Navalny confidant
Concern about health: London calls for the release of Kremlin critic Kara-Mursa
Vladimir Kara-Mursa gestures in a glass cage in a Russian courtroom
© Dmitry Serebryakov / AP / DPA
Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Mursa, who also has a British passport, was sentenced to 25 years in a camp for alleged treason. He is internationally considered a political prisoner.
Britain has called on Russia to release the imprisoned Russian-British Kremlin critic to release Vladimir Kara-Mursa immediately given his state of health. The 42-year-old must be released from custody immediately because of “urgent medical treatment,” said a statement from British Minister of State for Industry and Economic Security Nusrat Ghani published on Wednesday evening.
His imprisonment is politically motivated; Kara-Mursa is being persecuted by the Russian authorities because he opposed the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “The prison conditions threaten his life,” Ghani continued. “His health is deteriorating.”
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Vladimir Kara-Mursa is imprisoned for treason
Kara-Mursa, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critics, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April 2023 for “high treason”. He had previously accused Russia of “war crimes” in Ukraine during a speech in the USA. It is the longest known prison sentence ever imposed on a Putin critic.
Kara-Mursa was close to Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in a penal colony in the Arctic in February. Since Navalny’s death, concerns about the 42-year-old have been increasing. His family and lawyers say Russian intelligence tried to poison him in 2015 and 2017. Since then he has suffered from serious health problems.