Paying the Price for Opposing the Ukraine War

"I stand by every word I've ever uttered and for every word this court accuses me of saying. I only blame myself for one thing; for failing to convince enough of my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime poses to Russia and to the world."

"Criminals are supposed to repent of what they have done. I, on the other hand, am in prison for my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate."

Vladimir Kara-Murza, British-Russian historian journalist, activist

Kara-Murza has denied several charges including treason and spreading false information about the Russian army. His trial is being held behind closed doors. Photograph: AP

 

"The authors of the verdict are optimistic about Putin's prospects In my opinion, they are too optimistic."

"But we also have no reason to be sad, because we have won this trial, friends ... We spoke the truth about war crimes and called for an end to the bloodshed."

"[The Putin regime wants to silence all its critics], but in fact, it only shows its weakness."

Ilya Yashin, Moscow district councillor

Wagner mercenaries have died in large numbers in the battle for Bakhmut - these military cadets attend a mercenary's funeral   Reuters

All those mysterious deaths of people close to the Kremlin; businessmen, oligarchs, people who know too much, people whose sympathies appear to be wavering, people who quietly question the direction that Moscow has taken; they're connected, wealthy, insiders -- and now dead. Defenestration seems a popular method, but there are poisonings and there are 'suicide' hangings and there are shootings. All these methods clearly efficient and for the most part successful. An aura of mystery hangs over them, but there is no mystery with respect to the source.

A court in Moscow this week held a closed trial for Vladimir Kara-Murza, held for crimes constituting high treason. This is a man with the courage of his convictions, who made no secret of his opposition to Vladimir Putin's war of territorial conquest in Ukraine. With little thought to his security, his statements singled him out for very special treatment. Prosecutors in the case seek a 25-year prison sentence. Although the trial was carried out in secret, Mr. Kara-Murza's speech from the dock saw release by his wife and his lawyers.

 

A Ukrainian soldier waits to be transferred to hospital near Bakhmut, Ukraine. The US has arrested 21-year-old Jack Texeira in connection with the leak of classified defence documents. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

 

Russians arrested for protesting Putin's Ukraine war have totalled about 20,000 to this date. The highest-profile opposition politician still alive, Alexei Novalny, was moved back to solitary confinement this week in a high security penal colony. Retribution, it seems, for his movement's investigation into corruption in the prison service in Russia. Navalny had been taken to Germany for medical treatment as a victim of a poisoning attack. After recuperation he determined to return to Russia to continue his opposition to Putin's rule.

Predictably enough he was arrested on an absurd charge of breaking his probation on a previous prison term, later upgraded to charges of dubious accusations for which he faces 11 years' imprisonment. Like Navalny, Kara-Murza was subjected to a number of assassination attempts by poisoning. A protege of Boris Nemtsov, the liberal-reformist politician assassinated in 2015 after he issued a public appeal for protests against the invasion of Eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, he was shot by an assailant on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in Moscow.

Moscow district councillor Ilya Yashin was sentenced to a prison term of eight years resulting from the new crime of circulating 'false information' about the Russian military, that Putin introduced following his 'special military operation' in February last year. Yashin had uploaded a video to YouTube showing Russian soldiers slaughtering civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha. 

While most Russians are complacently supportive of the war in Ukraine, victim to Vladimir Putin's propagandizing, and with no access to outside news sources, there are still those who oppose the invasion. Dozens have been arrested and imprisoned under charges of 'false information' regarding the Kremlin's military operations. Alexei Gorinov, a lawyer and district councillor objected to his district council's plans for a children's drawing contest and dance festival at a time when Russian troops were killing Ukrainian children.

 

Ukrainian soldiers fire a German howitzer Panzerhaubitze   Reuters

 

News from outside sources is strictly censored in Russia. Russians know little of what is happening in Ukraine, much less the number of Russian soldiers and conscripts who have fallen victim to Putin's war. The estimate of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of 8,231 Ukrainian civilians killed and 13,734 injured is hidden from the Russian public. As for the 200,000 Russian troops believed to have died or been wounded in the conflict, another blank issue for the public.

Russian combat fatalities in Ukraine exceed the Russian military death toll in all Russia's wars post Second World War combined; an estimated 25 times the numbers killed each month in Russia's war in Chechnya; 35 times the death toll during the war in Afghanistan, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Most major foreign news organizations pulled out of Russia, given the risks involved; clearly pointed out with the arrest of Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal, recently arrested on charges of espionage.

Documents include detailed accounts of the training being provided to Ukraine by foreign powers  Reuters

"[My trial's secrecy and departure from legal norms] has surpassed even the 'trials' of Soviet dissidents in the 1960s and '70s. And that's not even to mention the harshness of the sentence requested by the prosecution or the talk of 'enemies of the state'."

"In this respect, we've gone beyond the 1970s -- all the way back to the 1930s. For me, as a historian, this is an occasion for reflection."

Vladimir Kara-Murza