Putin Critic Vladimir Kara-Murza Sentenced to 25 Years in Jail

The U.K. government has summoned Moscow's ambassador to London after Kremlin critic and dual Russian/British citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza was jailed for 25 years in a case described by the U.K. Foreign Office as "politically motivated."

Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022 and charged with spreading false information about the Russian army in Ukraine. He was later also charged with "high treason" over speeches in which he criticized Kremlin policies and the war in Ukraine.

He said that Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine with cluster bombs in residential areas. These incidents have been independently documented but deemed false by Russian investigators.

In a defiant address to the court last week before his sentencing, Kara-Murza said: "I only blame myself for one thing, I failed to convince enough of my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime poses for Russia and for the world."

The court in Moscow also imposed a 400,000 ruble fine ($4,900) on Kara-Murza and barred him from journalistic activity for seven years, state news agency Interfax reported, noting that his defense team would challenge the sentence in an appeals court.

When contacted for comment, the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) referred Newsweek to its media statement saying it had summoned Moscow's envoy to London, Andrey Kelin, "after the politically-motivated conviction and sentencing." The FCO said it will make clear that the U.K. views the conviction as against Russia's international obligations on human rights and the right to a fair trial.

British foreign secretary James Cleverly paid tribute to Kara-Murza and his family, "including his wife Evgenia and her unwavering commitment to raising her husband's cause on the international stage."

"The U.K. will continue to support them and to call for Mr. Kara-Murza's immediate release," Cleverly said in the statement.

His 25-year term is the longest given to any Russian opposition figure and has provoked international outrage."

"This sentence is yet another mockery of justice," exiled Belarusian opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya tweeted. "He is a brave & intelligent voice of reason opposing Putin's inhuman regime & the aggression against Ukraine," she added.

Rachel Denber, deputy director, Europe and Central Asia division Human Rights Watch, described the verdict as a "monstrous travesty of justice" that should be "vacated and he should be immediately and unconditionally freed."

In 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza suddenly fell ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security services. Russian authorities denied involvement in the incidents.

Following the nerve agent Novichok attack of another Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, Kara-Murza told Newsweek in September 2020 how the Kremlin playbook of poisoning opponents was "a sadistic method" that was "excruciatingly painful to have to live through."