Vladimir spoke of what the future for Europe and Russia could look like (Picture: EPA)
Freed Russian political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza has given his first UK press conference since his release from a penal colony in Siberia in August.
This morning he met with Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Prime Minister Keir Starmer – and apologising for his lateness due to his son petting Larry the Cat.
Kara-Murza gave an impassioned plea to help make Europe ‘whole’ again with a peaceful and democratic Russia.
‘It’s not ok that in the 21st century in a European country or anywhere for that matter, people are being kept in prison with longer terms than for drug dealers and murderers because their opinion happens to differ from the opinion of the government,’ he stressed.
‘The democratic world knows that the real criminals are those who are sitting in the Kremlin and those who have started this war of aggression against Ukraine, not those of us who are sitting in prison because we have opposed it.
‘I firmly and fundamentally believe that if we ever want to see Europe, that is whole free and at peace with itself, that is only going to be possible with a Democratic Russia.’
He survived two poisonings and two years in prison (Picture: PA)
Kara-Murza, a Russian and British citizen, was jailed for 25 years after speaking against Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine – the longest sentence handed down to a critic since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
He previously survived two poisonings before he was imprisoned in 2022. He spoke of his time spent in solitary confinement.
He has urged political leaders, heads of state, heads of government and foreign ministers to not think ahead just to the next week or the next election, but to the next decade.
Kara-Murza spoke of the Russian regime: ‘People think regimes are stable, people think they are strong, secure and then one day they are just gone.
‘This is how change happens in Russia. Suddenly, unexpectedly, the snap of a finger and nobody can see it coming and nobody is really ready for it.
‘The day after Putin, we will need to start that process of a public reckoning with all the crimes that have been and are still being committed as we speak here.’
Europe needs to plan for a future Russia – without Putin (Picture: Getty)
Last year, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine.
Reports by the UN and multiple human rights agencies have detailed a ‘vast network’ of detention facilities and convoys in which civilians are systematically forced out of their homes by invading Russian soldiers.
Allegations include children, the elderly and people with disabilities being separated from their families, as well as detainees being beaten, electrocuted and threatened with execution.
Kara-Murza said crimes in Ukraine are not the only ones committed by the Russian regime, also citing the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, the assassination of Alexei Navalny, and thousands of political prisoners in Russia.
‘People who are responsible for this need to be brought to account. There needs to be justice, there needs to be accountability and we must make sure that this evil is never again repeated as history shows very well,’ he said.
Kara-Murza was freed in the largest prisoner swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeyeva, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, Kevin Lik, German Moyzhes, Olev Orlov, Vadim Ostanin, Andrei Pivovarov, Patrick Schoebel, Alexandra Skochilenko, Dieter Voronin, and Ilya Yashin were all released from Russia.
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