Writing Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Dec 19 2024 The Guardian

Dmitry Medvedev says editors of the Times are ‘legitimate military targets’

Dmitry Medvedev , the former Russian president, and the current Russian security council deputy head, posted on Telegram, that the editors of the Times newspaper are “legitimate military targets”.

I must have missed the news about Russia declaring war on the UK, but then again there are so many news stories these days that little bits and pieces easily fall through the gaps.

Maybe it is just me, but I thought you had to declare war before you call someone or something a “legitimate military target”? Maybe he means that when the editors will eventually be “targeted”, whatever that means, that act in itself will be the declaration of war?

*****

Doh!

Well actually, now I get it, I must be a bit slow. Russia is not at war at all, they are just conducting a “Special Military Operation”, and you do not need to declare a war for something insignificant like that.

He obviously means “Legitimate Military Targets in a Special Military Operation”, now that is a totally different thing, isn’t it?

16 Released in Prisoner Exchange

Aug 29 2024 The Washington Post - Vladimir Kara-Murza

‘My first thought was that I was going to be led out to be executed’

It is one thing to speak about freedom and human rights — many Western leaders say the words. It’s quite another to actually do something to protect them. Few things should be more important for a democracy than human life; and with this exchange, the U.S. and German governments have saved 16 lives from the hell of Putin’s Gulag. Whatever else President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be remembered for years from now, they will be remembered for this.

But so many others are still left behind. Today’s Russia holds more than 1,000 political prisoners, many of them for opposing the war in Ukraine. They still fold their bunks at 5 a.m.; still walk around in a circle in small roof-covered prison courtyards; still cannot speak to their loved ones. Many are in dire health condition, and their plight is becoming urgent.

The exchange on Aug. 1 has shown that the free world cares and that, contrary to stereotype, there is still room for decency and values in international politics. We must not let this become an exception — and we must not rest until the others who are unjustly imprisoned by Putin’s dictatorship are home and reunited with their families, too.

Appeal - Russian style

Apr 3rd 2024 The Washington Post

The Russian Supreme Court will consider an appeal against the sentence of Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years, for five public statements he made against the war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Kara-Murza is being held in Prison Colony No. 7 in Omsk, and was blocked from taking part in the hearing via video link. (This is Russia, what did you expect.)

Instead, he sent the court a written statement.

I am proud to have spoken out against Putin’s crimes in Ukraine

Alexei Navalny R.I.P.

Feb 16 2024

Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, has died in the Russian arctic prison were he was being held.

Requiescat In Pace - Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny

There will no doubt be multiple obituaries and articles by much better informed writers than me, no point in me dabbling in that.

I will only point out that, as tragic and profoundly sad as hearing the news of his death is, it is unfortunately not surprising and was to be expected. After all, he had been poisoned before, and his imprisonment was clearly political.

The other issue here is that he was not the only jailed Russian opposition member, and not the only one who has been poisoned.

The question is, who will be next?

Change will come to Russia

Sep 11 2023 The Washington Post

Change will come to Russia — abruptly and unexpectedly

The article starts with an Editor’s note: On Sept. 4, authorities at the Moscow detention center where Vladimir Kara-Murza has been held for more than a year informed his lawyers that he was no longer in custody there. Though his precise whereabouts are unknown, it is likely that he is being transferred to a Siberian prison where he will be expected to serve out the rest of his 25-year sentence.

“Political change in Russia always comes unexpectedly. The tsarist minister Vyacheslav von Plehve, who before 1904 called for a “small victorious war,” never imagined that it would lead to a revolutionary explosion and force the monarchy to agree to a constitution, parliament and freedom of the press. Vladimir Lenin, complaining to the Swiss Social Democrats in January 1917 that “we of the older generation may not live to see the decisive battles of this coming revolution,” did not suspect that it was only a few weeks away. And absolutely no one in the summer of 1991 expected that by the end of the year the Communist Party of the Soviet Union would be banned and the Soviet Union dissolved.

The next time, change will come in exactly the same way — abruptly and unexpectedly. None of us knows the specific moment and specific circumstances, but it will happen in the foreseeable future. The chain of events leading to these changes was started by the regime itself [with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine] in February 2022. It’s only a matter of time.”

*****

Kara-Murza mentions in the piece that,

The rising strength of the social movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s and the August Revolution of 1991 were driven by anti-totalitarian passion, by the rejection and denial of violence on the part of the Communist Party and its “armed wing.” It is no coincidence that immediately after the victory over the coup plotters [in 1991], a crowd of Muscovites set off to remove the monument to [Soviet secret police founder] Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanka Square.

