(MOSCOW) — A Moscow court has sentenced one of Russia’s most high-profile Kremlin critics, Vladimir Kara-Murza, to 25 years in prison on charges of treason for criticizing the war in Ukraine — in what was widely viewed as a show trial.

The unprecedented sentence is the lengthiest ever given to an opponent of President Vladimir Putin, highlighting the crackdown unleashed by Russia’s government since the invasion of Ukraine, which has moved to stamp out any opposition at home.

Kara-Murza is a long-time pro-democracy activist whose family lives in the United States and who was a contributing opinion writer for The Washington Post. A dual British and Russian citizen, Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022 and charged with spreading false information about the Russian military in Ukraine over statements he made accusing it of committing war crimes. He was later charged with treason over public speeches criticizing Putin and the war. He was also charged with belonging to an “undesirable organisation.”

Virtually all prominent Russian opposition figures are now either in jail or in exile amid the crackdown and the length of Kara-Murza’s sentence prompted horror among liberal Russians, drawing comparisons to Joseph Stalin-era trials.

“This sentence is comparable only with times of Stalin,” Yan Rachinsky, head of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, which was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, told the Russian news site Meduza. “It’s especially monstrous that the sentence is for words. It is, in fact, a symptom of the fact that the authorities are afraid of words, they are trying to shut the mouths of anyone who stands against them.”

Kara-Murza dismissed the charges against him. His trial was held entirely behind closed doors but his closing statement to the court was released to journalists in a letter.

“I only blame myself for one thing,” Kara-Murza said. “I failed to convince enough of my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime poses for Russia and for the world.”

“Criminals are supposed to repent of what they have done. I, on the other hand, am in prison for my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate,” he said.

Western governments condemned Kara-Murza’s jailing on Monday. Dozens of Western diplomats came to the court on Monday, where they were able to watch the verdict on a video screen, and some ambassadors issued statements afterward criticizing the verdict.

“We support Mr. Kara-Murza and every Russian citizen to have a voice in the direction of their country. Mr. Kara-Murza and countless other Russians believe in and hope for a Russia where fundamental freedoms will be upheld. And we will continue to share those hopes and work for that outcome,” Lynne Tracy, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, told reporters afterward.

Kara-Murza, 41, previously survived two near-fatal poisoning attempts — first in 2015 and then again in 2017. He suffered organ failure in both incidents, which saw him put in an artificial coma and left him with enduring health problems. The assassination attempts were later linked by independent researchers to the same team of poisoners from Russia’s FSB intelligence service that nearly killed the opposition leader Alexey Navalny in 2018.

Navalny, Russia’s best-known Putin critic, on Monday said he was “deeply upset” by Kara-Murza’s sentence.

“I believe this sentence is illegal, unconscionable, and simply fascistic,” Navalny wrote from prison in a message released by his team.

Navalny is currently being held in a prison camp and his team in recent days has warned he is seriously ill after prolonged stints in solitary confinement. His team this week said it feared authorities may be being slowly poisoning him again.

Following his poisonings, Kara-Murza spent much of his time in the U.S., where his wife and children live in Virginia. But he continued returning to Russia after the Ukraine war began, saying he believed it was important to oppose the Kremlin’s invasion and to campaign for a free Russia.

Kara-Murza was active in campaigning in the U.S. and Europe to bring sanctions against Russian officials accused of human rights abuses. A friend of the late Sen. John McCain, Kara-Murza played a leading role in persuading the U.S. Congress to pass the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which created a blacklist of Russian officials accused of abuses.

The judge who sentenced Kara-Murza on Monday, Sergey Podoprigorov, was already sanctioned by the U.S. government under the Magnitsky Act. The judge rejected a demand by Kara-Murza’s lawyers to recuse himself over the issue.

The British Foreign Office on Monday noted it had also already sanctioned the judge for previous involvement in human rights violations and warned it will “consider further measures” to hold to account those involved in Kara-Murza’s detention and mistreatment.

