What is a hero ? One who puts his life on the line for the common good.
Last year, three weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, political opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza made a series of public interventions to denounce the murderous regime in place in Moscow and the war crimes of his country .
He could have stayed in the United States. Or fly to Britain, since he is a British citizen in addition to being Russian.
He could have. And in his place – if you can pretend to be in that place for a second – that’s what I would have done.
Especially since he knows too well the fate reserved for opponents. His mentor in the political opposition in Russia, Boris Nemtsov, was assassinated with four bullets in the back in 2015, 100 meters from the Kremlin.
He himself mysteriously fell ill, to the point of being put in an artificial coma, and close to death in 2015 – a probable and classic attempt at poisoning. Even then, despite this “warning”, he returned to Russia. He was hospitalized and came close to death for a second time in 2017 – another highly likely poisoning. A consortium of investigative journalists said he was followed by the same FSB (Russian secret service) group that poisoned Alexei Navalny, also imprisoned for political reasons.
What is a hero ? The one who, as in an ancient tragedy, goes to face his destiny instead of fleeing it. Well settled in Washington, with a lot of visibility, he felt that his place was in Russia, and returned to Moscow in April 2022.
As expected, he was imprisoned. His trial for “high treason” and related crimes has just ended. He is expected to be sentenced next Monday to a 25-year prison term.
The trial is of course behind closed doors. But through his wife and his lawyer, he sent a statement. He does not regret anything he said, but he is proud and still subscribes to “every word” which is now reproached to him by Russian justice.
I only blame myself for one thing […] I failed to convince enough of my compatriots and politicians of democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime represents for Russia and for the world.
Vladimir Kara-Murza
It’s not for lack of trying. It was he who convinced the US Congress in 2012, then Canada and other countries, to pass a “Magnitsky Act” – named after a Russian anti-corruption lawyer who died in prison. There Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act first targeted Russian oligarchs and leaders involved in Magnitsky’s trial and detention. It applies to all foreign leaders guilty of gross human rights violations, to bar them from visas, use of the banking system and possession of property.
These people want to use the economic and educational systems of the West to profit from their crimes outside of Russia – or for that matter, Kara-Murza successfully argued.
It is not for nothing that he has been in the Kremlin’s sights for a long time. He is on the long list of Russian opponents or journalists liquidated or imprisoned.
Why risk your life at 41, be sent to a forced labor camp, silenced?
Because he believes in it. To what? To the fact that inevitably, one day, Russia will become “a normal European country”, as Navalny once said.
“The night is darkest just before dawn,” said the dissidents at the end of the Soviet regime. It’s a phrase he repeats often. People laughed at those who uttered it in the 1980s, but the regime collapsed in 1991.
“Unfortunately, Russia has gone from a flawed democracy to an authoritarian regime,” he said in his Arizona speech in 2022.
He also believes in this “other side of Russia: these millions of people in [son] countries that fundamentally reject this regime”.
The proof: the thousands of people who demonstrated in the first weeks of the war. On March 15, 2022, during this speech, the number of people imprisoned for having attempted to demonstrate was already estimated at 15,000. They number more than 20,000, according to human rights organizations.
This he knew. He said so. The annihilation of the opposition, the disappearance of independent Russian media. He knew he would join those thousands of political prisoners. But having seen the collapse of the USSR 10 years ago, “I know that when enough people want to stand up to end the repression, all this apparent strength of the dictators vanishes”.
“I also know that a day will come when the darkness that covers our country will dissipate […] when those who instigated and started this war [en Ukraine] will be called criminals, not those who tried to arrest him,” he said from the depths of his prison.
What is a hero ? The one who continues to believe in the dawn when everything is dark, who fights against all apparent reason, at the risk of being considered mad and dying in prison.