Ukraine war and Vladimir Putin critic jailed for 25 years
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a critic of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, has been sentenced to 25 years for charges related to his criticism of the war in Ukraine. He has denied all charges.
He was found guilty of treason, spreading “false” information about the Russian army, and being affiliated with an “undesirable organisation”.
Kara-Murza holds both Russian and British citizenship and is a former journalist and politician. He is the latest in a series of Putin opponents to have been arrested or forced to flee Russia.
Kara-Murza played a key role in persuading Western governments to sanction Russian officials for human rights abuses and corruption. He was arrested a year ago in Moscow, initially for disobeying a police officer. His case was partly based on a speech he made in the US last year, where he accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine with cluster bombs in residential areas and “the bombing of maternity hospitals and schools”. Those claims have been independently documented but deemed false by Russian investigators.
His sentence has been widely condemned, with the British government summoning its Russian ambassador. The campaign group Human Rights Watch has described the verdict as a “travesty of justice”.