Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., a well-known opposition figure in Russia serving a 25-year sentence for treason, was moved to another Siberian prison and put back in solitary confinement for at least four months, according to his attorneys on Tuesday. This was allegedly due to a minor infraction.
The action was taken amid relentless domestic and international pressure on Russian dissidents, which has increased dramatically since President Vladimir Putin dispatched troops to Ukraine nearly two years ago.
The 42-year-old Kara-Murza was being held in a prison in the Omsk region, but according to his supporters, he was not there on Monday.
The independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper in Russia reported on Tuesday that Kara-Murza’s attorney, Maria Eismont, had received a letter from him stating that he had been moved to another prison colony in the city of Omsk and put in a restricted housing unit for a minimum of four months.
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In the letter, Kara-Murza claimed that prison officials had accused him on Friday of disobeying a command that he claimed had not even been given to him. A copy of the letter was posted on Facebook by his other attorney, Vadim Prokhorov.
“So now I’m in the IK-7 (penal colony), also in Omsk,” the politician said in the letter. “It is a special regime colony, there is a special restricted housing unit facility for repeat violators like me. I’m in solitary confinement, of course,” he wrote, adding that he was “fine,” had enough food and it was warm in the facility.
Rejecting the charges against him as retaliation for defying President Vladimir Putin, Kara-Murza, who twice survived poisonings that he attributed to Russian authorities, compared the proceedings to the show trials conducted under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
He has reportedly spent the last four months in solitary confinement, which is a common practice for detained Kremlin critics and is generally believed to be intended to increase pressure on them, according to his wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza.
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In 2022, Kara-Murza gave a speech to the Arizona House of Representatives criticising Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This led to his arrest and subsequent 25-year sentence.
After the conflict in Ukraine broke out, more was done to silence critics and neutralise opposition, including passing a law that made it illegal to publish anything that was perceived to be disparaging of the Russian military.
Source: PTI
