Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for standing up against Putin's tyrannical regime.

 "As Vladimir Bukovsky once noted, it’s a remarkable feature of Russian history that even in the absolute darkest periods of repression and propaganda you always find people who are willing to stand up against tyranny — and that’s what we see today.” —Vladimir Kara-Murza, Geneva Summit opening (2018)

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Russian prisoner of conscience

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian prisoner of conscience. He has been jailed and in the past poisoned by Putin's criminal regime.

On Monday, April 17, 2023 Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for standing up against Putin's tyrannical regime by speaking truth to power. 

His "crime"?: Refusing to remain silent, and be complicit in Putin's crimes. This included speaking out against the war in Ukraine.

Five years earlier in February 2018 he quoted Vladimir Bukovsky and warned of the high cost Russian dissidents were then paying for exercising their fundamental human rights. It was the tenth gathering of the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.

Vladimir Kara-Murza is the 2018 recipient of the Geneva Summit Courage Award, and in his address upon receiving the award did not ask for help from the world's democracies to rid Russia of Putin, something he said Russians would do themselves, but he did request that they not help, or legitimize Putin's regime and outlined what not to do.

The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy will be meeting on May 17, 2023, and although Vladimir will not physically be there with those present, his courageous example, and spirit will be. 

Vladimir Kara-Murza delivered these remarks on Monday at the closing session of his trial in Moscow.

Read this piece in Russian.

MOSCOW CITY COURT — Members of the court: I was sure, after two decades spent in Russian politics, after all that I have seen and experienced, that nothing can surprise me anymore. I must admit that I was wrong. I’ve been surprised by the extent to which my trial, in its secrecy and its contempt for legal norms, has surpassed even the “trials” of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and ’70s. And that’s not even to mention the harshness of the sentence requested by the prosecution or the talk of “enemies of the state.” In this respect, we’ve gone beyond the 1970s — all the way back to the 1930s. For me, as a historian, this is an occasion for reflection.

At one point during my testimony, the presiding judge reminded me that one of the extenuating circumstances was “remorse for what [the accused] has done.” And although there is little that’s amusing about my present situation, I could not help smiling: The criminal, of course, must repent of his deeds. I’m in jail for my political views. For speaking out against the war in Ukraine. For many years of struggle against Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship. For facilitating the adoption of personal international sanctions under the Magnitsky Act against human rights violators.

Not only do I not repent of any of this, I am proud of it. I am proud that Boris Nemtsov brought me into politics. And I hope that he is not ashamed of me. I subscribe to every word that I have spoken and every word of which I have been accused by this court. I blame myself for only one thing: that over the years of my political activity I have not managed to convince enough of my compatriots and enough politicians in the democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and for the world. Today this is obvious to everyone, but at a terrible price — the price of war.

In their last statements to the court, defendants usually ask for an acquittal. For a person who has not committed any crimes, acquittal would be the only fair verdict. But I do not ask this court for anything. I know the verdict. I knew it a year ago when I saw people in black uniforms and black masks running after my car in the rearview mirror. Such is the price for speaking up in Russia today.

But I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate. When black will be called black and white will be called white; when at the official level it will be recognized that two times two is still four; when a war will be called a war, and a usurper a usurper; and when those who kindled and unleashed this war, rather than those who tried to stop it, will be recognized as criminals.

This day will come as inevitably as spring follows even the coldest winter. And then our society will open its eyes and be horrified by what terrible crimes were committed on its behalf. From this realization, from this reflection, the long, difficult but vital path toward the recovery and restoration of Russia, its return to the community of civilized countries, will begin.

Even today, even in the darkness surrounding us, even sitting in this cage, I love my country and believe in our people. I believe that we can walk this path.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/10/vladimir-kara-murza-final-statement-court/

Requiescat in pace, Vladimir Bukovsky 1942 - 2019: Author, Activist, Dissident

“Power rests on nothing other than people’s consent to submit, and each person who refuses to submit to tyranny reduces it by one two-hundred-and-fifty-millionth, whereas each who compromises only increases it.” - Vladimir Bukovsky, To Build a Castle

HRF Mourns the Passing of Vladimir Bukovsky

By Human Rights Foundation

NEW YORK – The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) mourns the passing of Vladimir Bukovsky, the Russian author, dissident, and fearless critic of the Soviet Union and Putin's regime. Bukovsky was a founding member of HRF’s International Council and a frequent participant in HRF’s activities.

Bukovsky spent a total of 12 years in Soviet prisons, labor camps, and forced-treatment psychiatric hospitals for his outspoken opposition to the communist regime. Bukovsky was successful in smuggling documents detailing the Soviets’ political use of psychiatric institutions.

“With Bukovsky’s death, the world has suffered a terrible loss. He was a a man of gigantic moral stature, an icon to activists everywhere for his uncompromising commitment to human rights and for being an eloquent and categorical opponent of dictatorship in all its forms. He is an inspiration to anyone that defies tyranny against all odds,” said HRF President Thor Halvorssen. “Bukovsky will be deeply missed by the HRF community. He will always be remembered as a dear friend and beloved member of the Oslo Freedom Forum family.”

Born in 1942 in the Russian village of Belebey, Bukovsky began his activism at a young age. As a 19-year-old biology student enrolled in Moscow University, he declared the USSR an “illegal society” with “moribund” institutions. That year, Bukovsky was arrested for the making and possession of photocopies of anti-Soviet literature.

Soviet psychiatrists declared Bukovsky mentally ill and imprisoned him in the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Leningrad for two years. After his release, Bukovsky was arrested again and sent to another hospital in Dec. 1965 for helping to organize a demonstration in Pushkin Square. Bukovsky spent a total of twelve years in Soviet psychiatric hospitals, where he endured forced psychotropic drug treatment, isolation in KGB custody, and frequent torture.

While in prison, he co-authored A Manual on Psychiatry for Dissidents, to help other dissidents fight psychiatric torture. After his release, he published numerous anti-communist works, including his bestselling autobiography To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter.

In 1971, Bukovsky smuggled over 150 pages to the West, documenting his experiences and the punitive nature of Soviet psychiatric institutions in a letter to the global psychiatric community. His efforts prompted organizations everywhere to investigate and condemn the Soviet Union’s practices, eventually leading to the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from the World Psychiatric Association in 1977.

In 1983, he co-founded the international anti-communist organization Resistance International, which was instrumental in organizing protests in captive nations and opposing western financial aid to communist governments. In the last two decades, Bukovsky was active in a number of capacities, including successful opposition to the use of torture by the U.S. government and opposition to the tyranny of Vladimir Putin in Russia.

Bukovsky was a member of HRF's International Council, a director of the Gratitude Fund, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and a member of the international advisory council for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which honored him with the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom in 2001. Since 1976, he has lived in Cambridge, England, where he passed away from cardiac arrest on Oct. 27, 2019.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.