A Moscow court on Monday sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza, a harsh critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to 25 years in prison. File Photo by Clemens Bilan/EPA-EFE
April 17 (UPI) — A Moscow court on Monday sentenced one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s harshest critics in Russia, civil rights advocate Vladimir Kara-Murza, to 25 years in prison for condemning the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kara-Murza faced charges of treason, spreading fake news about the Russian army, and facilitating activities of an undesirable organization under a set of laws criminalizing criticism of the war in Ukraine implemented at the start of Russia’s invasion.
He was detained last year after he called Putin and the Russian government “a regime of murders” in an interview with CNN.
“Based on the results of the trial, for Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza, by partial addition of sentences, to be sentenced to a final sentence of imprisonment for a term of 25 years to be served in a strict regime correctional colony,” the court said in a statement.
Kara-Murza’s attorney, Vadim Prokhorov, told CNN that he planned to appeal the sentence. Prokhorov said on Facebook in March that Kara-Murza was being treated for polyneuropathy as a result of the two poison attacks.
In his final speech before the court, Kara-Murza lamented that he was not able to adequately warn of the danger posed by Putin’s government.
“I only blame myself for one thing,” he said. “I failed to convince enough of my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime poses for Russia and for the world.”
The sentence on Monday immediately drew condemnation from international governments and human rights groups.
Deborah Bronner, Britain’s ambassador to Russia called the verdict shocking and demanded the immediate release of Kara-Murza, who holds both Russian and British citizenship.
Amnesty International said in a statement that the crimes Kara-Murza was sentenced for “are in fact acts of outstanding bravery.”
“Vladimir Kara-Murza’s 25-year prison sentence is yet another chilling example of the systematic repression of civil society, which has broadened and accelerated under the Kremlin since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year,” Amnesty International’s Russia Director Natalia Zviagina said in a statement.
Last month, the United States sanctioned a judge, special investigator and expert witness involved in Kara-Murza’s arrests for human-rights abuses against him.