Briton jailed by Putin labels despot 'vengeful coward' over Navalny's murder… despite 'being on Vlad's hit list' – The Sun
A Briton jailed in Siberia has branded Vladimir Putin a “vindictive coward” who is “personally responsible” for the murder of Alexei Navalny.
Vladimir Kara-Murza42, is serving a draconian 25-year prison sentence for alleged 'treason' after criticizing Russia's illegal trade. war against Ukraine.
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Kara-Murza owns both a British and Russian passport and worked as a prominent opposition politician in Moscow before being imprisoned last year on trumped-up charges of treason.
It is the first time that Kara-Murza has spoken out since fellow opposition figure Navalny died last week in a similarly hellish prison in the Arcticwith new reports claiming Putin's enemy was killed by a “single blow in the heart”.
There is now Major care for the 'very sick' Briton who is feared to be the “next” on Putin's hit list after angering the brutal Russian leader with his continued criticism of the Kremlin regime.
“Vladimir Kara-Murza is imprisoned on false charges, he is very ill and after Navalny it is clear he is next,” Dr Stepan Stepanenko, head of the foreign policy think tank, told The Sun.
Are wife, Evgenia shares his fears and stated this weekend that her husband and other political prisoners are in grave danger.
And yet, from his icy cell, the brave Kara-Murza has called on Russians to act against Putin, declaring: “He must be stopped… and only Russian society itself can do this.”
Like Navalny, opposition activist Kara-Murza was the victim of two poisonings The blame lies with Putin's secret services.
He now suffers permanent nerve damage and has been locked up in bleak conditions for a quarter of a century, from which Dr Stepnaneko believes he may never survive.
“He could even die before he is killed,” Stepanenko said. “Kara-Murza's fight is not just against his captors, but against time itself.
Although Kara-Murza said he was not aware of specific details about Navalny's death, he knew “one thing for sure.”
“Vladimir Putin bears personal responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny.
'Because Alexei was his personal prisoner. And only on his personal orders could the poisoners of the 2nd FSB service act.”
The same applied to “investigators, prosecutors and judges who handled cases and sentences” as well as “senior prison officials who created torture conditions.”
The British government and parliamentarians are said to be working to have Kara-Murza – who also has Russian citizenship – exchanged in a prisoner exchange and allowed to travel to Britain.
But the prisoner made no bones about it in his first comments on Navalny's death.
“This man [Putin] brought death with him during the 25 years of his power.”
“[Journalist] Anna Politkovskaya, murdered as a birthday present [to Putin]at her entrance. [Politician] Boris Nemtsov, shot in the back near the Kremlin,” he added.
He had previously worked as a close aide to the murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov – who was shot dead by a killing squad in Moscow in 2015.
Kara-Murza continued: “Alexei Navalny 'lost consciousness after a walk' in prison… The best die – the bravest, the most sincere, the most caring.
“Everyone returns, except those who are most needed.
“Only Putin – the vengeful, cowardly, greedy old man – still maintains a death grip and destroys anyone he sees as a threat to his power.
'He must be stopped. And only Russian society itself can do this.”
The former activist and journalist was sentenced to 25 years in April 2023 Putin's accomplices for spreading “false” information about Russian war in Ukraine.
He denied all accusations and compared the case against him to a Stalinist show trial.
When he was convicted last year, Navalny – speaking from his own penal colony – called his sentence “illegal, unconscionable and downright fascist”.
Navalny said: “I saw him after the second poisoning and witnessed how his health was already almost destroyed.
“The term he has been given is revenge for the fact that he did not die at the chosen time, after surviving two poisonings… by the Russian FSB [Federal Security Service].”
Kara-Murza's wife Evgenia, who lives in the US with their three children, tweeted after the verdict: “A quarter of a century is an 'A+' for your courage, consistency and honesty in your years of work. I am infinitely proud of you, my love, and I will always be by your side.”
He was arrested just weeks after Russia's massive invasion and just hours after CNN aired an interview with him in which he said Russia was ruled by “a regime of murderers.”
The politician was convicted in a hasty closed trial.
Before being led away, he defiantly declared: “Russia WILL be free, tell everyone.”
In January, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said he was “deeply concerned” about the fate of the dissident after he – similar to Navalny in December – suddenly disappeared from the SIZO-1 prison in the remote city of Omsk.
Evgenia later discovered that he had been transferred to IK-7, another hellish prison in the city, and immediately placed in a punishment block.
His only crime was not getting up in time when the guard ordered him to 'get up' and now he spends four months in solitary confinement.
According to human rights group OVD-Info, more than 160 Russian citizens have been imprisoned for opposing the war, but Kara-Murza's sentence is the harshest yet.
Between February 24, 2022 and January 28, 2024, a total of 19,854 Russians were arrested for speaking out or demonstrating against the invasion.
Shortly after Kara-Murza was convicted last year, The Sun spoke to Evgenia, who pressed for her husband would never give up his fight.
She told The Sun that her jailed husband is not brave, but “stubborn.”
That stubbornness, Evgenia said, also stems from her husband's genuine love for his country.
“My husband is a true Russian patriot and he has fought for years to bring about change in our country,” she said.
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Navalny's death was 'inevitable'
By Jerome Starkey, The Sun's defense editor
NAVALNY's death is shocking, but there is also a sense of inevitability.
His spokesman had warned that they believed he was being slowly murdered in prison.
And indeed, the lifespan of Kremlin critics is tragically short.
It was in many ways astonishing that Alexei Navalny had survived.
The president of Latvia called this a brutal murder by the Kremlin.
We've had President Zelensky of Ukraine say Putin killed him.
German Chancellor Olaf Schulz and the French Foreign Minister say Navalny paid for his principles with his life.
There is certainly no doubt that this is the result of his political activism. As a result of daring to stand up to Vladimir Putin.
Alexei Navalny exposed himself to enormous risks and hardships. We know he was poisoned.
We know he's in jail. He is being held under horrible conditions. You know indeed.
Many, many days of his time in this penal colony were spent in solitary confinement in punishment cells.
His health appears to be deteriorating. So in that sense he has been imprisoned by the regime that Putin leads.
He has been poisoned with a nerve agent, a military-grade nerve agent that is actually only available to Putin's assassins.
And that would clearly have had long-term health consequences. In that sense, the Kremlin regime, led by Vladimir Putin, is clearly responsible for his death.
It is not yet clear what exactly caused his death. But there is no doubt that the Kremlin regime, led by Vladimir Putin, is to some extent to blame for what they did.
