According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a well-known human rights activist and Kremlin skeptic, has been given a 25-year prison term for publicly criticizing Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
An interview with CNN in which Kara-Murza condemned the “regime of murderers” under Russian President Vladimir Putin led to his initial detention one year ago.
Treason, disseminating untrue information about the Russian army, and aiding the actions of an undesirable group were among the crimes for which he was on trial. After its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Russia made criticizing the military illegal. According to the court, he would spend his prison time “in a strict regime correctional colony.”
Kara-Murza will appeal the sentence, his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, told CNN on Monday.
The activist’s detention has been decried by international human rights organizations and prompted sanctions by the Biden administration last month.
Monday’s sentencing draws further attention on Putin’s brutal crackdown against freedom of expression, which has intensified since he invaded Ukraine last February.
Kara-Murza has long been critical of Putin and has survived two poisonings.
In March 2022, he spoke before the Arizona House of Representatives against the war, and in an interview with CNN in April 2022, the political dissident condemned Putin’s regime for targeting critics. He was arrested shortly afterwards for “failing to obey the orders of law enforcement,” according to his wife.
The sentencing will likely draw further international condemnation of Putin. Last week, Hugh Williamson, the Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that the dissident was facing prison time for “no more than raising his voice and elevating the voices of others in Russia who disagree with the Kremlin, its war in Ukraine, and its escalating repression within Russia.”
The British government criticized what it called the “politically motivated” sentencing. “Vladimir Kara-Murza bravely denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for what it was – a blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter. Russia’s lack of commitment to protecting fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, is alarming,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Monday.
The charge of treason in Russia was broadened in 2012 to include consultations or any other assistance to a foreign state or international or foreign organizations. It was used against Kara-Murza over his condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In March, the United States imposed sanctions on a number of Russian individuals connected to what the Treasury Department called Kara-Murza’s “arbitrary detention” and called for his “immediate and unconditional release.”
In the final hearing of his trial last week, Kara-Murza said he was “proud” of his political views.
“I’m in jail for my political views; for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, for many years of struggle against Putin’s dictatorship, for facilitating the adoption of personal international sanctions under the Magnitsky Act against human rights violators. Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it,” Kara-Murza said.
The original Magnitsky Act, signed into law in December 2012, blocks entry into the US and freezes the assets of certain Russian government officials and businessmen accused of human rights violations. The law was subsequently expanded to give global scope to the Russia-focused legislation.
Kara-Murza said he blamed himself for not being able to convince enough of his “compatriots” and politicians of democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and the world.
He also expressed that he hoped “that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate.”
“Even today, even in the darkness surrounding us, even sitting in this cage, I love my country and believe in our people,” he added. “I believe that we can walk this path.”