Vladimir Kara Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for alleged “high treason” and “spreading false news” about the Russian military. It is the heaviest sentence ever imposed on a critic of the Russian government.

The Putin regime has long targeted historian and former journalist Kara Murza, who was poisoned in two assassination attempts in 2015 and 2017, which left him with a permanent nervous illness. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the incidents.

“It’s basically a death sentence”

“Under the conditions prevailing in pre-trial detention centers in Moscow, the disease has worsened. It is clear that given the state of his health, it is essentially a death sentence,” explained the lawyer of the condemned, Vadim Prokhorov. “But even two to three years in prison, in a maximum security penitentiary, could be just as fatal.”

Kara Murza was arrested in April 2022 after strongly criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with the American channel CNN, he then characterized Russia’s actions as aggressive and the Russian state power as a murderous regime.

Alexei Navalny – victim of attack and then arrested

In addition to Kara Murza, other opposition figures have also been jailed or poisoned in the past. One of the best-known critics of the Kremlin is Alexei Navalny. The 46-year-old opposition activist survived an attack with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020 and has since recovered in Germany. When he flew to Moscow in 2021, he was arrested at the airport and shortly afterwards sentenced to many years in prison.

Detention conditions are considered particularly harsh. Navalny’s health continues to deteriorate. Fearing a new attempt against Navalny, his lawyer, Vadim Kobshev, requested that his client undergo toxicological and radiological tests. Navalny himself blamed President Putin for the attacks on his life, but the Kremlin rejected the accusations.

Yevgeny Roisman – a “foreign agent”

Yevgeny Roisman, an opposition figure and former mayor of Yekaterinburg, was considered one of the last known critics of Putin alive. In November, the Department of Justice classified him as a “foreign agent.” In mid-March he was sentenced to 14 days in detention for allegedly spreading extremist symbols. Although he denies the charges, Roisman allegedly shared a video on the Russian social network VKontakte (vk.com) regarding the sentencing of Alexei Navalny, which featured the emblem of his Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK), which is considered extremist in Russia. Another case against him is also pending.

Ilya Yashin – criticism even after the arrest

Ilya Yasin is also one of the last remaining openly critical of the regime. Even his arrest did not stop him from strongly criticizing the authorities and denouncing the military intervention in Ukraine, as did others such as Marina Ovsyannikova. Born in Moscow, he is considered a confidant of Navalny and was also close to opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015.

Last December, Yasin was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for allegedly defaming the Russian armed forces. Yasin was arrested in June after he condemned the killing of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, in a YouTube video. Moscow denies any attack on the Ukrainian city near Kiev.

Pyotr Versilov – another victim of poisoning

Another example is Pyotr Versilov. The publisher of the online magazine “Mediazona” and a member of the punk band Pussy Riot, had suddenly felt very ill in the fall of 2018. The German doctors at the Charité Hospital in Berlin could only determine that he had been poisoned but not with what substance. Versilov told German media that he assumed the Russian secret service or the GRU intelligence agency was behind his poisoning because of his investigations into the murders of three Russian journalists.

Boris Nemtsov – murdered on the street

Boris Nemtsov had met Kara Murza during an interview in 1999, and a year later, Kara Murza became Nemtsov’s adviser. The Kremlin critic and former deputy prime minister was assassinated in 2015 as he walked home on a Moscow bridge near the Kremlin.

Five Chechens were convicted of Nemtsov’s murder, but the alleged masterminds of the assassination were never found. And in this case, the Kremlin rejected any accusation of involvement. Nemtsov, a charismatic speaker, had strongly criticized the 2014 annexation of Crimea and regularly participated in opposition demonstrations.

Anna Politkovskaya – Dead in an elevator

The Russian-American journalist of “Novaya Gazeta” was shot on October 7, 2006 in the elevator of her apartment building. To this day, her murder remains unsolved. Politovskaya had reported on the Chechen war and had repeatedly criticized the Russian government. Three years before her death, there had been an attempt to poison the journalist while she was flying from Moscow to Beslan in September 2004.