EA Moscow court has sentenced opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Mursa to 25 years in a penal colony. The judge ruled on Monday that Kara-Mursa was guilty of high treason and other offences. The court followed the request of the public prosecutor, who had asked for 25 years in prison. The 41-year-old former journalist with Russian and British passports is one of the Kremlin’s harshest critics. He was arrested in April 2022 after criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In an interview broadcast by US news channel CNN a few hours before his arrest, he said that Russia was ruled by “a regime of murderers”.
In his final speech at the trial, Kara-Mursa compared his trial to one of Joseph Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s. He declined to ask the court for an acquittal. He stands by everything he said and is proud of it. “Criminals should atone for their crimes. I, on the other hand, am in prison because of my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness will lift over our country,” he said.
The British ambassador was shocked after the verdict. She said this was a verdict “for a courageous speech against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
For years, Kara-Mursa has been a politician in opposition to President Vladimir Putin. He lobbied foreign governments and institutions to impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for alleged human rights violations. In 2015 and 2017 he collapsed with symptoms of poisoning and barely survived. Kara-Mursa and his supporters say he was the victim of attacks. The Russian authorities deny any involvement in the alleged attacks. His three children and his wife have lived in the USA for years.