Russian Federation: Help secure release of activist Vladimir Kara-Murza jailed for anti-war views

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a prominent Russian political activist and journalist. He was arrested in April 2022 and prosecuted for his criticism of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and for his human rights activism.

He was charged with “high treason”, “dissemination of false information about the Armed Forces” and “cooperation with an undesirable organization”. On April 17, he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Vladimir Kara-Murza has serious health problems — he was reportedly diagnosed with polyneuropathy of his both feet.  Amnesty International considers Vladimir Kara-Murza a prisoner of conscience. He must be immediately and unconditionally released, and his conviction quashed.

Download a PDF of UA 40/23 below:

What you can do to help:

Write to the Prosecutor General urging him to:

• Use his authority to ensure that Vladimir Kara-Murza’s conviction is quashed and that he is released immediately and unconditionally.
• Pending that, ensure that Vladimir Kara-Murza is held in conditions that meet international standards and provided the adequate medical treatment he may require equivalent to the standard of health care that is available to the public.

How to reach the target

Please fill out this webform. It is in Russian only.

Or you could reach out to the Office of the President by sending the letter online via the platform http://letters.kremlin.ru/letters/send and http://en.letters.kremlin.ru/.

We also encourage you to write to the Ambassador via this address:

Background

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a prominent Russian political activist and journalist. He was a close associate of prominent opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and cooperated with former prisoner of conscience Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other political opposition groups, human rights NGOs and independent media. He is known for campaigning in support of the “Magnitsky list” and other targeted sanctions against people suspected of human rights abuses in Russia.

Vladimir Kara-Murza survived two poisoning attempts, in 2015 and 2017. According to the investigative collective Bellingcat, prior to these poisonings he had been followed by the same Federal Security Service (FSB) unit that would later poison Aleksei Navalny. There has been no investigation by the Russian authorities into either poisoning.

He has been convicted under false charges of “high treason” (Article 275 of the Criminal Code), “disseminating knowingly false information about Russian Armed Forces” (Article 207.3(2)) and “participating in activities of an undesirable organization” (Article 284.1(1)). The basis for the accusations are his speeches, in which he criticized the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and his participation in opposition political group “Open Russia”.