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A BRIT jailed in Siberia has blasted Vladimir Putin as a “vengeful coward” who is “personally responsible” for the murder of Alexei Navalny.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, 42, is serving a draconian 25 year sentence for supposed “treason” after criticising Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.
East2West
The father-of-three was arrested shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine and was handed the harshest sentence for criticising the war so far
AFPKara-Murza holds both a British and Russian passport and worked as a prominent opposition politician in Moscow before he was locked up on trumped-up charges of alleged ‘treason’ last year.
It is the first time Kara-Murza has spoken out since fellow opposition figure Navalny died last week in a similar hellhole Arctic jail, with new reports claiming the Putin foe was killed by a “single punch to the heart”.
There is now major concern for the “very ill” Brit who is feared to be “next” on Putin’s hit-list after angering the brutish Russian leader with his ongoing critique of the Kremlin regime.
“Vladimir Kara-Murza is imprisoned on false charges, he is very ill and following Navalny, it is clear that he is next,” Dr Stepan Stepanenko, head of the Forward Strategy foreign policy think-tank, told The Sun.
His wife, Evgenia shares his fears, declaring over the weekend that her husband and other political prisoners are in grave danger.
And yet brave Kara-Murza from his icy cell has called on Russians to act against Putin, declaring: “He must be stopped…and only Russian society itself can do this.”
Like Navalny, opposition activist Kara-Murza was the victim of two poisonings that he blames on Putin’s secret services.
He now suffers from permanent nerve damage and has been shut away for a quarter of a century in bleak condition, which Dr Stepnaneko thinks he may never survive.
“He may even die before he is murdered,” Stepanenko said. “Kara-Murza’s battle is not just against his captors but against time itself.
While Kara-Murza said he was not aware of specific details of Navalny’s death, he knew “one thing for sure”.
“Vladimir Putin personally bears responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny.
“Because Alexei was his personal prisoner. And only on his personal orders could the poisoners from the 2nd FSB service act.”
The same applied to “investigators, prosecutors and judges who processed cases and sentences” as well as “high prison officials who created torture conditions”.
The British government and MPs are said to be working to have Kara-Murza – who also holds Russian citizenship – swapped in a prisoner exchange and allowed to travel to Britain.
But the prisoner pulled no punches in his first comments on Navalny’s death.
“This man [Putin] has brought death with him throughout the 25 years of his power.”
“[Journalist] Anna Politkovskaya, murdered as a birthday gift [to Putin], in her entrance. [Politician] Boris Nemtsov, shot in the back near the Kremlin,” he added.
He had previously worked as was a close aide to murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov – who was shot dead by a hit squad in Moscow in 2015.
Kara-Murza continued: “Alexei Navalny ‘lost consciousness after a walk’ in prison… The best are dying – the bravest, the most sincere, the most caring.
“Everyone returns – except those who are most needed.
“Only Putin – the vengeful, cowardly, greedy old man – still holds on with a death grip, destroying anyone in whom he sees a threat to his power.
“He must be stopped. And only Russian society itself can do this.”
The former activist and journalist was sentenced to 25 years in April, 2023 by Putin’s cronies for spreading “false” information about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He denied all the charges, comparing the case against him to a Stalinist show trial.
When he was sentenced last year. Navalny – speaking from his own penal colony – called his punishment “unlawful, unconscionable and quite simply fascist”.
Navalny said: “I saw him after the second poisoning and witnessed how his health was already almost destroyed.
“The term that he received is revenge for the fact that he did not die at the chosen time, having survived two poisonings…by the Russian FSB [Federal Security Service].”
Kara-Murza’s wife, Evgenia, who lives in the U.S. with their three children, tweeted after the verdict: “A quarter of a century is an ‘A+’ for your courage, consistency and honesty in your years-long work. I am infinitely proud of you, my love, and I’m always by your side.”
He was arrested only weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion and just hours after CNN broadcast an interview with him in which he said Russia was run by “a regime of murderers”.
The politician was convicted in a hasty closed trial.
Before he was led away, he defiantly declared: “Russia WILL be free, tell everyone”.
In January, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said he was “deeply concerned” over the fate of the dissident after he – similarly to Navalny in December – suddenly disappeared from SIZO-1 prison in the remote city of Omsk.
Evgenia later discovered he had been transferred to IK-7, another hellish prison in the city, and immediately placed in a punishment block.
His only crime was not standing up in time when the guard commanded him to “rise” and now he is spending four months in solitary confinement.
More than 160 Russian citizens have been imprisoned for opposing the war, according to human rights group OVD-Info – however Kara-Murza’s sentence is the harshest so far.
A total of 19,854 Russians were arrested between February 24, 2022 and January 28, 2024 for speaking out or demonstrating against the invasion.
Soon after Kara-Murza was sentenced last year, The Sun spoke to Evgenia who insisted her husband would never give up his struggle.
She told The Sun that her jailed husband isn’t brave, but “stubborn”.
That stubbornness, Evgenia said, also comes out of her husband’s genuine love for his country.
“My husband is a genuine Russian patriot, and he has fought for years to bring change in our country,” she said.
East2West
The Russo-Brit survived two poisonings which he blames on the Kremlin
Navalny had blasted Kara-Murza’s 25 year prison sentence as ‘unlawful and fascist’
The last picture of Navalny taken when he appeared via video link in court last Thursday – a day before his sudden death
ReutersNavalny's death was 'inevitable'
By Jerome Starkey, The Sun's Defence Editor
NAVALNY’S death is shocking – but there’s also a sense of inevitability about this.
His spokesperson had warned that they thought he was being slowly killed in prison.
And indeed, the lifespan of Kremlin critics is tragically short.
It was astonishing in many ways that Alexei Navalny had survived.
We’ve had Latvia’s president calling this a brutal murder by the Kremlin.
We’ve had President Zelensky of Ukraine, saying Putin killed him.
Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Schulz and France’s Foreign Minister are saying that Navalny paid for his principles with his life.
There is certainly no doubt that as a result of his political activism. As a result of daring to stand up to Vladimir Putin.
Alexei Navalny exposed himself to enormous risk and hardship. We know that he was poisoned.
We know that he’s been jailed. He’s been held in horrific conditions. Indeed, you know.
Many, many days of his time in this penal colony have been in solitary confinement in punishment cells.
His health appears to have been deteriorating. So in that sense, you know, he’s been jailed by the regime that Putin leads.
He’s been poisoned with a nerve agent, a military grade nerve agent that is only really available to Putin’s assassins.
And that clearly would have had long-term health implications. So in that sense, clearly the Kremlin regime, led by Vladimir Putin, is culpable for his death.
It is not clear yet exactly what caused his death. But there’s no doubt that the Kremlin regime, led by Vladimir Putin, is culpable to some extent because of what they’ve inflicted.
English (US)