Vladimir Kara-Murza, an opposition politician and outspoken critic of Russia’s president, was last seen by his lawyers on July 2, before reportedly being transferred to a hospital two days later, his wife posted on the social platform X on Tuesday.
His wife, Yevgenia Kara-Murza, said prison officials informed her that her husband had been sent to a prison hospital in Siberian city of Omsk to undergo a “checkup.”
His wife and lawyers have expressed concerns for Kara-Murza’s health since he was transferred.
In April 2023, Vladimir Kara-Murza, 42, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of discrediting the Russian military and treason over remarks he made about Kremlin policies. His lengthy sentence was one of the harshest ever given to a political opponent.
He and his supporters reject the charges as politically motivated.
Vladimir Kara-Murza developed polyneuropathy, which numbs the feeling in one’s limbs, after he suddenly fell deathly ill on two separate occasions in Moscow — in 2015 and 2017 — with symptoms consistent with poisoning. His condition is reported to have gotten worse during his time in solitary confinement.
He has requested for Moscow to investigate his poisonings, alleging that they were conducted by a Russian security service.
Kara-Murza’s wife says he was able to receive treatment for his condition when he was in pretrial detention in Moscow, but that lawyers were told there was no way for his medicine to be administered to him at penal colonies in Omsk, where he has been held.
While in prison, Kara-Murza won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for commentary he wrote criticizing Putin that appeared in The Washington Post.
In an article in the Kyiv Post, Ilya Yashin, another imprisoned opposition figure, told his lawyers that he was concerned for Vladimir Kara-Murza, saying he “must be saved” and that “the threat to his life is not just real, it is dire.”
Memorial, a human rights collective in Russian, declared Vladimir Kara-Murza to be a political prisoner and has called for his release, as have Western officials.
OVD-Info, another rights group in the country, reported that since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, 983 people have been subject to criminal charges for opposing the Russian action. The group also reported that almost 9,500 people have faced lesser charges of discrediting the military.
A new law outlawing “discrediting” the Russian army or “spreading false information” regarding it was passed in an attempt to rein in criticism of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
VOA sister entity Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributed to this report. Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
