In an interview with AFP, Evgenia Kara-Murza expressed her concern about her husband’s deteriorating health while in prison. Her husband, Vladimir Kara-Murza, had serious health problems prior to his detainment. He suffers from polyneuropathy, which he developed as a result of two poisoning attempts in 2015 and 2017. Evgenia warned that her husband’s condition had worsened since being detained and expressed concern that harsher sentences could make the situation even worse.
Vladimir Kara-Murza was recently sentenced to 25 years in a high-security prison for treason and criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. He has appealed the ruling, but his wife expects it to be rejected. Although Russian law prohibits the imprisonment of people suffering from polyneuropathy, the authorities did not consider his condition. Evgenia called her husband’s sentence “a pure and cynical revenge by the Russian government” and criticized the system’s lack of care for prisoners with medical conditions.
Vladimir is seen as a personal enemy by the Russian government because of his involvement in passing the Magnitsky Act, which punishes Russian officials responsible for the 2009 death of Russian tax attorney Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison. Despite the risks, he remains “true to himself,” and Evgenia continues to stand by him and fight for his release.
Evgenia also discussed the larger issue of political repression in Russia, with over 20,000 people arbitrarily detained since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She believes that “massive protests were only possible when cracks began to appear in the regime” and that if Ukraine were to achieve a clear victory, it could send a signal that such crimes cannot be committed against the Kremlin.