‘Democracies must join forces to bring in measures to stop taking of hostages’
A RUSSIAN activist whose husband was jailed after speaking out against Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine wants the UK to set up a department to deal with unlawful detention of political prisoners.
And her idea has won backing from an influential Tory MP.
Evgenia Kara-Murza, whose husband Vladimir, 42, has been weakened by two poisonings and is being held in Siberia, said severe sanctions, automatic exclusion from international groups and a dedicated hostage affairs envoy must be introduced as political prisoner numbers rise.
Speaking to the Daily Express, she said: “A change is needed. As dictators work together, propping each other up and adopting each other’s practices, it would be logical for democracies to join forces and prevent these practices.”
Mr Kara-Murza, a Russian-British citizen, was jailed for 25 years – the longest sentence handed down to a critic since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Poisonings
Hours before his arrest in April 2022, Mr Kara-Murza appeared on CNN and said: “This regime is not just corrupt, it’s not just kleptocratic, it’s not just authoritarian. It is a regime of murderers.”
But his resistance to Putin’s brutal dictatorship spans decades and he has survived poisonings in 2015 and 2017, both of which plunged him into a coma.
Ms Kara-Murza, 43, said: “The Government needs a cohesive approach to send the message that if something like this happens, the consequences are going to be immediate.
“If sanctions like this are being triggered automatically, then maybe the next dictator would think twice.”
Her stance is backed by Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
She has been pressuring the Foreign Secretary to “transform” how Britain approaches hostagetaking, urging him to give more support to those families and work together with foreign governments for a coordinated response.
Ms Kearns added: “I will continue to use my voice to cast a focus on hostage-taking and arbitrary detention. We need a special envoy for that. People who can make sure there is a direct line to the Prime Minister, a direct line to the Foreign Secretary, who can cut through the bureaucracy to make sure the families get what they need from us.
“We have to be absolute in the defence of our people and we must increase the cost to those countries who take hostages.”
She plans to launch an all-party parliamentary group on hostagetaking and arbitrary detention. She said: “Hostage-taking is an act of terror. And those countries that engage in it as a form of foreign policy will face maximum pressure because we have to stand firm for the most brave and the most principled in our world.”
Ms Kara-Murza has seen the grim cost of totalitarian brutality on her husband. The poisonings have shredded Vladimir’s nervous system and doctors have warned he could die within two years without proper treatment.
He is losing sensation in his limbs and in December his feet swelled so much he could not put on his shoes. Tests by a prison neurologist showed his nerves were dying.
Speaking on the two-year anniversary of his arrest, Mr Kara-Murza’s mother, Elena Gordon, delivered an impassioned plea for her son’s safe return.
Holding back tears, she said: “My pain is very personal, so my appeal is very personal – please help save my son.” Recalling Alexei Navalny’s death in a Russian prison in February, Ms Gordon said: “I was stunned and shocked.
“You cannot imagine what it feels like as a mother to hear that and know that your son is next.”
Squalid
Since September, Mr Kara-Murza has been kept in solitary confinement in a remote Siberian penal colony, similar to that in which Mr Navalny was held.
The dank cell measures roughly 20sq ft with a tiny window. Hardly any daylight enters the squalid room and his bed is attached to the wall from 5am to 9pm to prevent him from laying or sitting on it during the day. The only items he is permitted are a mug, a toothbrush, soap, towels and two books.
He is not allowed to keep photos of his wife or three children, aged 12, 15 and 18. His wife said: “Sometimes I feel like our kids understand more than some grownups in the West because they’ve been living this for so many years.
“The first time their dad was poisoned and ended up in a coma with multiple organ failure was in 2015, the oldest of them was only nine and the other two were six and three. So our kids have grown up with this threat.”
Asked why her husband continued to return to Russia in such dangerous conditions, she replied:
“He is a Russian patriot. He did not want to give his country away to thieves and murderers. He identifies as a politician and believes he has to share the risks faced by Russian people.”
The last time Ms Kara-Murza spoke to her husband was in a 15-minute phone call last summer. She said: “It’s only enough time to say ‘I love you’. To say nothing. And everything.”
Human rights groups estimate there are almost 700 political prisoners in Russia and campaigners say dozens of them may be in mortal danger. “We need to get them all out,” said Ms Kara-Murza, highlighting other activists who have struggled in jail with poor health, including artist Aleksandra Skochilenko, 33, jailed for protesting against the Ukraine war by replacing shop price tags with calls to stop the conflict and Alexei Gorinov, 62, a Moscow councillor, also caged for criticising Russia’s invasion.
Bill Browder, 59, an anti-corruption campaigner and close friend of the Kara-Murzas, laments that it took the Government a “good amount of time” to wake up to the persecution of his ally.
Priority
But Mr Browder told the Express he is feeling more positive since Lord Cameron entered the Foreign Office and told the family that securing Mr Kara-Murza’s release was a “priority” for him.
On Thursday, Lord Cameron called for the immediate release of Mr Kara-Murza on humanitarian grounds. He said: “The deliberately harmful prison conditions imposed by the Russian authorities are threatening his life.”
Ms Kara-Murza never intended to become a public figure, but since her husband’s arrest she has vowed to be an advocate for him and others unlawfully detained.
In a direct appeal to the British Government and Lord Cameron, Ms Kara-Murza said: “If you want to see Russia as a democracy – and that is the only guarantee of peace and stability on the European continent – then stand with those Russians who are the faces of that democratic Russia.
“Stand with them. Fight for their lives. Make sure that they have the support they need.”