Putin critic released from Siberian gulag in prisoner swap warns Europe | World news

Freed Russian political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza has attended his first press conference in the UK since his release from a Siberian penal colony in August.

This morning he met with Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, apologising for being late because his son was petting his cat Larry.

Kara-Murza made an impassioned appeal for help to “reunite” Europe with a peaceful and democratic Russia.

“It is not right that in the 21st century in a European country or anywhere else, people are being held in prison for longer sentences than drug dealers and murderers because their views differ from those of the government,” he stressed.

The democratic world knows that the real criminals are those who sit in the Kremlin and those who started this aggressive war against Ukraine, not those of us who are in prison because we opposed it.

“I am deeply and deeply convinced that if we ever want to see Europe completely free and living in peace, this will only be possible thanks to a Democratic Russia.”

Kara-Murza, a Russian-British citizen, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for speaking out against Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine – the longest sentence handed down to a critic since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

He previously survived two poisonings before being sent to prison in 2022. He spoke about his time spent in solitary confinement.

He appealed to political leaders, heads of state, heads of government and foreign ministers not to think only about next week or the next elections, but about the next decade.

Kara-Murza said about the Russian regime: “People think that regimes are stable, strong and safe, and then one day they simply disappear.

“That’s how change happens in Russia. Suddenly, unexpectedly, a snap of a finger, and no one sees it coming, and no one is really ready for it.

“The day after Putin, we will have to begin the process of public reckoning with all the crimes that have been committed and are still being committed at this moment.”

Last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Reports by the UN and numerous human rights agencies detail an “extensive network” of detention centers and convoys where civilians are systematically forced from their homes by invading Russian soldiers.

The allegations include separating children, the elderly and disabled people from their families, as well as beating prisoners, electrocuting them and threatening them with execution.

Kara-Murza said the crimes in Ukraine were not the only ones committed by the Russian regime. He also cited the murders of Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny, and the thousands of political prisoners in Russia.

“The people who are responsible for this must be held accountable. There must be justice, there must be accountability and we must make sure that this evil never happens again, as history shows,” he said.

Kara-Murza was released in the largest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeyeva, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, Kevin Lik, German Moyzhes, Olev Orlov, Vadim Ostanin, Andrei Pivovarov, Patrick Schoebel, Alexandra Skochilenko, Dieter Voronin and Ilya Yashin were released from Russia.

Contact our news department by emailing [email protected].

To see more stories like this, check out our news page.

MORE: Putin’s guided bombs destroy nursing home where hundreds of people lived

MORE: Putin’s ‘impregnable’ weapons cache destroyed in massive mushroom cloud explosion

MORE: Putin’s forces ‘executed Ukrainian prisoner of war with medieval-style sword’

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA. The Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.