Even earlier than he was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in a Russian penal colony, Vladimir Kara-Murza thought of himself an enemy of the Kremlin.
The Russian opposition activist and Washington Post contributor was born right into a household of acclaimed journalists, scientists and attorneys. Two of Mr. Kara-Murza’s great-grandfathers had been executed as spies and “enemies of the people” throughout Stalin’s nice purges, according to Meduza, a Russian information web site. His grandfather was arrested in 1937 and served a sentence in labor camps in Russia’s Far East.
Mr. Kara-Murza’s activism lengthy rankled Russia’s political elite. For a time, he acted because the federal coordinator of Open Russia, a civic group based by Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the previous chief of Yukos Oil and critic of President Vladimir V. Putin who served years in jail in Russia.
Mr. Kara-Murza grew to become referred to as a vocal critic of what he referred to as a Kremlin coverage of assassinating political enemies. He additionally drew the Kremlin’s ire when he lobbied for the usage of Western sanctions to punish Russian authorities officers engaged in human-rights abuses. He urged American lawmakers to develop financial sanctions towards the Russian authorities underneath a landmark regulation referred to as the Magnitsky Act that was enacted by Congress in 2012 and expanded in 2016.
Sergei Podoprigorov, the decide that delivered the sentence on Monday, was one of many Russian officers sanctioned by the Magnitsky Act.
Mr. Kara-Murza survived what he characterised a number of years in the past as two authorities makes an attempt to poison him — each of which despatched him right into a coma.
When President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Mr. Kara-Murza went on to strongly criticize the transfer in speeches within the United States and Europe. Despite warnings that he could be in danger, he continued to journey to Russia and work there.
In April, Mr. Kara-Murza gave an interview to CNN from Moscow wherein he criticized the Kremlin for the struggle in Ukraine, calling Mr. Putin’s rule “a regime of murderers.”
He was picked up and detained hours later.
