The Price For Speaking Up In Russia Today

On April 10, 2023, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political prisoner in Russia, delivered remarks at the closing session of his trial in Moscow. As he said, “I know the verdict. I knew it a year ago when I saw people in black uniforms and black masks running after my car in the rearview mirror. Such is the price for speaking up in Russia today.” Vladimir Kara-Murza is an opposition politician, historian, journalist and filmmaker, holding Russian and British passports. The father of three survived two assassination attempts and is now facing over 25 years in prison for publicly opposing Putin’s war in Ukraine. Vladimir Kara-Murza has emerged as one of Russia’s most respected democratic opposition leaders and voice of conscience. He has been a major advocate for the adoption of Magnitsky-style sanctions in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom to target those involved in human rights violations and corruption.

On April 11, 2022, Vladimir Kara-Murza was detained by Russian Security Services as he was about to enter his home following an international media interview. He was arrested on the false charges of not obeying the police. Subsequently, he was further charged with treason and spreading “deliberately false information” about the Russian army, among others. The treason charges relate to his public criticism of the Russian authorities in international forums. The false information charges relate to his speech before the Arizona House of Representatives in March 2022 where he criticized Putin’s war in Ukraine stating: “the whole world sees what Putin’s regime is doing to Ukraine: the cluster bombs on residential areas, the bombings of maternity wards and hospitals and schools.”

A year after his arrest, on April 10, 2023, Vladimir Kara-Murza addressed the court expressing his concerns about the Kafkaesque prosecution and persecution he experienced stating that: “I’ve been surprised by the extent to which my trial, in its secrecy and its contempt for legal norms, has surpassed even the ‘trials’ of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and ’70s. And that’s not even to mention the harshness of the sentence requested by the prosecution or the talk of ‘enemies of the state.’ In this respect, we’ve gone beyond the 1970s — all the way back to the 1930s.”

Vladimir Kara-Murza did not apologize for his exercise of freedom of speech, the very crime he is accused of perpetrating. On the contrary, he said that he only has one regret: “I blame myself for only one thing: that over the years of my political activity, I have not managed to convince enough of my compatriots and enough politicians in the democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and for the world. Today this is obvious to everyone, but at a terrible price — the price of war.” Nonetheless, Vladimir Kara-Murza expressed his hope for the future of Russia: “I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate. When black will be called black and white will be called white; when at the official level it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when a war will be called a war, and a usurper a usurper; and when those who kindled and unleashed this war, rather than those who tried to stop it, will be recognized as criminals.”

The trial of Vladimir Kara-Murza received worldwide criticism for failing to uphold international legal standards of the right to a fair trial and due process. In January 2022, the U.S. Department of State launched a campaign, “Without Just Cause”, calling for the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza and other political prisoners globally. In November 2022, Canada sanctioned Elena Anatolievna Lenskaya, Andrei Andreevich Zadachin, and Danila Yurievich Mikheev for their role in systematic human rights violations against opposition leaders, including Vladimir Kara-Murza. On March 3, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned these three individuals as well. Governments and human rights organizations around the world have called for the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza. As Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson, indicated, “His arbitrary detention is another instance of the Kremlin manipulating Russia’s legal system to silence dissent. Kara-Murza, Alexei Navalny, and so many others in Russia who are unjustly imprisoned are not forgotten, and we will continue to promote accountability for perpetrators of these abuses on the international stage.”

The international community must stand united to speak up and speak out for Vladimir Kara-Murza and others who shine a light on the atrocities perpetrated by Putin. The imprisonment of Vladimir Kara-Murza is emblematic of the crimes perpetrated by Putin’s regime in Russia, Ukraine and other places. Silence will only enable the perpetrator to continue.