The Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Mursa was arrested by the police on Monday in front of his apartment building in Moscow. Kara-Mursa had to stay overnight in a police station, his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said. He was charged with resisting state authority. According to Russian law, this can result in a prison sentence of up to 15 days. Nothing was initially known about other allegations.
However, Kara-Mursa is a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin. The 40-year-old politician and journalist has twice narrowly survived mysterious poisonings for which he blames the Russian secret service. According to research by the investigative group Bellingcat, Kara-Mursa was being pursued by agents of the Russian domestic secret service FSB, who are said to be involved in the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In an interview with the SZ, Kara-Mursa said in 2021 about the attacks on him and Navalny: “I’m not a doctor, but we were probably poisoned with the same substance.”