Vladimir Kara-Murza

Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Кара-Мурза, IPA: [kɐˌra mʊrˈza]; born 7 September 1981) is a Russian-British political activist, journalist, author, filmmaker, and former political prisoner. A protégé of murdered Russian dissident Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza is vice-chairman of Open Russia, an NGO founded by the exiled Russian businessman and former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which promotes civil society and democracy in Russia. He was elected to the Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition in 2012, and served as deputy leader of the People's Freedom Party from 2015 to 2016. He has directed two documentaries, They Chose Freedom and Nemtsov. As of 2021, he serves as Senior Fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He was awarded the Civil Courage Prize in 2018.

In April 2022, after speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kara-Murza was arrested on charges of disobeying police orders. His arrest was extended after prosecutors introduced new charges of "discrediting" the military, and in October 2022 he was charged with treason. Amnesty International and others called the charges politically motivated due to his anti-war views. In October 2022, he was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

In April 2023, Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and was sent to a prison colony in Siberia. In 2024, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for the columns which he continued to write from his prison cell for The Washington Post. On 1 August 2024, Kara-Murza was released from prison as part of a prisoner exchange deal involving two dozen individuals from seven different countries.