Russian authorities charged Kara-Murza in part over a speech he gave to lawmakers in Arizona in March 2022 shortly after Russia’s invasion, where he accused Putin of war crimes.

“We all see what Vladimir Putin is doing with Ukraine. Cluster bombs in residential areas, hospitals schools — all these are war crimes,” Kara-Murza said in the address. Kara-Murza’s lawyer, Maria Eismont told Meduza he viewed the sentence as proof his efforts challenging the Kremlin were right.

“‘My self-worth has even gone up. I understand that I’ve been doing everything right. 25 years is the highest mark I could have received for what I have done,'” Eismont quoted Kara-Murza as telling her after the sentencing.

Kara-Murza’s wife, Yevgenia, tweeted fter the ruling Monday: “I am infinitely proud of you, my love, and I’m always by your side.”

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(NEW YORK) — The family of American Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia for years, said Monday he feels “abandoned” by the U.S. and that “his resilience is shaken” in the wake of Russia’s arrest of a second American on espionage charges.

In a Friday phone call with his parents, Whelan, a businessman and former U.S. Marine, said “he feels as though the U.S. government has abandoned him,” according to his brother David.

“His struggles have been apparent in his letters and in his phone calls over the years,” David Whelan wrote. “But now, Paul seems rattled like never before, understandably apprehensive that the U.S. government will choose not to bring him home again, now that there is another American wrongfully detained by the Kremlin.”

Last month’s arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has brought renewed calls from U.S. officials for Russia to release Whelan.

Like Whelan, Gershkovich, 31, has been charged with espionage. Whelan, 53, was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Gershkovich is currently being held in pretrial detention. Russian authorities blocked American diplomats from gaining to access to the imprisoned reporter for weeks, but on Monday U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy tweeted that she was finally able to visit him.

The U.S. government has designated both Whelan and Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” allowing additional resources to be applied to their cases.

But the reaction to Gershkovich’s detention has also shown how the backing of a large media organization — the Wall Street Journal — can place more attention on a case — and more pressure on the White House.

“The speed at which Evan’s case has been handled by the administration should be replicated for every case,” Jonathan Franks, the spokesperson for a coalition of families of Americans detained abroad, the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, said last week. “Unfortunately, we have seen firsthand that the reality is, that the speed with which the Government acts is very different for detainees who aren’t famous or journalists.”

In the nearly four years and four months since Whelan was arrested, the U.S. has secured the release of at least two other Americans designated “wrongfully detained”: WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, neither of whom was accused of espionage.

Griner was released in December in a prisoner swap for a Russian arms dealer after being held for nine-and-a-half months. The WNBA had made a significant effort to draw attention to her case and pressure the Biden administration.

Reed had been held for two years and was released in exchange for a Russian drug trafficker. He was freed less than a month after his parents protested outside the White House and secured a meeting with Biden in the process.

Sources within the State Department say that Whelan’s ongoing detention is not for lack of trying on the part of U.S. officials, but the result of Russia’s unwillingness to negotiate and how severely the Kremlin views the espionage charges against him — allegations the U.S. strongly rejects.

In early March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly revealed the U.S. had made a second offer to Russia for Whelan, calling it a “serious proposal” but declining to disclose any additional detail.

Blinken has repeatedly urged Russia to accept the agreement, but Moscow has broadcast little interest and there is no indication that that the administration has made any attempts to enhance the deal.

Whelan’s family has maintained close contact with the State Department and the White House National Security Council over the years since Whelan was first detained in 2018 — primarily through his sister Elizabeth.

But Elizabeth Whelan, he said, is now “going to pause her interactions with the State and National Security staff until they stop wasting her time and come up with something more than thoughts and prayers.”

“It is unfair and unreasonable to put the burden on wrongful detainee families to grab the White House’s attention, to do the creative work, to ensure that the different parts of the government are communicating clearly and working effectively to bring Paul home,” he continued. “There is a literal cost to families to do this advocacy.”

The White House and State Department did not respond when asked for reaction to David Whelan’s statement.

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