Kremlin opponents: “Don’t give up”
Kara-Mursa encourages Russians after Navalny’s death
February 22, 2024, 1:03 p.m
Kremlin opponent Vladimir Kara-Mursa is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in a penal colony in Siberia. After Navalny’s death, he now reminds his compatriots of his admonition to never give up. This is exactly what the Kremlin wants.
Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Mursa, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, encouraged his compatriots after the death of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. “Alexei said: Don’t give up. It’s impossible to give up,” Kara-Mursa explained from solitary confinement in a penal colony in Siberia. “If we give in to gloom and despair, that’s exactly what they want.”
Navalny died on Friday in a Russian penal colony in the Arctic. He was one of the most prominent critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Numerous Western politicians blamed the Russian leadership and Putin himself for the death of his prominent opponent. According to Kara-Mursa, giving up the fight for democracy after Navalny’s death is not an option.
“We have no right to do this, we owe it to our fallen comrades,” Kara-Mursa appealed to the people of Russia. The opposition politician, who suffers from serious health problems, expressed the hope of “making Russia a normal, free, European and democratic country.” Kara-Mursa was found guilty in a closed-door trial in April 2023 of spreading “false information” about the Russian army and having ties to an “undesirable organization.” At the end of January, according to his lawyer, he was placed in solitary confinement for four months.
The 25-year sentence is the longest known prison sentence for a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Cambridge graduate had campaigned for Western sanctions against the Kremlin for years. He was close to both Navalny and the opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in 2015. His family and lawyers say that Kara-Mursa suffers from the nerve disease polyneuropathy due to two poisoning attempts. Navalny’s death has fueled fears for the remaining Kremlin critics imprisoned in Russia.