Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author, historian, documentary filmmaker, and former political prisoner. A close colleague of the slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, he served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian Parliament. Leading diplomatic efforts on behalf of the opposition, Kara-Murza played a key role in the adoption of Magnitsky sanctions against top Russian officials by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, and Australia. For this work he was twice poisoned and left in a coma; a joint media investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel identified FSB officers behind the attacks. In April 2022, Kara-Murza was arrested in Moscow for publicly denouncing the invasion of Ukraine and war crimes committed by Russian forces.
Following a closed trial at the Moscow City Court, he was sentenced to 25 years for “high treason” and kept in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison in Siberia. He was released in August 2024 as part of the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War negotiated by the U.S. and German governments. Kara-Murza is a contributing writer at The Washington Post, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his columns written from prison, and has directed three documentary films and authored or contributed to several books on Russian history and politics. He serves as vice-president at the Free Russia Foundation and holds senior roles at the McCain Institute, Human Rights First, and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He has lectured at universities including Cambridge, Harvard, and Stanford. He is married, with three children.