The Council of Europe paid tribute on Monday to Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza and to other Russian and Belarusian political prisoners.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Council of Europe paid tribute on Monday to Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced last week to 25 years in prison, and to other Russian and Belarusian political prisoners.
Kara-Murza's wife was present at the event, along with the president and the leaders of the different political groups of the Parliamentary Assembly.
“Thank you for giving me this amazing platform so that I could continue, continue making sure that my husband’s voice is heard, despite all odds, because this is what the regime wants to do – it wants to silence these voices and I will not let that happen”, said Evgenia Kara-Murza.
Mrs Kara-Murza concluded: “As Vladimir would say, the night is darkest before the dawn. We will prevail, and Russia will be free, because we are Russians too – and we refuse to be scared.”
Kremlin critic Kara-Murza was sentenced on 17 April by a Moscow court to 25 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of “treason”, spreading “fakes” about the Russian Army and leading “an undesirable organization”.
Russia's Investigative Committee said he groundlessly accused the country's army of using forbidden means and methods of war in Ukraine.
In 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza became ill in what he said were poisonings by the Russian security services. Moscow denied any involvement.
No hope for Putin critics
A Moscow court on Wednesday dismissed a prominent Russian opposition figure's appeal against his eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence for criticism of Russia's actions in Ukraine.
Ilya Yashin was convicted in December of spreading false information about the military, which was made a criminal offence after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine.
The charges against him stemmed from a series of online posts discussing atrocities in Bucha, a town outside Ukraine's capital where dead civilians were found in the streets and a mass grave after Russian troops withdrew.