Russian journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza given 25-year sentence for treason

In the moments after Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced on Monday to 25 years behind bars in a Russian prison, the vocal Kremlin critic remained defiant and told the court that one day "Russia would be free."

Kara-Murza was handed one of Russia's harshest punishments in recent years at a court hearing that his supporters and members of the media were blocked from attending. The 41-year-old father of three was convicted of treason and other offences for speaking out against the Ukraine invasion during speeches he gave in the U.S. and in Europe.

Last week, Kara-Murza said that he remains proud of standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin's "dictatorship" and his decision to send troops into Ukraine.

"I know that the day will come when the darkness engulfing our country will clear," Kara-Murza said in remarks last week that were posted on social networks and Russian opposition media. "And then our society will open its eyes and shudder when it realizes what terrible crimes were committed in its name."

He has been in custody in Russia since April 2022, after he chose to return despite the fact that the Kremlin's unrelenting crackdown on its critics left him at great risk.

"It is an act of cynical revenge," said Evgenia Kara-Murza, his wife, in an interview with CBC News before the sentence was handed down.

She told CBC that both she and her husband knew the judge would sign off on the 25-year sentence the prosecutor was demanding.

"They are so afraid of him, afraid of the effectiveness of his work, and they hate him so much that they want to lock him up," she said.

Canada condemns sentence

Canada and other Western governments condemned Monday's sentence.

"Three decades ago, a free and democratic Russia struggled to come into being. Today's verdict is a sad testament to the dark turn this struggle has come to," said Alison LeClaire, Canada's ambassador to Russia. "Regardless of this verdict, freedom-minded people in this country and all over the world recognize Vladimir Kara-Murza as a man of honour and conscience, a resolute defender of civil and political rights, and an ally of the people in their struggle for a free and democratic Russia."

WATCH | Kara-Murza ' a hero,' says fellow Kremlin critic: 

Kara-Murza 'hero of the Russian people,' says fellow Kremlin critic

2 years ago

Duration 1:37

Bill Browder, a friend and colleague of Russian journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, compares him to legendary figures willing to risk imprisonment for their beliefs.

LeClaire was outside the court alongside the ambassadors from the U.K. and U.S.. — where the Kara-Murzas have resided in recent years — as well as a large crowd of media and supporters. Canada and the U.S. have previously sanctioned Russian justice and other officials involved in Kara-Murza's arrest and prosecution.

The British government summoned its Russian ambassador over the sentencing of Kara-Murza, who also holds a U.K. passport.

"Russia's lack of commitment to protecting fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, is alarming," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. "We continue to urge Russia to adhere to its international obligations including Vladimir Kara-Murza's entitlement to proper health care."

Russia adopted a law criminalizing spreading "false information" about its military days after it sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Authorities have used the law to stifle criticism of what the Kremlin calls "a special military operation."

Another prominent opposition figure, Ilya Yashin, was sentenced to 8½ years in prison late last year on charges of discrediting the military.

Mysterious poisonings

Kara-Murza, a journalist for several years, was an associate of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was killed near the Kremlin in 2015 in mysterious circumstances.

The charges Kara-Murza was convicted of in Russia concern a speech he gave to Arizona lawmakers, as well as talks he held in Lisbon, Washington and Helsinki. He had forged a relationship with Arizona Sen. John McCain, and was chosen to be a pallbearer at his funeral in 2018.

Kara-Murza survived poisonings in 2015 and 2017 that he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian officials have denied responsibility.

Kara-Murza's lawyers say that as a result of the poisonings, he suffers from a serious nerve disorder called polyneuropathy.

Evgenia Kara-Murz told CBC News that she fears for her husband's health as he has lost 40 pounds in the past year.

"The Russian prison system is never good for anyone's health, but for someone who nearly died twice — those conditions are absolutely impossible," she said. "They will try to create such conditions in which his health will deteriorate [and] result in his death."

Yulia Galyamina, a political activist and former Moscow city councillor, wrote to Kara-Murza while he was in prison to tell him that the 25-year sentence the prosecution was demanding was preposterous.

"Do you really think that this regime will last 25 years," she recounted to CBC News in an interview from Moscow. "That can never be."

For years, Kara-Murza has been sounding the alarm and lobbying Western nations to adopt sanctions against purported human rights violators in Russia. He has visited Canada multiple times and urged countries, including in a 2019 visit to CBC News studios, to implement sanctions that are named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax lawyer who helped uncover widespread fraud and later died in a Russian prison in 2009.

Evgenia Kara-Murza says she and others at the Washington, D.C.-based Free Russia Foundation are carrying on his work. While she knew her husband's return to Moscow could prove to a be a hardship for the family, she understands why he chose to go back.

"He might have stayed, [but] then today he would have been broken as a man," she said. "He had to be there and share the risks and challenges faced by Russians back home."