Putin critic with UK citizenship vanishes from prison
The Kremlin also tried to poison his twice, his allies say.
Another one of Vladimir Putin’s top enemies has disappeared from the prison he had been kept in.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is a dual Russian and British citizen, was sentenced to 25 years in a maximum security colony for treason and ‘discrediting the military’ – the longest time ever given to a critic of the Kremlin.
Like Alexey Navalny, he is part of the Russia’s beleaguered opposition – many of whom now sit in jail.
The ‘made-up’ charges against the former BBC Washington correspondent then turned politician followed two failed attempts to kill him with poison.
The 42-year-old was transported from colony IK-6 in the Siberian city of Omsk to an unknown location.
His wife Evgenia Kara-Murza confirmed the reports on X, saying: ‘We just learnt that after four months of solitary confinement my husband “left” (as put by an official) the strict-regime penal colony in Omsk in an unknown direction.’
Russian human right group OVD-Info said the politician is being transported to a different location, but that the Kremlin has not disclosed where.
In the colony, Mr Kara-Murza was repeatedly locked in a ‘punishment’ cell to limit his communication with other prisoners.
‘We won’t let you into the camp, you are infecting people here with your views,’ Kara-Murza quoted an IK-6 guard.
His disappearance comes just weeks after Mr Navalny’s lawyers lost contact with him on December 11, sparking concern among his supporters and family.
The Russian opposition leader was later found in the IK-3 colony in the settlement of Kharp, in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District.
Last year, Ms Kara-Murza spoke to Metro.co.uk about her husband’s fate while in jail.
She told us that ‘publicity is her only weapon’ against Putin’s regime, and how she is being pushed forward by ‘fury and indignation’.
‘I need to make sure the world knows, does not turn away and understands what is happening in Russia to all those who stand up and voice their opposition to the regime,’ she said.
‘It is harder to kill someone when the entire world is watching.’
A protégé of murdered Putin rival Boris Nemtsov, Mr Kara-Murza was the vice-chairman of the Open Russia movement, a political organisation founded by businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which promotes civil society and democracy in the country.
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He caught the Kremlin’s eye after producing a seminal documentary about the fall of the USSR which highlighted how Putin had become president despite having been a loyal officer of the oppressive KGB spy force.
His platform grew as he penned a series of books, blog posts and press articles highlighting the repression of dissidents in Russia.
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