Well today, Felix Dzerzhinsky is back, if only as a statue…

Statue of founder of Soviet secret police unveiled in Moscow

Change will come, but it is not here yet…

Protest in the time of war

Aug 15 2023 The Washington Post

Many Russians refuse to become silent accomplices to Putin’s war — at great cost

by Vladimir Kara-Murza

PRETRIAL DETENTION CENTER NO. 5, MOSCOW

At the start of this process, I expected my experience to be similar to that of the dissidents of the 1960s and 1970s whose struggles against Soviet totalitarianism I have studied and documented. But Russia’s regress under Putin has taken a much more dramatic pace. From the total secrecy of the proceedings to the three-judge panel that seemed to intentionally echo the “troikas” of the 1930s to the language of the prosecutor, who called me “an enemy that must be punished,” my trial had much more in common with the handling of “enemies of the people” under Joseph Stalin than of dissidents under Leonid Brezhnev. The sentence completed the parallel: Before me, the last time political prisoners in this country had received 25-year terms was at the end of Stalin’s reign.

Alexei Navalny - “Guilty”

Aug 4 2023 The Guardian

Russian court sentences Alexei Navalny to further 19 years in prison

Alexei Navalny was found guilty of yet more “crimes”, “… including inciting and financing extremism, creating an illegal NGO, the rehabilitation of Nazism, and inciting children to dangerous acts.”

The court extended his prison sentence by 19 years, and as if that was not enough, sentenced him to a special regime with the harshest prison conditions in the country.

“Navalny can only see family once a year and receive one parcel each year. He will be forbidden from talking to fellow inmates. Convicts are led around the prison with their heads bent down and are only allowed to take occasional walks inside a closed courtyard.”

Naturally, following the traditions of Soviet / Russian courts, the trial was held behind closed doors at the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, about 145 miles (235km) east of Moscow. And obviously, journalists and members of the public have been barred from attending the trial.

What did you expect?

In February, Putin ordered the FSB to raise its game and said it was necessary “to identify and stop the illegal activities of those who are trying to divide and weaken our society”.

After the verdict, Navalny said that the official length of the sentence was not important. “I perfectly understand that, like many political prisoners, I am sitting on a life sentence. Where life is measured by the term of my life or the term of life of this regime,” he said in a message passed to his lawyers and posted online.

In the message, Navalny called on Russians to resist the Kremlin, saying the purpose of the new prison sentence was “to intimidate you, not me”.

War on Ukraine

Aug 1 2023 The Washington Post

Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine makes a mockery of law

In April Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison on treason charges — an accusation based entirely on his public statements about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Kara-Murza delivered these remarks at his appeal hearing on July 31. As was expected, he lost the appeal.

Throughout this process — first in the Moscow City Court, now here in the Court of Appeal — a very strange feeling has never left me. Judicial procedures, by their nature, must be somehow connected with the law. But everything that has happened to me has nothing to do with the law; if anything, what I have witnessed is precisely the opposite.

The law — both Russian and international — prohibits the waging of aggressive war. But for more than 15 months, the man who calls himself the president of my country has been waging a brutal, unprovoked, aggressive war against a neighboring country: killing its citizens, bombing its cities, seizing its territories.

Jail or exile

Apr 26 2023

Last week Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Russian opposition politician and activist, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Alexei Navalny is already in jail serving 11 and half years, and now he says that he is being investigated on terrorism charges, which could result in a sentence that will keep him in prison beyond 2050.

Yevgeny Roizman, the former Yekaterinburg mayor, has gone on trial, and faces charges of discrediting Russia's armed forces. He chose to stay in Russia, and is most likely facing five years in jail.

Ilya Yashin is serving eight-and-a-half years on a charge of spreading false news about the army, and lost his appeal on Wednesday.

Vadim Prokhorov, a lawyer for Navalny, Yashin and Kara-Murza, decided to leave Russia after receiving "a warning through one politician that there was interest from at least one deputy prosecutor-general who was overseeing our case".

Russia's Navalny says he is facing jail beyond 2050

Russian lawyer for jailed opposition activist Kara-Murza flees

25 Years in Prison

Apr 17 2023 The Washington Post

Russia sentences Kara-Murza, Putin critic and Post contributor, to 25 years

Opinion by the Editorial Board

Why Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Russia, should live in freedom

After the sentence Vladimir Kara-Murza said:
“My self-esteem has even risen. I realised that I have done everything right as a citizen and as a politician.”

His mother, Elena Gordon, condemned the verdict:
“I felt like I fell asleep there and woke up in a Kafka novel or an Ionesco play. Who are all these people? The world is upside down. We are in the 23rd year of the 21st century. What’s going on?”

