The opponent of the Russian regime, Vladimir Kara-Murzá, arrested since April, assured this Friday that the invasion of Ukraine does not have the support of all Russians and asked to reject the facade of false unanimity announced by the Kremlin.
In a speech read in Geneva by his wife, who received on his behalf the human rights prize from the non-governmental organization UN Watch, Kara-Murzá also recalled that before the invasion of Ukraine he had already drawn attention to the situation of imprisoned politicians in Russia, in a speech he gave to the UN Human Rights Council.
“This problem has reached crisis proportions. Vladimir Putin’s Russia has just surpassed the Soviet Union in the number of political prisoners, and the fastest growing segment is that of opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine.”accused the activist.
More than 19,000 people have been detained by Russian police since February, according to Putin’s opponent, in various protests against the war, of which 5,000, like him, are subject to administrative or criminal proceedings.
“Dozens of people remain imprisoned: journalists, lawyers, artists, priests, politicians, soldiers”named the opponent of Vladimir Putin’s regime and noted that they all remain imprisoned “refuse to remain silent in the face of the atrocity”🇧🇷
For this reason, he dedicated the award he received in Switzerland to them on Friday, after describing them as “the voices of a better, freer and more hopeful Russia”🇧🇷
“I hope that when people in the free world think and speak about our country, they remember not only the Kremlin’s kleptocrats, abusers and war criminals, but us who faced them.”insisted.
Kara-Murzá, who had written critical columns about the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin in American media such as the Washington Post, decided to return to Russia in April after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
On April 11, he was arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian military during a speech he gave in the Arizona House of Representatives last month.
According to one of his lawyers, he was charged with high treason in October for publicly criticizing Russian officials abroad, a crime punishable in Russia by between 12 and 20 years in prison.
Source: DN
