison guards watching over him.

Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022 and held for over a year in pre-trial detention after being accused of treason and spreading ‘fake information’ about the Russian army. The most alarming aspect of the charges levelled against him was that they related to speeches he gave abroad, including one to the Arizona House of Representatives the previous month when he condemned Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a ‘war of aggression’. 

He had been on the Kremlin’s radar for years thanks to his work in the US helping to implement the Magnitsky Act in 2012, which allowed for sanctions against individuals involved in corruption and human rights violations.