BIOGRAPHY : Vladimir Kara-Murza

BIOGRAPHY : Vladimir Kara-Murza

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian opposition politician, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was born in Moscow in 1981 and graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2003. Kara-Murza started his political career in 2004 as a member of the liberal opposition party, Yabloko, and later worked for the pro-democracy NGO Open Russia. He served as a deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party from 2015 to 2018, where he was a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government.

Kara-Murza holds both Russian and British passports and has spent years as a politician opposing Putin. He is known for his criticism of Putin’s policies, particularly the war in Ukraine, and has been a vocal advocate for democracy and human rights in Russia. He has claimed to have been poisoned twice by Russian operatives in the past, and his case has received international attention.

On April 17, 2023, Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of treason and other offenses, including spreading false information about the Russian army and “participation in the activities of an undesirable organization”. His sentencing has been widely condemned by human rights organizations and foreign governments, with many seeing it as part of a broader crackdown on opposition voices in Russia, which has intensified since Putin sent troops to Ukraine in 2022.

In addition to his political activities, Kara-Murza is also a respected journalist and documentary filmmaker. He has produced several documentaries, including “Nemtsov,” a film about the assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. He has also contributed articles to major publications such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times.