Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian opposition activist who was imprisoned six months ago for criticizing Vladimir Putin’s campaign in Ukraine, has been charged with high treason, his attorney said Thursday.
Kara-Murza, a dissident lawmaker who has endured two suspected poisoning attempts, was arrested in April near his home and sentenced to 15 days in jail for violating a police order. He was arrested just a few hours after CNN aired an interview in which he referred to Putin’s government as a “murderous regime” and predicted that the conflict in Ukraine would lead to the Russian strongman’s collapse.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian journalist and activist, attends a convention of Russia’s prominent rights organisation Memorial on October 27, 2021 in Moscow. ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty
Kara-Murza has been charged with high treason, his lawyer Vadym Prokhorov told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency on Thursday “after criticizing the Russian government on three separate occasions at public gatherings in Lisbon, Helsinki, and Washington. These speeches did not constitute a threat (to Russia); rather, they constituted public, open criticism.”
Prokhorov mocked his client’s April arrest, citing police statements stating Kara-Murza “acted inappropriately in the presence of police officers, altered the trajectory of his movement, sped up when asked to slow down, and attempted to conceal himself when asked to stop.”
Prokhorov refuted the charges, stating that police officers “were already waiting in the house’s yard in a police bus that had been transported there in advance, and [Kara-Murza] was quickly apprehended upon exiting the automobile.”
Along with other opposition politicians, Kara-Murza has been a vociferous opponent of the war in Ukraine and formed an anti-war organization.
“”I have no doubt whatsoever that the Putin government will collapse as a result of this war in Ukraine,” he told CNN in April, adding, “but it doesn’t imply it will happen tomorrow. The two primary concerns are time and cost. And by price, I do not mean monetary; I mean the price of human blood and human lives, and it has already been horrifying; but, the Putin dictatorship will fall because of this, and Putin will be succeeded by a democratic Russia.”
History of suspected poisonings involving Vladimir Putin (2017) | 60 Minutes Archive 13:31
Kara-Murza, a longtime adversary of Putin, died on two different occasions in Moscow, in 2015 and 2017, from symptoms compatible with poisoning. The activist himself described the occurrences as Kremlin retaliation for his lobbying efforts to impose sanctions on Russian officials in the United States and Europe.
After the initial occurrence, he developed kidney failure and barely survived. Kara-relatives Murza’s sneaked samples out of Russia and gave them to the FBI, which examined the case as “intentional poisoning.”
“In the past seven years, Russian authorities have twice attempted to murder [Kara-Murza] for pursuing personal penalties against criminals and murderers, and now they want to throw him in jail for referring to their filthy and brutal conflict as a conflict. I demand his freed immediately!” Yevgeniya, the wife of Kara-Murza, stated in an April tweet.
Boris Nemtsov, a renowned politician and opposition leader, was shot and assassinated in the vicinity of the Kremlin in 2015.
Vladimir Kara-Murza is recovering from a suspected poisoning in the hospital.
Despite the alleged poisonings and his detention in the spring, Kara-Murza has continued to return to Moscow and speak out, surprising many of his followers.
CNN quoted him as saying, “Look, I am a Russian politician, I must be in Russia since it is my own country.” The greatest present we could give the Kremlin would be to give up and flee.