In his final statement in the trial Vladimir Kara-Murza said:

“I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate, when those who kindled and unleashed this war, and not those who tried to stop it, are recognised as criminals.”

“This day will come as inevitably as spring comes to replace even the most frosty winter. And then our society will open its eyes and be horrified by what terrible crimes were committed on its behalf.”

The rot at the heart of Russia

Apr 16 2023 The Washington Post

How Vladimir Kara-Murza’s case exposes the rot at the heart of Russia

In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky, a corporate lawyer who had accused high-ranking members of Russian law enforcement of involvement in a corruption scheme, was jailed and held without trial for 11 months.

Human rights defenders accused the prison authorities of denying Magnitsky urgently needed medical care.

Among those making these accusations was opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza.

In November 2009, Magnitsky died in custody at 37.

Vladimir Kara-Murza has spent a year in pretrial detention, and is charged, among other things, with treason. He is due to be sentenced in his closed-door trial. He faces a potential sentence of 25 years.

Vladimir Kara-Murza is in the same jail that Magnitsy was, the Butyrka prison in Moscow. And he has the same jailer that Sergei Magnitsky had.

Alexei Navalny is already serving an 11-and-a-half year sentence in a maximum security penal colony, and is said to be in ‘critical’ situation after possible poisoning.

He has been suffering severe stomach pains, and an ambulance was called to the penal colony last week.

His supporters say that his illness could be the result of slow-acting poison.

That may sound a bit paranoid, but he was poisoned with the Soviet-made nerve agent novichok, in 2020.

Apr 14 2023 The Guardian

Alexei Navalny in ‘critical’ situation after possible poisoning, says ally

A Reckoning Will Come

Apr 10 2023 The Washington Post

Vladimir Kara-Murza’s last statement to Russian court: A reckoning will come

The Guardian
Defiant Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza likens his case to Stalin’s show trials

Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Russian opposition figure, is facing up to 25 years in jail. The trial is being held behind closed door, and the verdict is expected on April 17th.

Not that there is any doubt about the verdict, this being a Russian court in April 2023, with Putin in the Kremlin and war raging in Ukraine.

*****

Vladimir Kara-Murza delivered these remarks on Monday at the closing session of his trial in Moscow. I will re-print them in full here, in case the Opinion Piece ends up behind a pay wall. These are powerful words with an important message and worth re-printing everywhere.

MOSCOW CITY COURT — Members of the court: I was sure, after two decades spent in Russian politics, after all that I have seen and experienced, that nothing can surprise me anymore. I must admit that I was wrong. I’ve been surprised by the extent to which my trial, in its secrecy and its contempt for legal norms, has surpassed even the “trials” of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and ’70s. And that’s not even to mention the harshness of the sentence requested by the prosecution or the talk of “enemies of the state.” In this respect, we’ve gone beyond the 1970s — all the way back to the 1930s. For me, as a historian, this is an occasion for reflection.

At one point during my testimony, the presiding judge reminded me that one of the extenuating circumstances was “remorse for what [the accused] has done.” And although there is little that’s amusing about my present situation, I could not help smiling: The criminal, of course, must repent of his deeds. I’m in jail for my political views. For speaking out against the war in Ukraine. For many years of struggle against Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship. For facilitating the adoption of personal international sanctions under the Magnitsky Act against human rights violators.

Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it. I am proud that Boris Nemtsov brought me into politics. And I hope that he is not ashamed of me. I subscribe to every word that I have spoken and every word of which I have been accused by this court. I blame myself for only one thing: that over the years of my political activity I have not managed to convince enough of my compatriots and enough politicians in the democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and for the world. Today this is obvious to everyone, but at a terrible price — the price of war.

In their last statements to the court, defendants usually ask for an acquittal. For a person who has not committed any crimes, acquittal would be the only fair verdict. But I do not ask this court for anything. I know the verdict. I knew it a year ago when I saw people in black uniforms and black masks running after my car in the rearview mirror. Such is the price for speaking up in Russia today.

But I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate. When black will be called black and white will be called white; when at the official level it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when a war will be called a war, and a usurper a usurper; and when those who kindled and unleashed this war, rather than those who tried to stop it, will be recognized as criminals.

This day will come as inevitably as spring follows even the coldest winter. And then our society will open its eyes and be horrified by what terrible crimes were committed on its behalf. From this realization, from this reflection, the long, difficult but vital path toward the recovery and restoration of Russia, its return to the community of civilized countries, will begin.

