A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has marked the second anniversary of Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza’s imprisonment, calling for his immediate release.
Kara Murza lives in solitary confinement in a high-security prison in Siberia. sentenced to 25 years in prison He was indicted on treason and other related charges in April last year as Russian authorities continued their crackdown on dissent in the country.
Moscow City Court says Kara Murza is guilty of ‘high treason’” In 2022, he was charged with “intentionally disseminating false information about the Russian military” after giving a speech to the Arizona House of Representatives criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian opposition leader and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving a 25-year sentence for treason and other crimes for criticizing the attack on Ukraine, will be held at a hearing in his lawsuit against the Ukrainian government’s inaction. appeared in court via video link from prison. February 22, 2024, Russian Investigative Committee into his poisoning in Moscow. (Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images)
His sentence is The longest term is taken over. political prisoners after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Roger Wicker, R-Mich., co-led a bipartisan group of 80 senators to urge the Biden administration that Russian dissidents are “illegally and He asked them to declare that he was being unfairly detained.
Fox News Digital obtained a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Cardin and other members of Congress requesting Kara-Murza’s release and the aforementioned designation.
“There is little time left to end the ongoing unlawful detention of Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, a permanent resident of the United States,” the letter said. “Mr Kara-Murza’s family has serious concerns that he may not live much longer. His situation has become even more critical following the incident.” Murder of Alexei Navalny. Kara Murza is the most famous imprisoned democracy activist still alive in Russia. ”
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) (left), Sen. Chris Coons (D), and James listen to Evgenia Kara-Murza, human rights activist and wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza, talk about her husband.・Roscoe. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
State Department referred Fox News Digital spokesperson Matthew Miller’s statement Speaking on the two-year anniversary of Kara Murza’s imprisonment, he did not provide details when asked about efforts to grant the Russian opposition leader the designation sought by U.S. lawmakers.
“The State Department continually reviews the circumstances surrounding the detention of Americans abroad, including in Russia, to determine whether they are unreasonable. “We will conduct a legal and factual review. Each situation will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” the spokesperson said.
Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Fox News/Getty Images)
Grigory Vaipan, a Russian human rights lawyer and democracy fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told Fox News Digital that Kara-Murza is now Russia’s “number one prisoner.”
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“He is definitely number one on President Putin’s list of political prisoners and his life is certain, as Navalny’s murder shows the world that the Putin regime is prepared to kill political prisoners in Russia. are at risk,” Vaipan said.
He Kara Murza added: He was reportedly poisoned twice. He was arrested by Russian state agents in 2015 and 2017, effectively making him a “Putin death row prisoner.”
Flowers and photos are left in memory of Russian politician Alexi Navalny near the Russian Embassy in London on Sunday, February 18, 2024. Navalny has campaigned against corruption in Russia and, as a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, staged large-scale anti-Kremlin protests. His fiercest enemy died on February 16, 2024 in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
“His health is deteriorating. He has not yet fully recovered from the effects of these two poisonings. Now, not only is he in prison, he is in solitary confinement essentially indefinitely. He is sometimes confined to a small cell for months on end, and his health is deteriorating due to the effects of these two addictions,” Vaipan explained. “This is why it is no exaggeration to say that he is now effectively on President Putin’s death row.”
Approximately 700 people participate in the memorial of Russia’s oldest human rights organization Russian political prisoner today.
Political prisoners are further isolated and punished to prevent them from continuing to speak out against Russian authorities. They may be kept in solitary confinement and denied food, mail, phone calls to relatives, and visits from family members.
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“Russian prison authorities have a wide variety of tools available to them. Such measures are becoming increasingly common, especially since the beginning of a full-scale Russian invasion.” [of] “More people in Ukraine are being imprisoned for exercising their right to free speech, and more and more people are facing further harassment and pressure while in prison,” Vaipan told Fox News Digital. I’m seeing it,” he said.
Kara-Murza’s wife Evgenia He reflected on the killings of other Russian dissident figures at the hands of Putin’s regime, including Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov.
”[They] “We are targeting the bravest and most principled Russians who are risking not only their freedom but their lives to show that Russia can be different,” she said at an event at the Reichstag. .
On Tuesday, April 9, 2024, Evgenia Kara-Murza, human rights activist and wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza, speaks at an event calling for the immediate release of her husband, a Russian opposition leader and journalist who is imprisoned by the Russian government. hear. , on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
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“As my husband said, and I quote, ‘When people in the free world think and talk about Russia today, we remember not only the war criminals sitting in the Kremlin, but also the war criminals standing. I hope they do. We are Russians too, so it’s up to them.”
