Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian opposition politician recently released from a Siberian gulag, shares his harrowing experiences and his current efforts to secure the release of prisoners as part of a rumored ceasefire negotiation.
Vladimir Kara-Murza , a recently freed Russian opposition politician, exudes resilience as he sits in the lobby of a central London hotel. It's been six months since his release from the IK-6 colony in Omsk, Siberia, a maximum security prison situated approximately 2,800 miles away.
The 43-year-old endured two-and-a-half years of imprisonment, during which, according to Amnesty International, he was 'repeatedly subjected to arbitrary disciplinary punishments and other ill-treatment, including multiple placements in SHIZO (penalty isolation cell).' His sentence stemmed from his outspoken condemnation of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kara-Murza's release last August marked the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War. He stands as one of the surviving figures in Russia's beleaguered opposition movement.Kara-Murza, a father of three and British citizen, granted Metro an exclusive interview, reflecting on the profound changes in his life since his escape from the gulag where he believed he would perish. He reveals that he is now collaborating with Donald Trump's administration to secure the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war, civilian captives, and Russian political prisoners, as part of a rumored ceasefire aimed at ending Vladimir Putin's three-year reign of bloodshed.Since his liberation, Kara-Murza has been tirelessly advocating for more stringent sanctions against the Kremlin. His days are now filled with activity rather than the almost 24-hour confinement he endured. Despite the passage of time, the dissident recalls 'less and less' from the brutality he experienced in the Russian gulag. However, one memory persists vividly in his mind. 'The way the human mind works, it tries to get rid of the trauma because it cannot live with it,' he shared with Metro. 'As the days and weeks and months go on, I remember less and less, but there is one thing I will never be able to forget. One of the things that authorities do to punish political opponents – this is something that has been done since Soviet times – is seek to inflict harm on their loved ones, they seek to punish the families too, as much as they can.' Among the numerous measures he faced in prison, Kara-Murza was denied the right to speak with his wife and children. During his two-and-a-half years of incarceration, he was allowed a single phone call with his wife and two brief conversations with his children. The last contact occurred just before Christmas in 2023, a single 15-minute call. He has three children. So, his wife had to literally stand on the other side with a stopwatch to ensure that each child did not receive more than five minutes. She would have to physically take away the phone and pass it to the next child. This is torture to the families as well as to the prisoners.'Prior to his conviction for treason and imprisonment in April 2022, Kara-Murza's wife and children had already endured the wrath of Putin during two near-fatal poisoning attempts in May 2015 and February 2017. His family witnessed him slipping into prolonged comas following incidents that left him with a severe nerve disorder known as polyneuropathy, which can be fatal. Many of his comrades in the fight against Putin's authoritarian regime did not survive. Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza's mentor, and godfather to his youngest daughter, was the first to be killed. He was shot dead as he crossed Bolshoi Moskvorestky Bridge, just meters from the Kremlin, in 2015. Anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, who had long been the most prominent face of Russian opposition, was also assassinated almost a year to the day. Evgenia, Vladimir's wife, expressed her fears about her husband's life in jail a year before his exchange, highlighting the decline in his physical and mental health. Conditions in prisons vary significantly, even between cells within the same institution. 'What you do all day is walk around in this tiny cubicle-size 2×3 meters cell in a small circle,' he recalled of his days in confinement. 'You have nowhere to go, nothing to do and no one to speak to. That is the most difficult part. It was Aristotle who wrote that we, human beings, are social. We need interaction as much as water and oxygen. Vladimir was supposed to serve a 25-year sentence over 'made-up' charges including treason over criticism of the Ukraine war
Vladimir Kara-Murza Russian Opposition Gulag Prisoner Exchange Ukraine War Sanctions Ceasefire Talks Boris Nemtsov Alexei Navalny
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