Even today, even in the darkness surrounding us, even sitting in this cage, I love my country and believe in our people. I believe that we can walk this path.

*****

Here is a link to an open letter from journalists and media professionals
Free Vladimir Kara-Murza! Stop Russia’s descent into Stalinism!

Russia's opposition leaders

Apr 2 2023 The BBC

Ukraine war: Where are Russia's opposition leaders now?

This is by no means an exhaustive list of Putin’s opponents, but you get the picture.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky
-imprisoned for 10 years, in exile since 2013

Alexey Pichugin
-former Yukos manager, in prison since 2003, life sentence

Sergei Magnitsky
-lawyer, arrested 2008, died in prison in 2009

Boris Berezovsky
-died in exile in 2013

Boris Nemtsov
-opposition politician, assassinated 2015

Alexei Navalny
-poisoned with Novichok 2020 - in prison since 2021, serving nine years

Ivan Zhdanov
-head of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation - in exile

Lyubov Sobol
-lawyer for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation - in exile

Leonid Volkov
-Navalny's right-hand man - in exile

Yury Dmitriev
-historian and activist, in prison since 2021, serving 15 years

Lilia Chanysheva
-Navalny associate, arrested in 2021, in pre-trial detention

Ilya Yashin
-opposition politician - in prison since 2022, serving eight-and-a-half years

Marina Ovsyannikova
-anti-war TV-journalist, in exile since 2022

Andrei Pivovarov
-political activist, in prison since 2022, serving four years

Vladimir Kara-Murza
-political activist, poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017, arrested 2022, could face up to 25 years behind bars

Alexei Moskalev
-a single parent, in prison since 2023, serving two years.
His 13-year old daughter drew a picture of Russia bombing an Ukrainian family; she is in a children’s home.

And the list goes on…
A link to a previous post about political prisoners Forgotten?

Distorted Russian reality

Jan 17 2023 The Washington Post

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Russians are living in a frightening, distorted reality

“PRETRIAL DETENTION CENTER 5, Moscow — Among the most stressful aspects of Russian prison life is exposure to government propaganda. Every cell I’ve been in has a television that is constantly turned on — and, with brief respites such as soccer matches during the recent FIFA World Cup, most of the airtime across all major networks is taken up by relentless pro-regime and pro-war messaging not dissimilar to the “Two Minutes Hate” from George Orwell’s 1984. Except that, in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, televised hate goes on for hours.”

“This is the distorted reality that millions of Russians have lived in for years — and it is frightening.”

“It would take Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and a large-scale war in the middle of Europe for Western governments to finally bring sanctions on the Kremlin’s propaganda machine and its chief operators.”

“Western politicians and commentators who blame Russian society for tolerating this regime for such a long time should not forget about their own leaders who did exactly the same.”

The Eve of Halloween

Oct 30 2022 The Washington Post

Why Political Prisoner Day matters around the world — and in my Moscow prison by Vladimir Kara-Murza

*****

Halloween is when people dress up in scary or funny (or funny and scary) costumes and go trick-or-treating from door to door, in the hope of getting candy and other treats. It is a fun tradition that has spread around the world, and apart from the amount of sugar in the candy, it is mostly harmless. Halloween is play-scary.

The previous day, the Eve of All Hallows’ Eve, on the other hand, is The International Day of Political Prisoners. Being a political prisoner is seriously scary, does not include candy, and usually includes sinister tricks by the authorities.

The original Political Prisoner Day was born in the Soviet Union on Oct. 30, 1974 with hunger strikes by prisoners in political labour camps and other detention facilities.

It was marked (celebrated is not exactly the right word to use here) every year until the end of the Soviet Union. It then morphed into the “Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression”.

And in Russia today, quoting Vladimir Kara-Murza: “No one could contemplate that Political Prisoner Day would ever regain its original meaning.”

Next time you shop for candy and costumes for Halloween, buy a candle, and light it on the Eve of Halloween. The political prisoners may not all be saints, but they should not be in prison either.

In Russia, dissent is now ‘treason’

Oct 18 2022 The Washington Post

Vladimir Kara-Murza from prison: In Putin’s Russia, dissent is now ‘treason’

Charges in the indictment for Vladimir Kara-Murza:

-“spreading deliberately false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” (publicly denouncing Vladimir Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine)

-“carrying out the activities of an undesirable organization” (for organizing a conference in support of Russian political prisoners)

-“High treason” for three counts:

-address to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly about the illegitimacy of Putin’s term-limit waiver;
-speech at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee award ceremony for Russian historian and political prisoner Yuri Dmitriev discussing repression in Putin’s Russia;
-testimony before the U.S. Congress’s Helsinki Commission on the pervasive media censorship imposed by Putin to hide the war crimes his forces are committing in Ukraine.

