Russian historian and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza will receive the Vaclav Havel Prize for Human Rights this year. This was announced by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 10 October. The opponent, imprisoned for six months in a Russian prison, is the subject of several procedures.

Kara-Murza was in Moscow when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. The Russian historian and journalist gave an interview to the American channel CNN, in which he described Russia’s actions as aggression and its government as a murderous regime. A few hours later, he was arrested and sentenced to 15 days in prison for “disobeying the police”.

A few days later, a criminal case was opened against Kara-Murza for spreading alleged “lies” about the Russian military and the “special military operation”, as the Kremlin calls the war against Ukraine. The reason was his March 15 speech to the Arizona State House of Representatives. Kara-Murza faces five to ten years in prison in this case. Another criminal case was opened at the end of July against Kara-Murza, for the activities of an “undesirable organization”. In this case, he risks up to four years in prison. Eventually, Kara-Murza was charged on October 6 with treason. Investigators allege he advised foreign intelligence agents and charged $30,000 a month for his services. If found guilty, he faces 20 years in prison.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, son of the journalist and TV presenter of the same name, who died in 2019, was born in 1981. According to his own account, he came to politics through Russian politician Boris Nemtsov. For Kara-Murza, the 2015 assassination of political leader Nemtsov in Moscow was not only a political tragedy, but also a personal one.

The Magnitsky Act in the United States

Kara-Murza combines his political activities with his work as a journalist. In 2003, he was offered the post of bureau chief of the Russian channel RTVi in Washington. He lived in the United States for eight years. In 2010 and 2011, on behalf of the Russian opposition, he contributed to the implementation of the “On Accountability and Rule of Law” bill in the US Congress, which provided for the entry ban and the freezing of the assets of representatives of the elite and those responsible for serious violations of human rights.

The bill is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in a Russian prison in 2009 and exposed the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the Russian budget by Russian security forces and officials. . In 2012, the United States became the first country to pass the Magnitsky Act, later joined by Canada and other countries.

After the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza and former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov traveled to Washington to deliver the so-called “Nemtsov List” to members of Congress. It contained the names of politicians and journalists who had openly called for the persecution of Nemtsov. Kara-Murza also campaigned for the square in front of the Russian embassy in Washington to be named after Nemtsov. And after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, he constantly advocated sanctions against Moscow.

Poisonings in 2015 and 2017

On May 26, 2015, the journalist was probably poisoned. French doctor Pascal Kinz discovered traces of heavy metals in Kara-Murza’s body. In 2017, Kara-Murza was hospitalized again, with the same symptoms as in 2015. This time he was diagnosed with poisoning by an unidentified substance. The opponent was again treated in the United States. But Kara-Murza’s complaint did not succeed.

In 2021, reporters from Bellingcat, Der Spiegel and The Insider analyzed Vladimir Kara-Murza’s movements in 2015 and 2017, noting that he had been under FSB surveillance in the months leading up to the two poisonings, and that agents Russian intelligence may have been involved. in these attacks, as they were in the poisoning of opponent Alexei Navalni, who is now also imprisoned in Russia. Kara-Murza himself does not doubt that the Russian government thus wanted to take revenge on the Magnitsky law.

(jov/pc)