Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza sits on a bench inside a defendants’ cage during a hearing at the Basmanny court in Moscow on Oct. 10, 2022. Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images

By Benyamin Cohen August 1, 2024

As part of a multicountry prisoner swap, Russia has released Evan Gershkovich, the jailed Jewish Wall Street Journal journalist, along with others being held, including Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian Jewish dissident. While much has been written about Gershkovich since he was arrested in March 2023, Kara-Murza is less well-known.

Who is Vladimir Kara-Murza?

Kara-Murza, 42, is a Russian-British activist, filmmaker, journalist, politician and a harsh critic of the Kremlin. He is the vice-chairman of Open Russia, a nonprofit that promotes civil society and democracy in Russia. On his father’s side, he is a descendant of an aristocratic family who converted to Christianity after settling in Moscow in the 15th century. He is Jewish on his mother’s side.

Why did Russia arrest him?

Kara-Murza has spent his career railing against Russian President Vladimir Putin. It has cost him: He was poisoned and hospitalized in 2015 and again in 2017. In 2022, he accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine and urged the U.S. to impose sanctions against Russia during a speech he gave to the Arizona state legislature. He was arrested in April 2022 and was later charged with treason.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

How long was he sentenced to prison?

In April 2023, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. One of the items Kara-Murza has been allowed to keep in prison is a copy of Fear No Evil, the 1988 memoir by Natan Sharansky about his time in the gulag as a Soviet Jewish dissident. Sharansky went on to become a politician in Israel.

Kara-Murza became a cause célèbre

In October 2022, Kara-Murza was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. And in 2024, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, for the columns he wrote from his prison cell.

Little-known fact: He was a pallbearer at Sen. John McCain’s funeral

Kara-Murza, who has a home in the U.S., worked with former Sen. John McCain on Russia-related issues for years, and they remained friends. Before his death in 2018, McCain requested that Kara-Murza be a pallbearer. It was “the most heartbreaking honor that anyone could think of,” Kara-Murza said. Politico described the choice as McCain’s “final dig at Putin.” Other pallbearers included then-former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Warren Beatty.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 22.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount