With the memory of the late prisoner and opposition figure Alekséi Navalni still fresh, the family and supporters of Vladimir Kara-Murzá, another Russian dissident, feared the worst when their lawyer, Vadim Projórov, went six days without any word about his client. The lawyer later calmed fears in a Facebook post, noting contact had been made and reporting that the critic of the regime was “relatively stable” after being moved to the prison hospital on the preceding Wednesday, July 3, for treatment.
During that entire period following the hospitalization, neither Projórov nor Kara-Murzá’s family could speak with him. They alleged that prison officials and medical staff blocked all contact. In the same post, Projórov recalled that Kara-Murzá suffers from a chronic illness that exempts him from serving his sentence in a penal colony. The post also explained that the opposition figure went to the colony’s hospital for a medical examination, though the public reason for this checkup has not been disclosed. Kara-Murzá was sentenced to 25 years on charges including treason on April 17, 2023. In response to inquiries, the Kremlin stated through its spokesperson that it cannot interfere with the work of Russian penitentiary authorities, adding that observers could not monitor the situation at that time.
A long history of struggle
The illness affecting Kara-Murzá is polyneuritis, a condition that disrupts the proper functioning of nerves throughout the body. Russian law recognizes this ailment as a reason to suspend prison terms. The roots of his condition trace back to two poisoning incidents in 2015 and 2017. Kara-Murzá has alleged that the FSB, Russia’s security services, was behind these poisonings, a claim often echoed by the opposition and associated with similar allegations about Navalni.
Kara-Murzá is a journalist and activist who has spent years opposing the Russian regime, which he has described as a “postmodern Stalinism.” He was detained in April 2022 shortly after returning from a trip to the United States and the European Union, where he accused Western outlets of reporting on civilian targets since the start of the Ukraine conflict — a charge the Kremlin has denied. He also urged Western governments to impose sanctions on the Russian state and on individual Russian citizens for alleged human rights abuses. In his last public appearance before his arrest, an interview with CNN aired just hours before detention, he stated plainly that Russia was under a “regime of murderers.” Earlier this week, authorities in Moscow issued an arrest warrant for Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late dissident Navalni, who is in exile in Berlin. The Moscow courts signaled on Telegram that she faces pretrial detention for allegedly evading preliminary investigation.