Putin’s opponent, sentenced to 25 years for high treason

The Municipal Court in Moscow sentenced this Monday a Russian opponent and a journalist, Vladimir Kara-Murzato 25 years in “strict regime” prison after being found guilty of three criminal offences, “high treason” the most serious of them. This is the longest prison sentence imposed on a critic of President Vladimir Putin in Russia so far. He will also not be able to engage in journalism for seven years and will have to pay a fine of 400,000 rubles (about 4,500 euros).

Kara-Murzá, 41, was tried under three articles of Russia’s Criminal Code: spreading “fraud” about the Russian military, activity in an organization declared “undesirable”, such as the Open Russia Foundation he created Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and high treason.

Kara-Murza was practically the only dissident who criticized the Kremlin’s policies, especially regarding the war in Ukraine and the ruthless repression launched against any trace of opposition, which he was not killed, imprisoned, or exiled. After two poisonings, he was arrested on April 11, 2022 for allegedly “resisting” the police in an alleged document control. Immediately after that, without being released from pre-trial detention, he was accused of discrediting the Russian armed forces with “pranks”, he made the same accusation against another of his colleagues, the politician Ilja Jašin.

But it soon became clear that the real reason for initiating criminal proceedings against Kara-Murz was his speech in the House of Representatives of Arizona, in the United States, on March 15, 2022. «We know exactly from historical facts how dictators end, always in the same way. Everyone sees what Putin’s regime is doing with Ukraine. Throwing bombs at civilian homes, hospitals and schools are war crimes,” he said in his address.

On April 22 of last year, the foreign agent was declared a “foreign agent”, on July 27 he was accused of cooperation with a “negligent organization”, and on October 6 he was accused of high treason. This last accusation, according to his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, arose from public interventions by the opposition in Lisbon, Helsinki and Washington, where he spoke about the persecution of Putin’s political opponents, manipulation of elections and censorship. ruling.

REN TV, without citing specific sources, reported that, according to the investigation, Kara-Murzá, after leaving the position of vice president of the Open Russia Foundation in 2021, advised “foreign intelligence services” for $30,000 a month.

Since last December, according to the Mediazona publication, Kara-Murzá has been banned from all outside contact, even with his family. In February, the university was closed penal cell. It was when he began to suffer from numbness in his legs due to circulation problems. Last month, the journalist’s lawyers warned that his health condition was seriously deteriorating, which is why he could not personally attend the trials, which were held via video conference from preventive detention, where, according to lawyer María Eismont, lost 22 kilograms in less than a year.