Putin critic Kara-Murza jailed in Russia treason case for 25 years

Opposition politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, 41, often spoke out against Putin and lobbied West to impose sanctions on nation and individuals

Father of three, who has Russian and UK passports, alleged Russia run by ‘regime of murderers’ and accused Moscow of bombing civilian targets in Ukraine

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Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, 41, listens from a glassed box for defendants during his sentencing in a Moscow court on Monday. Photo: via AFP

Published: 5:45pm, 17 Apr 2023

Outspoken Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza was jailed for a quarter of a century by a Moscow court on Monday, the harshest sentence of its kind since Russia invaded Ukraine, after it found him guilty of treason and other offences he denied.

Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three and an opposition politician and journalist who holds Russian and British passports, spent years speaking out against President Vladimir Putin and lobbied Western governments to impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for purported human rights violations.

State prosecutors, who had requested the court jail him for 25 years, had accused him of treason and of discrediting the Russian military after he criticised what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

In a CNN interview broadcast hours before he was arrested, Kara-Murza had alleged that Russia was being run by a “regime of murderers”. He had also used speeches in the United States and across Europe to accuse Moscow of bombing civilian targets in Ukraine, a charge it has rejected.

Kara-Murza has been behind bars since his arrest a year ago. In his final speech to the court last week, he compared his own trial, which was held behind closed doors, to Josef Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s and had declined to ask the court to acquit him, saying he stood by and was proud of everything he had said.

“Criminals are supposed to repent of what they have done. I, on the other hand, am in prison for my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate,” he said.

His words were posted on social networks and Russian opposition media. He also said “our society will open its eyes and shudder when it realises what terrible crimes were committed in its name”.