Ukraine war: Moscow court sentences opposition activist to 25 years

Russia sentenced a prominent critic of the Kremlin and its invasion of Ukraine to 25 years in jail, as fierce fighting continued for the devastated city of Bakhmut and Slovakia completed delivery of 13 Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets to Kyiv’s air force.

The West condemned a Moscow court’s decision on Monday to jail Vladimir Kara-Murza for “treason” and other offences over his public criticism of Russia’s war on Ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Mr Kara-Murza, a father of three who holds Russian and British citizenship, reportedly listened calmly as the verdict was read out and then said to people in the courtroom: “Russia will be free – tell everyone.”

One of his lawyers, Maria Eismont, recounted after the hearing: “When he heard he’d got 25 years he said: ‘My self-esteem has gone up, I understand that I did everything right. It’s the highest score I could have got for what I did, for what I believed in as a citizen and a patriot.’”

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He joins Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin as high-profile opponents of Russian president Vladimir Putin who have been jailed for denouncing his autocratic regime of 23 years and the all-out invasion that it launched on Ukraine last February.

Like Mr Navalny, Mr Kara-Murza (41) says he survived poisoning by the Russian security services – claims that Moscow denies.

“The European Union strongly condemns the ruling by a Moscow court to sentence …Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison on politically motivated charges,” the EUs foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement. “Today’s outrageously harsh court decision clearly demonstrates yet again the political misuse of judiciary in order to pressure activists, human rights defenders and any voices opposing Russia’s illegitimate war of aggression against Ukraine.”

The US state department said: “Mr Kara-Murza is yet another target of the Russian government’s escalating campaign of repression.  We renew our call for Mr Kara-Murza’s release, as well as the release of the more than 400 political prisoners in Russia.”

Germany, France, Britain and other European states also decried a trial which Mr Kara-Murza compared in his closing defence statement last week to an episode from the repressions of Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union.

“I stand by every word that I have spoken,” he told the court. “I blame myself for only one thing: that over the years of my political activity I have not managed to convince enough of my compatriots and enough politicians in the democratic countries of the danger that the current regime in the Kremlin poses for Russia and the world. Today this is obvious to everyone, but at a terrible price – the price of war.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a meeting with his military commanders, government ministers and intelligence chiefs on Monday to discuss the situation on the front line, Russia’s likely next moves and the supply of domestically made and foreign-supplied weapons to Kyiv’s forces ahead of a planned counteroffensive.

As intense fighting continued for the ruined city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, Slovakia said it had transferred the final nine of 13 MiG-29 fighters that it had pledged to Kyiv. Poland is now in the process of delivering 14 of the Soviet-era jets to the Ukrainian military.

Ukraine warned on Monday that a deal to allow grain shipments from its ports was in danger of collapse because Russia was blocking inspections of vessels in the Black Sea. Moscow accuses western states of not allowing proper implementation of the deal - which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July - to the detriment of Russian agricultural exports.