Brandon Silver is an international human rights lawyer and director of policy and projects at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Irwin Cotler is a Canadian former minister of justice and attorney-general, and special envoy of the parliamentary assembly of the Community of Democracies on the case of Vladimir Kara-Murza. Bill Browder is the leader of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, and the author of Red Notice and Freezing Order.
Russian democratic opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza’s health is failing. As he languishes in solitary confinement in a Siberian penal colony, his doctors warn that he will not survive another year without proper medical treatment, which Vladimir Putin’s regime is denying as part of a slow-moving, torturous assassination.
Now, Mr. Kara-Murza is slated for yet another arbitrary transfer nearly 3,000 kilometres back to Moscow for a sham hearing. In his current medical condition, the multiweek transfer is a form of torture that could kill him. And even if it doesn’t, there is a risk of enforced disappearance and outright murder.
The Kremlin-controlled judiciary claims that the transfer is necessary so Mr. Kara-Murza can participate in person, alleging that his trial includes “state secrets” that cannot be shared by video conference. Only in Mr. Putin’s Russia does calling for democracy and an end to the war of aggression against Ukraine apparently constitute a state secret. This is a false pretext, just as his closed appeal hearing is a sham, and the charges of treason make a mockery of justice.
In the words of his mother Yelena Gordon, marking the second anniversary of his unjust arrest on April 11, “time is of the essence” in the fight for his life.
Mr. Kara-Murza has lost more than 50 pounds since his arrest in 2022 and is suffering from the effects of two failed assassination attempts by poisoning. He is also suffering from paralysis and polyneuropathy in his feet and limbs, with his nerves slowly dying. Russian law requires that prisoners with his condition be released from jail immediately.
Instead, Mr. Putin’s regime appears to again be trying to kill Mr. Kara-Murza, this time with prison instead of poison.
As a beacon of democracy and justice, Mr. Kara-Murza has spoken out on behalf of more than 24,000 Russians who have been arbitrarily detained by the Putin regime. He is now Moscow’s most high-profile and high-value political prisoner, as evidenced by his prison sentence of 25 years – the harshest ever imposed on a political prisoner in Mr. Putin’s Russia. He is the embodiment of the struggle for human rights and democracy in Russia, and the personification of Russians who have been persecuted for opposing Mr. Putin’s criminal aggression and atrocities against Ukrainians, which have now entered their third year. Victory in Ukraine won’t just require mobilizing more military and economic aid; it will demand the survival of Russian pro-democracy leaders such as Mr. Kara-Murza, so that democracy can be rebuilt in a post-Putin Russia.
Prior to Mr. Kara-Murza’s imprisonment, he was a global campaigner for justice and accountability, warning the international community about the dangers of Mr. Putin’s regime. His advocacy and presence in Parliament was pivotal in Canada’s adoption of the Magnitsky Law. For his many contributions to Canada, and the shared values and vision he embodies, Parliament unanimously awarded him honorary citizenship last year.
This should not only be an act of recognition, but a recognition that Canada must act.
First, Canada should host an honorary citizenship ceremony, as was done for previous recipients of this rare recognition. The traditional joint session of Parliament, featuring an address by Mr. Kara-Murza’s courageous and eloquent wife Evgenia as his proxy, would shine a powerful and potentially life-saving protective spotlight.
Second, Canada should expand sanctions and mobilize allies to act against individuals complicit in his imprisonment as well as the architects of Mr. Putin’s repressive Soviet-style state apparatus.
Third, the Canadian government should urge its counterparts in Washington to designate Mr. Kara-Murza as unlawfully detained and to transfer his case to the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, as the U.S. Congress and our centre’s joint legal petitions have called for. Moreover, Ottawa must co-ordinate with its allies – especially the U.S. and Britain, where Mr. Kara-Murza holds permanent residency and citizenship, respectively – to advance a deal for his freedom.
In the words of Evgenia, “a democratic Russia that respects the rights of its own citizens and lives in peace with its neighbours is the only guarantee of peace and stability on the European continent. That Russia cannot be achieved without those principled visionaries, who like my husband, have the courage to oppose Vladimir Putin now and fight for that Russia despite all odds.”
Vladimir Kara-Murza has long stood for a brighter future for us all. Now we must stand for him.