Court Sentence Russian Opposition Activist For 25 Years

As part of the Kremlin’s ruthless crackdown on opponents of the invasion, a Russian court has found a prominent opposition leader guilty of treason for publicly criticizing Moscow’s war in Ukraine and sentenced the dual Russian-British citizen to 25 years in prison.

Political activist and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., who twice survived poisonings he claimed were carried out by Russian authorities, has rejected the accusations against him as retaliation for defying President Vladimir Putin. He has compared the proceedings to the show trials conducted by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Governments in the West and human rights organizations criticized the ruling and called for his release. The 41-year-old has been classified as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Charges against Kara-Murza, who has been imprisoned since his arrest a year ago, are related to statements he made in various countries as well as to the Arizona House of Representatives in March 2022 in which he condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Days after the invasion, Russia passed a law making it illegal to disseminate “false information” regarding its armed forces. The law has been utilized by the authorities to prevent criticism of what the Kremlin refers to as its “special military operation”.

Since the Soviet era, there has never been such a broad campaign of repression, virtually criminalizing any public criticism of the war and independent reporting on it.

A Russian court found a father guilty last month and gave him a two-year prison term for posting on social media that was critical of the war. His 13-year-old daughter was placed in an orphanage after she created a sketch opposing the war at school.

A few days later, Russian security forces detained American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on suspicion of spying.

Kara-Murza said in a statement after his trial that he was imprisoned for his “many years of struggle against Putin’s dictatorship,” his condemnation of the conflict in Ukraine, and his protracted attempts to support Western sanctions against Russian officials who violated human rights.

“I know that the day will come when the darkness engulfing our country will dissipate,” the father of three told the court in remarks that were posted on his Twitter account.

“This day will come as inevitably as spring comes to replace even the frostiest winter.”

Kara-Murza reacted calmly as the judge read the verdict and sentence in a quick monotone.

His lawyer, Maria Eismont, later quoted him as telling her: “My self-esteem has risen: I realized that I have done everything right. Twenty-five years is the highest appraisal that I could get for doing what I did and what I believed in, as a citizen, a patriot, and a politician.”

“A quarter of a century is an ‘A+’ for your courage, consistency, and honesty in your years-long work. I am infinitely proud of you, my love, and I’m always by your side,” Kara-Murza’s wife, Evgenia, who lives in the US with their children, tweeted after the verdict.

Kara-Murza was a close friend of Boris Nemtsov, a passionate opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was murdered in 2015 close to the Kremlin. Kara-Murza and Mr. Nemtsov worked to get the Magnitsky Act passed in the US in 2011–2012.

Congress passed the law in 2012 in response to Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death in custody after he revealed a tax fraud scheme. Washington has been able to apply sanctions on Russians who are thought to be human rights violators according to the statute.

Sergei Podoprigorov, the judge in Kara-Murza’s case, was one of those punished under the Magnitsky Act after directing Mr. Magnitsky’s detention in 2008.

According to Kara-Murza’s attorney, Vadim Prokhorov, Mr. Podoprigorov had asked US officials to waive the sanctions against him in 2018. Mr. Prokhorov repeatedly requested that Mr. Podoprigorov remove himself from the Kara-Murza trial, but to no avail, according to Russian media.

Kara-Murza escaped poisonings that he attributed to the Kremlin in 2015 and 2017. Officials from Russia have denied liability. Ilya Yashin, another well-known opponent, was given an eight-and-a-half-year prison term late last year on grounds of defaming the military.

Amnesty International criticized Kara-Murza’s sentencing, calling it “yet another chilling example of the systematic repression of civil society, which has broadened and accelerated under the Kremlin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year”.

“The so-called ‘crimes’ Vladimir Kara-Murza was tried for – speaking out against the invasion and advocacy on behalf of victims of human rights violations – are acts of outstanding bravery,” Amnesty’s Russia director Natalia Zviagina said in a statement.

“This verdict wrongly conflates human rights activism with ‘high treason’ and is reminiscent of Stalin-era repression.”