Top Kremlin critic convicted of treason, given 25 years

A Russian court convicted a top opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza of treason on April 17 for publicly denouncing Moscow’s war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. It was the latest move in the Kremlin’s relentless crackdown on anyone who dares to criticize the invasion.

A Russian court convicted a top opposition activist of treason on April 17 for publicly denouncing Moscow’s war in Ukraine and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. It was the latest move in the Kremlin’s relentless crackdown on anyone who dares to criticize the invasion.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, Jr., an activist and journalist who twice survived poisonings he blamed on the Kremlin, has rejected the charges against him as punishment for standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and likened the proceedings to the show trials during the rule of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Human rights organizations and Western governments denounced the verdict and demanded his release. Amnesty International declared the 41-year-old a prisoner of conscience.

The charges against Mr. Kara-Murza, who has been behind bars since his arrest a year ago, stem from a March 2022 speech to the Arizona House of Representatives in which he denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other speeches abroad.

Days after that invasion, the country adopted a law criminalizing spreading “false information” about its military. Authorities have used the law to stifle criticism of what the Kremlin calls “a special military operation."

The sweeping campaign of repression is unprecedented since the Soviet era, effectively criminalizing independent reporting on the conflict and any public criticism of the war.

Last month, a Russian court convicted a father over social media posts critical of the war and sentenced him to two years in prison. His 13-year-old daughter was sent to an orphanage. Days later, Russia’s security service arrested Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, on espionage charges.