Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development

Comité permanent des affaires étrangères et du développement international

For immediate release

Ottawa, April 20, 2023 -

After undertaking closed proceedings in a sham trial, a Russian court has sentenced opposition leader and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison.

As a variety of independent sources have confirmed, it is abundantly clear that the charges levelled against Vladimir Kara-Murza, and the lengthy sentence he received, are politically motivated and designed to have a chilling impact on Russian civil society. Vladimir Kara-Murza is being punished for his history of speaking out against the serial abuses and systematic corruption committed by Putin’s regime and for more recently opposing the illegal war of aggression he has launched against Russia’s sovereign neighbour, Ukraine.

The committee condemns the sentencing of Vladimir Kara-Murza and it reiterates its statement from 27 October 2022 in which it called for his immediate release. We also express our continued solidarity with Ms. Evgenia Kara-Murza and Mr. Kara-Murza’s children during this difficult period.

As was made clear in our previous official statement, and from the Committee’s report of 14 February 2023, we stand with all those who have taken great personal risks to express their opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine and deplore the intensifying repression within Russia.