Evgenia Kara-Murza has been surviving on autopilot ever since her husband, Vladimir, was convicted of treason for his public criticism of President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
On Monday, the Russian opposition politician was sentenced to 25 years in a high security prison and his wife has no idea when she or the couple’s three children will ever see him again.
She’s been so outspoken herself, she can’t risk travelling to Russia in case she too ends up in jail.
“I’m afraid they might detain me to put pressure on Vladimir, and I can’t afford him losing my voice as well, or leaving our kids without both parents,” Evgenia explained over the phone from the US, where the family live for safety.
She says she’s “heartbroken” – she hasn’t even been allowed to speak to her husband since his arrest over a year ago – but for now she’s numbed herself against the enormity of the verdict to focus on rallying international support.
Vladimir Kara-Murza is also a British citizen, but whilst the US, Canada and Latvia moved quickly to sanction Russian officials they hold responsible for the activist’s plight, his own government has been left playing catch-up.
On Friday, the UK Foreign Office announced sanctions against one judge and two investigators involved in Kara-Murza’s trial, as well as two Federal Security Service (FSB) agents suspected of links to his sudden, critical illness in 2015 and 2017 caused by a toxin that has never been identified.
Evgenia welcomed that move, but it’s well short of the more than 30 names she put forward.
“It only saddens me that it took a year of unlawful detention, a horrific sentence of 25 years in a strict regime and a very concerning deterioration of my husband’s health for the British government to move to a somewhat stronger response,” she told me, shortly after the announcement.
Vladimir Kara-Murza has again been losing feeling in both his feet and his left hand – symptoms which first appeared after his poisoning. A prison doctor has diagnosed polyneuropathy, which affects the nerves.
“For years, he was able to keep those symptoms at bay with regular exercise, but now they’ve returned and seem to be spreading,” Evgenia says. “I believe the Russian authorities are using it as torture; slowly killing a person.” (BBC)