According to the indictment, the speeches
-“threatened the security and constitutional order of the Russian Federation,”
-“damaged the international reputation of the Russian Federation,” and
-gave Russia an “image as an aggressor state in the eyes of the international community.”

*****

“All of this has happened before, and we know how it will end. Aggressive wars launched by Russian and Soviet rulers for domestic political purposes […] ended up backfiring badly on their masterminds, who managed to turn both their own people and the world against them.”

Vasily Klyuchevsky: “…history doesn’t teach anyone anything — it only punishes for lessons not learnt.”

Václav Havel Prize

Oct 13 2022 The Washington Post

Vladimir Kara-Murza’s acceptance speech for the Václav Havel Prize for his defense of human rights in his home country of Russia.

Putin’s war on Ukraine is also a war on truth

Václav Havel: “if the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then … the fundamental threat to it is living the truth — this is why it must be suppressed more severely than anything else.”

Alexei Navalny

Sep 30 2022 The Washington Post

Alexei Navalny: This is what a post-Putin Russia should look like

A few quotes from Navalny’s op-ed.

“What does a desirable and realistic end to the criminal war unleashed by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine look like?”

“Ukraine must remain an independent democratic state capable of defending itself. This is correct, but it is a tactic.”

“The strategy should be to ensure that Russia and its government naturally, without coercion, do not want to start wars and do not find them attractive.”

“In the 31 years since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., we have witnessed a clear pattern: The countries that chose the parliamentary republic model (the Baltic states) are thriving and have successfully joined Europe. Those that chose the presidential-parliamentary model (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia) have faced persistent instability and made little progress. Those that chose strong presidential power (Russia, Belarus and the Central Asian republics) have succumbed to rigid authoritarianism, most of them permanently engaged in military conflicts with their neighbors, daydreaming about their own little empires.”

“The future model for Russia is not “strong power” and a “firm hand,” but harmony, agreement and consideration of the interests of the whole society. Russia needs a parliamentary republic. That is the only way to stop the endless cycle of imperial authoritarianism.”

“… I believe this cure offers us crucial advantages: a radical reduction of power in the hands of one person, the formation of a government by a parliamentary majority, an independent judiciary system, a significant increase in the powers of local authorities. Such institutions have never existed in Russia, and we are in desperate need of them.”

*****

I’ll end this with a quote from Winston Churchill:

“Democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.”

Forgotten?

Jun 7 2022 The Washington Post

Vladimir Kara-Murza from jail: The worst nightmare for political prisoners

Sep 16 2018 The Hill

For the sake of human rights, we must stand for the nameless by Irwin Cotler

“The prisoner’s worst nightmare is the thought of being forgotten.”

*****

A quote from Vladimir Kara-Murza

“According to the (almost certainly incomplete) count by the Memorial Human Rights Center, there are hundreds of prisoners of conscience in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. People such as Alexei Navalny, Andrei Pivovarov, Lilia Chanysheva, Alexei Pichugin, Yuri Dmitriev, Pavel Zelensky and many, many others — whose only “crime” is to hold political or religious beliefs unwelcome in the Kremlin.”

“Please remember them. Please speak out on their behalf. Please advocate their release — which will come, I have no doubt.”

“Because the worst nightmare for a political prisoner is to be forgotten.”

Russia will be free

Apr 15 2022 The Washington Post

Vladimir Kara-Murza from jail: Russia will be free. I’ve never been so sure.

This is the Editor’s note from The Washington Post:

Editor’s note: On Monday, Russian human rights activist and Post contributing columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza gave an interview in Moscow to CNN in which he harshly criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A few hours later, he was picked up by police and summarily sentenced to 15 days in jail on a charge of disobeying law enforcement. Kara-Murza sent this column to The Post through his lawyer.

A few quotes from the piece:

“Sofia Kalistratova, the legendary Moscow lawyer who defended dissidents in the “anti-Soviet” trials of the 1960s and 1970s, told her charges: “Everyone else may cross the street on a red light, but you must always cross on green.” She knew that her clients couldn’t give the authorities the slightest excuse to accuse them of breaking the law.”

“I have always tried to follow this principle. True, my lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, says that if this advice worked in the ’60s, it definitely doesn’t work now: “They’ll just go ahead and write that you crossed the street on purple. And then they’ll accuse you of inventing a nonexistent light and maliciously crossing on it.”

“Orwell lives on: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”