Putin has “signed his own death warrant”: resistance is stirring in Russia
Created: 2022-06-07 09:32
By: Nail Akkoyun
An anti-Putin poster campaign in Poland, photographed in Kraków.
© Artur Widak / Imago Images
In view of the Ukraine war, resistance is stirring in Russia – especially against Putin.
At least that's what the wife of an imprisoned member of the opposition believes.
Moscow – Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian journalist and opposition figure, has been in prison since April 11.
Eleven days later, Moscow classified him as a "foreign agent."
In addition, a criminal case was opened on the basis of "false statements about the Russian army".
The reason: In mid-March, the politician gave a speech in front of the Arizona State House of Representatives, condemning the Ukraine war.
On the day of her meeting with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in London, wife Evgenia Kara-Mursa warned the British government that her husband, a British citizen who is said to have been poisoned twice by the Russian spy service FSB, may fear for his own life.
An activist and dissident, Vladimir Kara-Mursa worked for 15 years alongside Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader who was shot dead in 2015.
Ukraine News: Russian opposition figure was apparently poisoned before the Ukraine war
"If you call this war a war and not 'special operations' as the government wants to call it, you can basically go to prison for up to 15 years," Evgenia Kara-Mursa told the British daily The Guardian.
Her husband now faces “up to ten years”.
Putin signs a decree in the Kremlin.
© Kremlin Pool / Imago Images
She had never criticized her husband's decision to keep returning to Russia as a critic of the regime.
"He felt that as a Russian politician he could not call on people to keep fighting if he was safe somewhere," said Evgenia Kara-Mursa.
A court date has not yet been announced as the authorities may make further allegations.
However, Evgenia Kara-Mursa is not impressed by this.
"Our family has lived like this for a long time," said the mother of three.
"He was targeted by an FSB team [Russian intelligence agency] who tried to kill him twice, in 2015 and 2017," she said.
“Both times Vladimir was in a coma and suffered multiple organ failure.
And I brought him back to the US.
He recovered and then returned to Russia.”
However, the arrest of her husband and her campaign for his release forced her to change her role.
"Fact is, I've never been a public person.
I've never been a public speaker, so whatever I'm doing today, I'm learning every day."
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Ukraine News: Resistance in Russia is stirring
Despite her new role, Kara-Mursa does not shy away from clear words.
Her home country has meanwhile transitioned from an authoritarian to a totalitarian regime, and massive repression and propaganda dominate.
"There is a new iron curtain around this country." But in her eyes, the Russian population is increasingly resisting:
"I believe that Putin has not yet called the mobilization because he knows how people will react to it.
But a week or two ago it was said that 11 conscription centers across Russia had already been burned down.
So that's how people protest by saying, 'We won't go to your war.'” Kara-Mursa went on to say that with the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Vladimir Putin “signed his own death warrant”.
(nak)
